Genetically Modified/Engineered Foods (Eng 1302)

Eng 1302
Spring 2014
Genetically Modified/Engineered Foods
As of 2013, twenty-five states in the US had been considering enacting laws requiring compulsory labeling of foods that were genetically modified (Senauer 1). Congress should pass a law in a bid to affirm its stance on promoting the public’s safety. The government requires taking the necessary measures to protect the public amidst fears of unsafe foods. GMOs are genetically modified organism or rather the alteration of the natural DNA sequence in the organism to suit a particular need by humans. They are products of genetic engineering that is the deliberate modification of the genes of an organism using tools of biotechnology essentially involving the introduction of genes that manifest desirable genes in an organism or the removal of the unsuitable. Human impart their influence on gene structure through selective breeding, molecular cloning or mutational breeding (Byrne 23). However, technically the term GMO encompasses plants and animals most of the focus of genetic modification has been directed towards cash crops such as maize, soybeans, cotton oilseeds etc. These crops have been genetically engineered to exhibit traits such as disease and pathogen resistance, high yields and nutrition. The first genetic modification was carried out on tomato in 1994. Calgene was able to delay their ripening thus increase their market shelf life.
However, while advances in technology both the physical and biological fields have opened up our minds and limits of reach in creation, GMO have elicited the equal appraisal as controversy. Concerns have been raised on the issue of health effects of GMO on humans. Proponents of GMO claim that GMO has equal health repercussions as the natural foods while its opponents rebut this claim and state that there is yet to be sufficient data to prove that GMO is safe and causes no health implications in the long term. Environmental concerns have also been raised on GMO, particularly the GMO with the toxicity gene that makes them pathogen resistant. This gene is non-specific meaning it kills even the non-harmful organisms particularly insects in the environment (Miller & Kershen 41). Bees and butterflies that are critical in the ecosystem have been the primal victims of GMO poisoning that reduces their numbers. There are also fears that GMO plants could proliferate in the ecosystem and shift the biodiversity of geographical ranges. They could bear weeds that highly resistant to most herbicides.
A Major concern with GMO is their spread to a larger ecosystem even when they are planted at a specific site. The monocrop system of growing GMOs means a monopoly of one kind of flower thus restricting the species of pollinators in the ecosystem. Toxins from GMOs toxicity traits can be transmitted into the soil by the plants that could negatively affect soil microbiota which are critical to plants health. This then enunciates the dependence for chemical fertilizers. These effects could be transmitted to water sources through water drainage and into the air through spores. This was one of the major contentions that Monsanto Company of the USA that was entangled in a fight with farmers’ practices (Miller & Kershen 59).
Disputes regard with government regulation of GMO foods, and to their labeling in malls and supermarkets so they can be distinguished from the conventional foods. This gives the GMO skeptics the liberty to be able to choose the natural from the GMO products. While this is common practice in most countries that have legalized the use of GMOs, in the United and Canada, the companies that manufacture GMO are under no obligation to label their foods as GMO. In these two countries, though the majority has embraced GMO foods, they are still opposition to their effects on human health. Groups and associations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, Organic Consumer Association and Greenpeace, are up in arms advocating the labeling of these foods. They aver that the ultimate risks of GMO have not been amply ascertained to warrant their mundane use. Concerns have been raised as to the perspicacity of the leaders and regulatory authorities on the use of GMO (Jones & Chelsea 33).
It was mandatory in Japan for the testing of GMOs after a law was passed in 2001, however, currently it is a voluntary practice nonetheless the distinctive labeling of GM foods is imperative with consumer preference inclined towards non-modified foods. In India, there is still an embargo on the importation of GMO, country does not grow nor produce them either and have no policies on their regulation yet. Nonetheless, they show a staunch inclination towards transgenic research, and it is prospected that they will allow the use of GMO to counter the effects of endemic poverty (Senauer 26). In the EU, the catastrophic epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy commonly called the mad cow disease and dioxin-tainted foods caused strong distrust for GM foods by the public. In response, the European commission, culminated by protests from anti-GMO groups, has enacted a law allowing only 1% contamination of non-GMO products by G...