Genetically modified organisms will benefit the world's poorest people

Disagree

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by Ginger Sanders

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The end of the human race brought on by genetically modified organisms will not benefit the poorest of the poor, or the richest of the rich. If this sounds like a drastic statement, well, that's because it is!

The human race has survived famine, blight and all other forms of crop failure, sometimes at great expense, but we are still alive and kicking on our blue planet. The short and long term effects of genetically modified organisms (Also know as "genetically engineered") in crop management pose a control nightmare, as well as the possible end of us as we know us.

Bees, it's the fault of those pesky bees. Bees fly from crop to crop pollinating. Fat and fuzzy and happy to do their work saving the world in their little superhero garb, they haven't learned that dragging pollen from a genetically modified crop down the lane to a natural crop has the potential to put their friendly local beekeeper and farmer in a bind. In many areas of the world, companies or farmers planting genetically modified crops do not have notify neighboring farmers or beekeepers that there is a genetically modified crop nearby. A farmer selling to the "Genetically Modified Free Market" might not even know his happy pollinators have infected his crop.

Research into honey has found that bees can pass proteins from nectar unchanged into honey. Genetically modified genes in some plants may contain genes which provide resistance to commonly used antibiotics. That poses quite a different health scenario. It could leave us unable to treat major illnesses and create superbugs and I don't mean of the buzzing variety.

Let's fast forward to the part about the end of the human race, back to the bees again. Given that almost every bite of food that we eat has a superhero pollinator, and that we send food to poor countries, wiping out the pollinators is a sure way to bring about our end. The bees might have already figured this part out. A recent study showed that bees had little interest in pollinating genetically modified crops. The study, initially published by the Ecological Society of America before being picked up in Italy, looked at pollination and the response of wild bees to organic, conventional and genetically modified rapeseed crops. It measured the abundance of bees and the pollination deficit, which is the difference between potential and actual pollination. The results showed no pollination deficit in organic fields, a slight pollination deficit in conventional fields and a high pollination deficit in genetically modified fields. Likewise, bees were most abundant in organic fields and least so in genetically modified fields.

There are reports that bee populations are declining at rates of up to 80% in areas of the United States and Europe. According to experts, if bees were to become extinct then humanity would perish after just four years. Albert Einstein said "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man,"

Scientists are puzzled as to what is causing the declining at rates, ruling out parasites but leaning towards some kind of new toxin or chemical used in agriculture as being responsible. Some experts think that the large-scale growth of genetically modified crops in the United States could the missing link. A study at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004 showed that toxins from a genetically modified maize variant designed with an insect repellant, when combined with a parasite, weakened the bees ability to survive the parasite and resulted in a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" than was normal. Colony Collapse Disease was recognized in 2006, but beekeepers reported hive declines similar to CCD as early as 2004. An estimated 23 percent of all beekeeping operations in the U.S. suffered from CCD during the winter of 2006-2007. Recently a published letter to Senator Thomas Harkin on the web from The Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Committee said that "highly respected scientists believe that exposure to genetically engineered crops and their plant-produced pesticides merit serious consideration as either the cause or a contributory factor to the development and spread of CCD." Nine literature references which could support their theory were cited.

According to ProQuest, soybeans and corn are the top two most widely grown crops (82% of all GM crops harvested in 2000), with cotton, rapeseed (or canola) and potatoes trailing behind. 74% of these genetically modified crops were modified for herbicide tolerance, 19% were modified for insect pest resistance, and 7% were modified for both herbicide tolerance and pest tolerance. Globally, acreage of genetically modified crops has increased 25-fold in just 5 years, from approximately 4.3 million acres in 1996 to 109 million acres in 2000 - almost twice the area of the United Kingdom. Approximately 99 million acres were devoted to GM crops in the U.S. and Argentina alone.

There has not been a formal link to the decline in bees and genetically modified food possibly because there is a lot of money at stake, but it certainly is not something that should be passed over lightly, for richer, or poorer and every food ingesting being in between.

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