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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2005)
ìommentary LACKAMASPf^fif • pril20, 2005 F ace O ff : Student Poll: Genetically engineered foods Engineered food: benefit to society lary Ferguson Clackamas Print n this year alone, over 3 million people and counting have died due to starvation (for a running tally, log onto http:/Avww.starva- tion.net/#news.) In this year, and the years before, no one has died e to eating genetically modified foods. Think about it. I In this year alone, over 3 million people and counting have died ’e to starvation (for a running tally, log onto http ://www. starvation, tffinews.) In this year, and the years before, no one has died due to ng genetically modified foods. Think about it In a perfect world, this fact would be mind-boggling enough that I ouldn’t have to write any more. But, for the sake of educating you, e reader, I will go on to prove that genetically modified foods are not t a good thing, but something that we must embrace as a reality if e continue to procreate at the current rate. I Firstly, it is important to realize how the jmeof genetically modified (GM) food slandered. Hippies. The hippies id it Now, I may be what some nsider a peace-loving dirt- t, but I also believe that ere is no reason for mil- ons of children to die f malnutrition every ear. Environmental rganizations have beled genetically odified foods as atural—these bods are not e way nature tended, and are erefore inher- dy bad. Well, hippie, you know what also unnatural? tying to cram per 6 billion people Into our little planet! that’s unnatural! Vhile we’re busy try- ng to find space for hese people to five, igricultural space is at a tremium, and it is impera- tve that we make the most f it. Hey, do you know pat’s better than a tomato plant hat takes up one square foot of land Ind produces 25 tomatoes? A tomato plant hat takes up one square foot of land and produces Modified foods: biologically messy JI N What do you think about genetically engineeredfood ? Joanne Bergstrom The Clackamas Print either our country nor the rest of the world have the laws, science or wisdom needed to safely execute a process as powerful and lasting as genetic engineering. Combining species by inserting animal genes into plants or plant genes into animals is very different from selecting traits as we have done in the past. Up until now, if we made a mess or a mistake we could just clean it up. Living things obey biological laws; they reproduce. We really don’t yet know what we are capable of setting into motion. The worst part about it is that we are doing it for money rather than humanity. Plus it is being done in secret, giving the public no choice as to what they eat. Bowing to public opinion, the farmers that supply milk for the Tillamook Cheese Cooperative recently voted to stop using, rBST, a genetically engineered product that increases milk production. They aren’t even allowed to dis- K play that informa- ® tion on their label for fear of a law- suit by Monsanto H Corporation. Monsanto owns most of the patents on geneti- | cally engineered | plants. Although more than 40 genetically modi fied crops are cur rently allowed in the United States, com, cotton, soy beans and canola are their major crops. And two traits, herbicide tolerance and insect resistance, make up almost all of the present seeds on the market. Here’s how it works: By making a crop resistant to a certain herbicide, we could then spray Photo with that herbicide illustration to yy everything >0 tomatoes! by Jeff Sorenson except the resistant Many people have tried arguing that GM foods cause Clackamas Print plant nore allergies in people where natural foods would not This simply The second strategy is to breed insecticide into each cell of the sn’t true. The fact is, this was a hasty point brought up by environmental trganizations to push the public into believing that there was a tangible plant. When the bugs eat it, they die. Then you eat it or feed it to ani teat to eating GM foods. To this day, there is no proof that eating mals, and whatever part isn’t eaten is plowed back into the earth. genetically modified food is any more dangerous than eating non-geneti- So what happens when the pollen of this herbicide-resistant plant hlly modified foods. blows over into the next field and combines with weeds or your According to Patrick Bateson, vice-president and biological secre neighbor’s crop? You get herbicide-resistant weeds and genetically tary of the Royal Society, “We have examined the results of published polluted crops. A recent Environmental Protection Agency study done on a test research [on GM food] and have found nothing to indicate that GM farm in Oregon found pollen spores 13 miles away from the origi foods are inherently unsafe. If credible evidence does exist that GM foods are more harmful to people than non-GM foods, we should like nally modified plant. Also, the plant itself that you have just modified can become a to know why it has not been made public.” Genetically modified food would ensure that crops each year weed. If it is stronger than the surrounding plants, it can just take produce more, are less likely to fall victim to pests and disease while over. Another use of genetic engineering is to insert genes into plants and mature more quickly. This means a larger crop with quicker to produce pharmaceuticals. This also could be hard to contain, and turnaround, which would feed more people at a cheaper price. Also, some of these plants have higher levels of vitamins, such as vitamin the prospect of eating someone else’s heart medicine in your morn A, which would significantly combat malnutrition in third world ing cornflakes, for instance, is pretty scary. Although there is the promise of increasing food yields for the »untries. It’s a no-brainer. Third World, there isn’t much profit in that. The free exchange of Another point against genetically modified foods is that they are seeds and technology that led to crop and animal breeding doesn’t not being labeled properly. I do not have any problem against modify- exist anymore, as we have begun to patent intellectual property. ng foods, but I do have a problem with not sharing that information with consumers. I do support clearly labeling genetically modified Now information is impeded by patents held not only by compa foods so that consumers can choose if they want to eat it or not. nies, but also by universities. A crop called golden rice, for example, has been developed to help Finally, and this is the point that is so often forgotten in the debate combat a vitamin A deficiency that blinds hundreds of thousands of on modified foods, but people have been modifying plants since the children each year. It never came to market because its developers time of the agricultural revolution. As hunter-gathers made the transi needed permission from more than 40 patent or contract holders. tion to farmers, they began to sort out the weak plants and keep the strong ones. The stronger plants were bred with the other strong plants, In fact, Third World farmers are opposed to the “Terminator” gene that the Monsanto wants to insert into their products. Seeds creating more and more fruitful plants as the generations passed. This is, in its simplest form, genetic modification picking out the strong would become sterile after one growing season, and farmers would genes while casting out the weak genes. If it weren’t for genetically have to buy new seeds each year instead of replanting the old ones. Imagine what could happen if that pollen escaped into the general modified foods, society would not exist as we know it now. Genetically modified foods are not the enemy—a lack of educa plant population! tion and blind belief in loud and angry hippies is. There are too many Until we really have the biological and ecological understanding people on earth dying from lack of food for us to attack those who try that we need for such ventures, as well as the laws in place to benefit humanity, maybe die genie is best left in the bottle. and supply it to them. I 5 “I think eventually it will screw us up. It is bad, but I eat it any way.” Brad Thomas f f “It does not really matter to me, but I can see the harm in it.” Jacque Stone “I don’t like them; I prefer organic foods.” Nemah Delai “I need some more details about how it affects health.” Judy Peabody “It’s all the same to me as long as it’s edible.” Phillip Drake “I think it’s unnatural.” Melissa Irvin This week ’s poll compiled by Joanne Bergstrom and Shannon Armstead
