FREE ESSAY ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS IN OUR FOOD

GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS IN OUR FOOD

Tomatoes, soy beans and McDonald's French fries- what all of these things have in common?
They are all some of the most commonly genetically modified foods on the market today.
With scientists in the race to invent newer and better everythings, genetically modified
organisms, or "GMOs" have become a hot topic of research in just the past 10 years. By
using the genetic information from one organism, or the "DNA" and splicing it with the
DNA of another, scientists can make food crops grow bigger, stay fresh longer, or even
create their own pesticides. In this case however, and often with any case involving
genetic modification, the technology has exceeded the practicality of this innovation.
Genetically modified foods have no place in everyday agriculture because of the threat
they pose to humans, the environment, and the future of traditional agriculture. 
Plants have been genetically manipulated for thousands of years. Even in the earliest
cases of civilized agriculture, people saved seeds of high yielding crops to replant each
season (Shannon 1999). Lately, however, with genetic engineering being the hottest and
most controversial side of science, many companies such as biotech are now tampering with
food crops to get results that the early farmers could have never imagined. 
This seems to be scientific child's play in comparison to all of the recent media
attention the cloning of sheep and even human cloning has received. Much of this genetic
experimentation with the cloning of mammals and similar species can be linked to a high
stakes game of chicken, where scientists are trying to do more and more daring things
before people actually take the final step and clone a human. Likewise there are no real
demands for genetically modified foods, but their supporters keep manufacturing and
experimenting with new food ideas to make more efficient what nature had already
designed. 
Among the list of foods genetically created is a product from the Biotech Corporation; A
modified tomato called the "FLAVR SAVR", and in theory this sounds like marvelous
invention. It is larger, better tasting, and stays fresh longer than commercial tomatoes
on the market. How did they do it? The FLAVR SAVR tomato was created by combining
conventional tomato genes with genes of an arctic trout. This was no natural or logical
combination of genes and certainly presents a lot of complication when arriving to the
market. Will people with a sea food allergy be able to eat the FLAVR SAVR? Would these
new trout genes allow new types of bacteria to form on the tomatoes making them
especially hazardous to eat? With so many new attributes introduced through this new DNA
it is difficult to know the potential side effects from these new foods. For centuries
now farmers have been able to cross breed various strains of sweet corn to make it grow
even sweeter, or to make potatoes grow bigger, but mixing tomatoes and fish is a match
that could only have been made in a laboratory. 
Since it wasn't until recently that such technology was feasible, there is no real 
way of knowing whether genetically modified foods would take a negative impact on the
body. Many activists tend to cite an incident that occurred in 1989 concerning the
nutritional supplement, L- Tryptophan. What was originally believed to be a safe
naturally occurring amino acid, safe for human consumption, caused a potentially fatal
illness called Eosinophilia Myolgia Syndrome (Jacobs 2000). This GM supplement was taking
off the market shortly after the reports of widespread illness among consumers of the
supplement. This is certainly reason to be skeptical of genetically modified organisms,
but defendants of genetically modified foods have a different argument. In theory since
the DNA is simply a miniature list of characteristics held by that organism, the DNA of
one plant should be no less harmful than another, just because they were spliced together
from 2 different sources. This is a completely scientific statement of something that
most scientists don't fully understand yet. However there are other factors to take into
consideration with GMOs aside from the theoretical consequences to human health. 
Because over time all plants to evolve to compensate for climate changes and new
environments, it is likely that because of these new characteristics, some parts of he
eco system may get thrown off in response to the GMOs. For instance, some soybeans
already been produced that have built in pesticides and herbicides used to fight off
weeds and insects. Because of the nature of theses new genes, it is predicted that weeds
may build a tolerance for this chemical defense, thus creating "super weeds" which would
be immune to most agricultural weed killers. 
Another possibility is that this new technology would spread unintentionally through the
pollinating and germination of the GM crops. For instance, if two fields lay near each
other, one growing organic tomatoes (ones that are raised using no pesticides or
unnatural means of growth) and one field producing genetically modified tomatoes, a
plant's natural tendencies may come into play. The chances would be great that insect or
wind would carry pollen from one crop to the other crop, making both crops genetically
modified. Since raising organic produce is a very regulated industry, this would not only
contaminate the organic tomatoes, (thus making them non-organic), but also ruin the
field's ability to grow organic produce. The wild life in the environment might be
affected as well. It has already been determined that a certain strain of GM corn can
harm monarch butterflies (Pollack 2000). If GM plants have the capability of harming
insects, what about animals in nature such as deer, whose life is already complicated by
deforestation? What about humans?
It hasn't been until recent years that genetically modified foods have surfaced, but
since the public became aware, GMOs have been under fire. Many fast foods chains, grocery
stores, and other food wholesalers and retailers have gone to the media, assuring the
public that they would not buy or sell products containing GMOs. Frito-Lay Inc., who
purchases over 1 billion pounds of corn and potatoes a year (Jacobs 2000) recently spoke
out on GMOs, saying it has asked its suppliers to not grow GM corn or potatoes. Spokes
people from Frito-Lay said it would not buy genetically modified corn for fear no one
would buy it (Jacobs 2000).
This new technology has become more trouble than it is worth for GM supporters. The
techniques used by the seed manufacturers are "crude and can create unforeseen mutations
in the food" (Jacobs 2000). Such mutations are likely to cause allergens or toxins in the
food, depending on the source of the foreign gene. For the most part genetic modification
is unnecessary, unpredictable and an infringement on nature. Nuclear energy was once
thought to be the answer for all of our power problems and this might be a similar case,
where the technology ends up having too many negative repercussions to be used
practically in everyday life. There is no test that can for sure say whether these foods
will be toxic after they are produced other than trial and error, making humans
experimental ginnie pigs. The world has enough food in circulation and does not need more
food or more efficient food. This science is best left to mystery for the sake of our
bodies, as well as our environment.
References
1. Shannon, T. Genetic engineering. Westport, Conneticut: Greenwood Press; 1999. 
2. Cherfas, J. Man-made life: an overview of the science, technology, and commerce of
genetic engineering. New York: Pantheon Books; 1982.
3. Lappe, M. Broken code: the exploitation of DNA. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books;
1984.
4. Pollack, A. We can engineer nature. But should we? The New York Times. 2000 Feb 6:
A3.
5. Jacobs, P. Cornucopia of biotech foods awaits labeling. L.A. Times. 200 Jan 31: C1
6. Genes and development [Scientific journal]. Vol 11, Number 16: 1999 
Bibliography
References
1. Shannon, T. Genetic engineering. Westport, Conneticut: Greenwood Press; 1999. 
2. Cherfas, J. Man-made life: an overview of the science, technology, and commerce of
genetic engineering. New York: Pantheon Books; 1982.
3. Lappe, M. Broken code: the exploitation of DNA. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books;
1984.
4. Pollack, A. We can engineer nature. But should we? The New York Times. 2000 Feb 6:
A3.
5. Jacobs, P. Cornucopia of biotech foods awaits labeling. L.A. Times. 200 Jan 31: C1
6. Genes and development [Scientific journal]. Vol 11, Number 16: 1999