GMO's:The Whole Story--Past, Present and Future (Part 1 of 4)

I'm not a very political person.  I leave that to Danny. He fills me in on the things he knows will interest me, the things he thinks I should know about, and of course answers the questions I ask.  There are a few topics that I'm willing to debate though.  Not in an unfriendly type debate mind you.  We can still be friends and disagree.  But my passions...well, I can guarantee that I will be voting on those things for sure.  This is what made me realize that there are probably others who are the same as me.  Those of you who have your passions and know about those things inside and out.  And then there are probably those things you don't know much about at all.  GMO's used to be like that for me.  Everything I knew about them Danny or my mom had told me, or I had skimmed an article in The Capital Ag Press (It's a newspaper just for farmers...Side note: Did you know you can buy zebra's?  Not kidding there are two for sale right now!  It's tempting...). 

And then I needed a research topic for an ethics paper.  I wanted it to be something that affected me directly and that I had not already researched.  Yep, I chose GMO's.  So, since all my friends in Oregon are getting ready to vote on Prop 92, I thought I'd share my findings with you.  Don't worry, it doesn't read like a research paper (except for the references), and I'll be breaking it into pieces over the next few days.  I would encourage you not to vote until you read all of it.  I'm not going to tell you how to vote, and like I said before, we can still be friends regardless.  I just believe in making an informed decision.  Feel free to share this with others who may not know the whole story.  I'll be sharing both sides and I've included some key terms as well.  Happy reading (and voting!).

GMO's: The Whole Story

               My mom likes to feed people.  That may be why she married into an Italian family.  Their philosophy regarding food was one she already had—feed them like they haven’t eaten in weeks and may not eat again the rest of this week.  She has had some type of garden regardless of what kind of home we have lived in.  I grew up eating vine ripened tomatoes and apricot jam I had helped can.  Feeding people is one of the things my mom enjoys the most about having a farm.  It was one of the decisions that led her to become a farmer.  She wants to give those in the community access to the same type of food we have enjoyed.  She wants people to know where their food comes from and know that they are not only eating healthy, but they are creating health for the environment as well.  She educates them as they tour the farm, as they harvest the produce, as they eat at the BBQ.  As a result, she has educated me along the way.  While I pick cabbage worms off the broccoli and wonder once again why we do not do something to keep those disgusting bugs off, I am reminded of the impact spraying one crop has on the rest of the garden.  As I watch neighbors plant acres of corn, she tells me why she will not be planting corn this year.  Those neighbors are growing genetically engineered (GE) seed, which can interfere with her organic crop.  She is also worried about her bee hive visiting the nearby farms.  It is at this place when I begin to ethically question genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their effect on my life.

GMOs Past, Present and Future

The release of genetically modified (GM) food began in 1996 with a tomato.  This tomato had an “’improved shelf-life, processing characteristics, flavor, nutritional properties, and agronomic characteristics’ (p. 53)” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 73).  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the entry of all GMOs into the United States’ food supply based on what they deem as “generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substance[s]” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 73).  These substances are based on the idea of substantial equivalence where an organism that is already used as food or a source of food “can be used as the basis of comparison when assessing the safety of human consumption of a food or food component that has been modified or is new (p. 14)” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 76).  The studies determining the safety of GM crops are provided by the biotech companies themselves (Mather, 2012; “Should You Worry,” 2013).  There are very few outside studies done on GM crops as the scientific material needed to conduct the studies is heavily guarded by the biotech companies that own it (Mather, 2012).  When raw study data has been released into the scientific community, mixed results regarding the safety of GMOs have been found (Curry, 2013; Mather, 2012).  

“Transgenic crops have been adopted faster than any technology in the history of agriculture” with a “9,000 percent increase in the space of 15 years” worldwide (Curry, 2013, p. 5).  The United States currently leads the world in biotech crop production with 25 GM crops approved for production grown on 69 million hectares of land (Broeders, De Keersmaecker & Roosens, 2012; Wohlers, 2013).  The European Union, who, even though they have 50 registered GM crops, have only approved two for cultivation (“Separating Fact from Fiction,” 2014).

Although regulations regarding GMOs vary from country to country, there are some issues that are common for all involved.  One of these is that the assessment of any new GMO is done on an individual, case-by-case basis.  During this analysis, countries look at the purpose of the GMO, “namely if it is intended for contained use or for release into the environment” (Broeders et al., 2012, p. 1).  They also consider its purpose—whether it will just be grown or if it will be used for raw or processed food (Broeders et al., 2012).

Currently, GMOs are extending out of plants and into the animal food market with a GM salmon being tested that is full grown in half the time of a non-modified salmon (Wohlers, 2013).  Orange growers in Florida are also testing transgenic orange trees to resist the disease that causes citrus greening and threatens the state’s crop (“Should You Worry,” 2013).  And although most GMOs are currently developed by biotech corporations, by “2015 more than half of the GMO will be developed by research institutions” (Broeders et al., 2012).

Mandatory labeling is also in the future for GMOs with Whole Foods requiring all of their products to be labeled by 2018 (Wohlers, 2013).  Although there is not currently a federal regulation requiring the labeling of food that has been genetically modified, individual states are submitting the decision to voters on a regular basis.  Alaska passed a law in 2005 requiring labeling because of the GM fish that will soon be introduced into the market (Wohlers, 2013).  Labeling is also necessary to prevent unauthorized GMO (UGM) from entering countries with GMO restrictions through feed or food importation (Broeders et al., 2012).

 

Key Terms

biotech (biotechnology): “the use of living cells, bacteria, etc., to make useful products (such as crops that insects are less likely to destroy or new kinds of medicine)” (Biotechnology, 2014).

BT (Bacillus thuringiensis): naturally occurring bacteria which lives in the soil; allowed to be sprayed on organic farms as an insecticide.

genetically engineered (GE): refers to seeds that “have somehow been altered by science in order to produce more positive results such as bigger size, brighter colors, or sweeter flavor” (Barnes, 2005, p. 53).

genetically modified organism (GMO): “the rapid and accurate alteration of genetic material in such a way that does not occur by natural recombination” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 74).  “The technology inserts genetic material from one species into another to give a crop or animal a new quality” (Mather, 2012, p. 1).

organic: “yielding, or involving the use of food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides” (Organic, 2014).

stacked hybrids: “varieties that have been manipulated to express several GM effects at once” (Mather, 2012, p. 3).

substantial equivalence: “’embodies the idea that existing organisms used as foods, or as a source of food, can be used as the basis for comparison when assessing the safety of human consumption of a food or food component that has been modified or is new’ (p. 14)” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 76).

transgenic crops: “being or used to produce an organism or cell of one species into which one or more genes of another species have been incorporated” (Transgenic, 2014).

unauthorized GMO (UGM): genetically modified plants found outside of their designated place.