The reason for genetically modified seeds and food is so that companies can claim patents and make profits from things which should be natural and available from the earth.
They also genetically modify seeds to be sterile so farmers are forced to buy them every year rather than saving seeds as has been done traditionally.
I recommend the recent documentary "Bitter Seeds" about some of the effects of the introduction of genetically modified seeds to farming in India. The farmers enter a cycle of debt and there has been an epidemic of farmer suicides. Here is a website about the movie:
I also highly recommend the book Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, by Vandana Shiva (one of the participants in the Bitter Seeds documentary), which explores this and other issues related to food and globalization.
The justification of the man in the article, that an entire apple is too much of a committment for many people, is transparently absurd. Throwing away part of an apple is not nearly as devastating as what we are doing to the earth's natural food supply.
Just as natural foods are being destroyed, local food cultures, some of which have been around for millenia, are being destroyed as well.
-- Edited by Cactus on Friday 20th of July 2012 12:06:57 PM
Apples have become the latest controversial entry into the genetically modified food debate, following a July 12 New York Times piece written by Andrew Pollack. Okanagan Specialty Fruits, a small British Columbia company, wants to start marketing a non-browning apple, and it has applied for approval in Canada and in the United States.
The Arctic apple, available so far in the Golden Delicious and Granny Smith varieties, contains an extra copy of a gene which interferes with the enzymatic activity that causes browning. The enzyme is polyphenol oxidase.
According to Neal Carter, founder and president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, the non-browning Arctic apple is just what consumers are looking for. A whole apple, he tells the Times, is “for many people too big a commitment,” and apple slices that have browned just aren’t appetizing. (What a burden we bear — to have to eat a whole apple, let alone an unsightly one.)
Carter suggests that it is merely a cosmetic change intended to encourage people to eat more apples. But it’s more than that, of course.
It is intended “to turn the apple into an industrialized product,” said Lucy Sharratt, coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, as reported in the Times. In Common Ground, a Canadian monthly magazine dedicated to health, wellness and ecology, Yukon farmer Tom Rudge says, “We should eat real food instead of genetically engineering an apple so companies can slice it, wrap it in plastic and truck it across the country.” Organic apple farmer Harry Burton of Salt Spring Island sees it as “an indication of our distancing from nature.” In more ways than one.
As Pollack reports, the U.S. Apple Association opposes the introduction of the Arctic apple, but not out of any objection to genetic engineering. In fact, they declare on their website that “in order to continue discovering new and valuable benefits from apples, U.S. Apple supports advancements from technology and genetics and genomics research.” The problem for U.S. Apple, Pollack writes, is that the non-browning Arctic apple “could undermine the fruit’s image as a healthy and natural food, the one that keeps the doctor away and is as American as, well, apple pie.”
A genetically engineered food isn’t natural, of course, but it’s the appearance of being healthy and natural that the apple industry is far more concerned with. The issue I take with the use of this technology in food, however, is the degree of risk for unintended, unwanted consequences that it introduces, especially where it’s exploited for relatively frivolous purposes.
Last month, the Times reported a story on why our red, ripe tomatoes are so flavorless. (See Care2′s Kristina Chew’s response to that story.) It has to do with a genetic mutation that occurred by chance and was discovered by tomato breeders who cultivated it because it produced tomatoes that were uniformly red. As it turns out, “the very gene that was inactivated by that mutation plays an important role in producing the sugar and aromas that are the essence of a fragrant, flavorful tomato.” To James J. Giovannoni of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service, the mutation’s effect was a surprise, an unexpected discovery, “a story of unintended consequences.” A tomato researcher at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Harry Klee, said, “In trying to make the fruit prettier, they reduced some of the important compounds that are linked to flavor.”
But what other consequences might there be of which we are not yet aware? Maybe none, maybe many. In response to the Times story on the genetically engineered apple, one commenter from Eureka, CA, wrote, “If I know anything about the deep irony of the universe, polyphenol oxidase” — the enzyme that causes the browning — “will be the enzyme that ‘keeps the doctor away.’ We’ll trade real health for the appearance of health without even knowing it.”
From just the perspective of wanting to keep things local, I disagree with wanting to make produce last longer as it will encourage longer transport and that much more of a carbon footprint between the farms and the consumer. I know not all places have access to locally grown things so this is kind of idealistic but that is just my knee jerk reaction.
Here is a website for Navdanya, a seed saving and sharing organization started by Vandana Shiva:
http://www.navdanya.org/
Emmdee, I also agree with your points about local food.
Unfortunately, the spread of GMO foods (and other products like cotton) is being perpetuated by global corporations that want to have a hand in the pocket of every farmer and consumer in the world.
I also want to know the long term effects. Something strange happened about 30 miles away this year. There was a hybrid sod that was planted in the 80s, after the drought and heat conditions it caused a stress induced mutation of the grass. The grass started to produce cyanide gas and when cattle was released onto the field, they died in a short period of time.
Please also be aware that rGBH (a growth hormone injected in cows to produce more milk) is believed to be the reason so many young children are reaching puberty earlier and earlier.
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Make up your mind to be happy and happiness usually comes your way.
It might sound crazy but I'm not scared of genetically modified food. I don't know why, I understand the risks that are related to that, however I'm just not afraid.
Although the thing you wrote about the cattle is disturbing!
I've worked in the natural food industry for over 20 years and we have been fighting both of these since I started. Des, I know you aren't scared but you should be. Not that it will harm you in some way but the food chain can be ruined by theses GMO's and growth hormones are banned in most other countries.
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Make up your mind to be happy and happiness usually comes your way.
I've worked in the natural food industry for over 20 years and we have been fighting both of these since I started. Des, I know you aren't scared but you should be. Not that it will harm you in some way but the food chain can be ruined by theses GMO's and growth hormones are banned in most other countries.
I don't like the dependence we have on producing such large amounts in small areas and needing the product to last longer to compensate for how far it has to travel. I grew up in a family where we had a garden that produced most of our veggies, we raised cattle, grandparents raised hogs and chickens, and that made us much more self sufficient than I am now.
