Tham Shi Yuan Wong Qin Jiang

Video:
GM Food and You

Selective Breeding

Genetic Engineering

Test many plants for a certain trait Cross-breed that plant with the crop Repeat until a strain of crop with that trait is found Conclusion: Unspecific so no confirm amount of time needed

Find and isolate gene that results in a certain trait Insert gene into crop
Can be from non-plant organisms

Conclusion: Specific so much faster to do

Benefits Controversies

Tolerance / Resistant to:

Pests (less pesticides used) Herbicides Diseases Cold Drought Salinity

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Increases survival of crops Higher crop yield More crops can be grown in less arable land

Increased nutritional value

Undernourishment is a major problem in third world countries such as those in Africa

Food can stay fresh for longer Food may taste better

Health risks

Possible unknown, undetermined effects

Some long term consequences cannot be well predicted Difficult to predict biological properties from the knowledge of its chemistry

Allergenicity
Combining genes may cause possible new allergens

Environmental hazards

Unintended harm to other species

Designed to kill crop-eating pests but may harm innocent creatures

Gene transfer to other plants

Due to cross-breeding of plants Can be prevented by planting GM crops further away or make the crop unable to produce pollen

Religious issues

Using genes of sacred animals

Break religious dietary laws Judaism and Islam are concerned with using genes of pigs

Economical concerns

Copyright
Patent enforcing difficult as cross-breeding may spread the gene
Solution: Make seeds produced by crop sterile Problem: Huge financial burden on third world farmers

Patenting may increase cost, making it unaffordable for poor farmers

Bt Crops in India GM Rice in China

Bt Cotton, Bt Brinjal, Bt Corn

Produced by inserting a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into the crop Induces the plant to produce its own Bt toxin Bt toxin disrupts digestive processes and thus kills the insects

However,
Bt crops as part of GE technology cannot directly increase yields Secondary pests are immune to Bt toxin

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Health risks

Problems with growth, organ development and damage, immune responsiveness, etc. Adverse human health impacts in farm Factory workers with allergies Itching skin, eruptions on body, swollen faces, etc. Powerful immune responses and abnormal cell growth in mice

Environmental hazards

Increased pest resistivity

Insects are exposed to Bt toxin regularly Develop a stronger and quicker resistance to the toxin Bt sprays become less effective Effective life of Bt crop not more than 2-3 years Evidence: After 12 to 13 generations, toxin was ineffective when used on bollworm

Gene flow to wild relatives

Bt crops grown close to wild relatives Bt gene can be spread through pollen transfer Wild plants act as weeds Contaminates other species

Unable to address complexity of pest attack

Use of pesticides is still required Secondary pests which are immune to Bt toxin become primary pests

Overview of study:
GM rice grown in field trials Benefited local farmers
Higher crop yield Reduced pesticide use Fewer pesticide-related health problems

Shows whether GM food crops can actually improve farmer welfare

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Economic concerns

High total input cost, no increase in yield

Costs of seeds of Bt crops are higher Pesticides have to be used to get rid of secondary pests

Potential benefits

Higher crop yields Yields of GM rice was 9 times greater than conventional rice Reduced use of pesticides GM rice: pesticides applied less than once per season Conventional rice: pesticides applied 3.7 times per season Quantity of pesticides applied to conventional rice was 8-10 times as high as that applied to GM rice Contributes to improved health of farmers
http://www.topnews.in/health/files/Pesticide.jpg

GM foods can solve world hunger and undernourishment problems Possibly help to save the environment through lower use of chemicals
However, we must proceed with caution as this has the potential to cause disastrous consequences for messing with nature

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/modded.jpg http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview .php http://www.howstuffworks.com/question148.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food _controversies http://www.greenpeace.org/india/campaigns/say-noto-genetic-engineering/ge-crops-in-india-the-story http://www.csaindia.org/downloads/GE/bt_brinjal_briefing_paper.pdf http://www.jyi.org/news/nb.php?id=208

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