Imagine having the ability to use a seed that produces 32 million more tons of yield than the normal seed for that crop. Imagine if that seed could produce the same amount of yield as competing seeds while using 29 million less acres of land. Now imagine that using this advanced seed creates $10 billion in benefits for farmers yearly. You actually don’t have to use your imagination to picture these scenarios, since these dreams have actually happened. But do these seemingly endless benefits add up enough to outweigh the massive potential negatives? The rapid development of Genetically Modified (GM) crops has given farmers the potential to use super seeds that produce massive yields using less land. However, many people question GM crops’ impact on both human and environmental health. Additionally, seeds created by scientists, and not by nature, provoke scary images of a planet where our food comes from the lab, not from the land. Given all these potentially major consequences, the production of Genetically Modified crops needs to be reigned in as much as possible to protect the health of the world’s population and prevent agribusiness from controlling humanity’s food source.
The purpose of creating a modified crop is to give the crop a beneficial trait that it did not originally have, such as making the crop decompose at a slower rate or making it resistant to a certain type of pesticide. The process that actually creates these crops is a scientifically impressive one; it involves taking a gene with a desirable trait, one which does not occur naturally in the crop being modified, from an organism and inserting it into the crop’s DNA. The gene can be taken from virtually any organism, meaning that a wheat crop could have a cow gene in it. The surface benefits this process begets are obviously quite appealing, because what farmer would not want a crop that would be more resistant to droughts than the alternative?
However, many factors of this process make a lot of farmers and consumers feel uneasy. To begin with, changing an organism’s genetic roots is completely unprecedented. Only in the past few decades has humanity had the technology to alter organisms on such a basic level, so the long term effects on humans consuming modified foods are not fully known by anybody. Furthermore, it is unknown how the organism will react once its DNA has been changed, because it is not meant to have its fundamental structure messed with. Adding a new gene could alter the organism in many other ways, potentially creating harmful mutations or disrupting the normal functioning of other genes. Also, genes can be taken from organisms that are not normally consumed by humans, so it cannot be accurately determined what effects the typically non-edible gene will have when consumed.
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Another unknown aspect of GM crops is their allergenicity. Many people have very serious allergies to a variety of substances, such as peanuts. Say, for example, a peanut gene could be inserted into a tomato to make it fully mature in half the normal time, however that particular gene causes people to have peanut allergies. A person with a life-threatening peanut disease could be enjoying a nice pre-dinner salad and then unwittingly suffer a very serious allergic reaction. It is a serious health risk for people to continue developing and consuming these crops without first conducting extensive studies to figure out the effect of allergens in them.
GM crop supporters dismiss many anti-GM claims as what-if scenarios, and their assessment is correct. However, that is exactly why GM crops should be avoided for the time being, because there is simply not enough information out there that proves the crops’ safety. Just like how people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, GM crops should be considered not safe until proven safe in the court of human health. Given that so little is known about how the crops react when modified and how humans react to consuming those crops, it is frightening to know that as much as 70% of the food you would find in a local grocery store contains some amount of genetically modified ingredients.
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Health risks are not the only scary aspect of widespread use of GM crops. The biotechnology corporation Monsanto is the largest seed company on Earth and controls 90% of all GM seeds, and is so evil that it makes Goldman-Sachs look like UNICEF. In 1980, a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for companies to gain patents on “live human-made microorganisms”, thus indirectly allowing for GM seeds to be patented. Though the ruling was made with good intentions, Monsanto has taken advantage of it and brought it to extreme levels. Since the Supreme Court handed down their 1980 ruling, Monsanto has filed thousands of biotechnology patents and has been awarded at least 646 of them. Though the idea of claiming intellectual property over a seed, arguably the single most fundamental object of nature, may initially seem somewhat preposterous, it is exactly what the chemical giant has achieved in droves.
Even more disturbing than their vast amount of patents on nature is the extent to which Monsanto goes in order to protect these patents. Monsanto makes farmers that use their seed sign contracts that disallow them from saving seeds from year to year, forcing them to purchase new seed each year. Saving seed and using it the next year has been fundamental to human survival since the beginning of agriculture itself, yet it is now legally possible for one corporation to change practices that have been around for millennia. Any farmer who decides to rebel against the iron fist of Monsanto faces the wrath of their giant, relentless legal team. Since 1997, the company has filed hundreds of lawsuits against farmers for alleged patent violations like saving seeds. Monsanto uses their relatively limitless resources to bully farmers in these lawsuits, legally harassing the farmers into submission because they simply do not have the resources to compete with a giant multinational corporation. Most farmers settle before the cases even go to court, because they know paying a settlement will be less costly than long, drawn out legal proceedings that will likely bankrupt them.
You might be curious how it is even possible for such a large corporation to track the use of their seeds so closely. They achieve this through their huge network of investigators, which go through small farming communities and spy on the farmers there, even going so far as taking surveillance video of them, to ensure the terms of their contracts and patents are being adhered to. Anyone who goes against the wishes of the company gets confronted and threatened. In 2002, a Monsanto representative barged into a local store in tiny Eagleville, Missouri, and threatened the store owner with legal action for his alleged unauthorized use of Monsanto seed. The representative even perpetuated the company’s image of being a billionaire bully by reportedly saying “Monsanto is big. You can’t win. We will get you. You will pay.” When the company realized that they had accused the wrong person (the man was a store owner, not a farmer), they dropped it quickly and never even apologized, much less offered financial compensation, to the man. The fact that a multibillion dollar corporation aggressively goes out of their way to financially ruin, to the tune of $15 million awarded in royalties, farmers who work hard to earn a modest living is disgusting and is unfortunately quite exemplary of the amount of power large businesses have in this country.
All of these actions are from a company that, again, controls up to 90% of all GM seeds. If we continue to expand our use of GM crops in food, Monsanto will have control over most of our food supply. Their past actions show that their only motives are gaining profit and asserting their dominance over subordinates. The health of the people that end up consuming their product is clearly not very high on their list of priorities. If we simply stand by and allow GM crops to become the standard, not the exception, then one of the most evil corporations in the world will be the ones determining what humans eat. If thinking about that does not make you sick to your stomach, then the genetically modified food on your plate probably will.
Bartlett, Donald L., and James B. Steele. "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear." Vanity Fair, May 2008. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805>.
Cesca, Bob. "Monsanto: The Evil Corporation in Your Refrigerator." DailyFinance.com. 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/04/monsanto-the-evil-corporation-in-your-refrigerator/>.
Penner, Rolf. "The Future of Wheat." n.d.: n. pag. National Post (Canada). 19 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 Sept. 2012. <http://www.performanceplants.com/media/the-future-of-wheat>.
Whitman, Deborah B. "Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?" Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful? CSA, Apr. 2000. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php>.
http://www.udel.edu/physics/scen103/CGZ/consofplants.html
http://www.safe-food.org/-issue/dangers.html
Eric Putler
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