Daniel Ziengs Explorations: November 2014

Contents

Page 1:

· Introduction

· Why do GMO’s exist?

Page 2:

· Fertility Problems

· Immune System Problems

· Allergy Problems - Part 1

Page 3:

· Allergy Problems - Part 1 (continued)

· Allergy Problems - Part 2

· Ways of preventing harm from GMO’s

Page 4:

· Problems with prevention techniques

· Solutions to prevention techniques - Part 1

Page 5:

· Solutions to prevention techniques - Part 2

· Solutions to prevention techniques - Part 3

· Solutions to prevention techniques - Part 4

· Conclusion

Does the genetic modification used on products in factory farming have a significant impact on our overall health?

As we all know Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) have become a part of our daily diet. A GMO is brought to life by a process in which a gene from one plant or animal is forced into another animal causing a genetic modification to the receiving organism hence the name, Genetically Modified Organism. GMO’s were put in place to help maximize factory farming, take for example, a cow. A cow can only grow so much, but with the addition of GMO’s the cow grows up to twice its “original” size. This is done to maximize production and minimize cost and time.

Am I writing this essay to explore the potential dangers of these GMO’s when consumed by humans. What are the potential health risks? Could a human body be genetically affected by these GMO’s? This essay is here to answer questions like these.

First we must find out the reason GMO’s exist. GMO’s exist, as explained in the introduction, to maximize production and minimize cost and the time taken to produce the product. This is done with the help of genes from foreign plants or animals. Referring back to the cow example. When a cow’s genes have been modified for factory farming, usually by adding hormones, the cow will grow twice the size its meant to be and also grow at the same rate that it would to be its normal size without the added hormones. This is done to maximize the cow’s output; the amount of meat it produces, and minimize the cost and time it takes to produce this meat. Minimizing the time it takes to produce a bigger amount of meat minimizes the cost of the production of cow. For example, If a cow had not been given any additives or any stimulants, the cow would grow to a normal size in say one year, but with the addition of hormones and more stimulants the cow would grow to be twice the average size in 10 months. By doing so the cow has to be fed less (lowering the costs) and it produces more in a shorter time.

This also keeps the price for us, the consumers. If the factory pays less, we pay less.

So the main question to all of this is, are there any health risks of eating GMO’s? Well research has found that there are some risks in eating GMO’s.

One problem of eating GMO’s has been found and this is it causes fertility problems. Researchers have been investigating this since the release of GMO’s in the 1980’s^[9]. According to natural-fertility-info[.]com^[8]sperm counts have drastically decreased 40-50% since the 1970’s. Researchers warn this may be a caused by the release and increase of GMO’s in our world today. Also stated by natural-fertility-info[.]com^[8]research has found that female rats fed genetically induced feed have given birth to babies that die merely within weeks of birth, the rate of premature death can be up to 99%^[8]. If you compare this to the research done on rats that have not been fed genetically induced feed the average rate or premature death is only 10%^[8], which may seem like a lot but compared to a 99% mortality rate, 10% is a feeble statistic.

Statistics have also shown that more human females are finding harder to stay pregnant and also get sick more during pregnancy. This was research by the Austrian health Ministry in 2008, there research stated that; “Those who ingest GMO foods are more likely to be sick, age faster and have a harder time getting (and staying) pregnant.”^[8].

Other problems induced by GMO’s include immune system problems. Research has found that the immune system is heavily affected by GMO’s. The immune system is the part of the body that helps fight diseases and viruses. GMO’s have been found to directly effect this significant part of the body. Studies done in labs on animals have shown that the immune systems of such animals have drastically weakened. Board certified internal medicine specialist, AAEM physician Amy Dean has backed this information, as shown in her statement, “GMO’s have been shown to adversely affect the digestive system and immune systems of animals in laboratory settings.” This quote from Amy Dean shows us that GMO’s have the potential risk to affect our health as if our immune systems are compromised our entire wellbeing is compromised, as our immune systems are what help defend us from disease and sickness.

Allergies is also one of the key problems in which GMO’s cause, but why is this is a problem? Allergies may seem like a common thing amongst our everyday life, but. Allergies are some of the leading causes of death in our world. GMO’s have been related to these problems though research done on cotton and BT-corn.

BT-toxin is a pesticide type spray that is used on crops in factory farming. The biotech industry claims that it does not harm humans as it is a natural bacterium, but studies have revealed that workers exposed to the BT-toxin have experienced allergic type reactions.^[6] This has been told to us by laborers in India after they have been handling cotton sprayed with the BT-toxin and experienced allergic type reactions such as rashes. Also, by adding insult to injury, studies have shown that the BT-toxin used in GMO’s is up to thousands of times stronger than the natural spray, showing us just how strong these pesticides are.

Allergies in soy have also shot up and while this is not an allergy that has lethal capabilities it is still something that can harm someone’s health as they feel discomfort and can experience some major symptoms such as vomiting, trouble breathing, hives and very rarely, one can experience anaphylactic shock^[11] which is a serious problem. GMO’s soy has been linked to the increase of soy allergies by the evidence that GM soy directly links to allergies. Soy allergies rose 50% in the UK after genetically modified (GM) soy was introduced, and after human testing it was found that GM soy caused a skin prick allergic type reaction on an individual but did not cause this reaction on the individual when they were exposed to non GM soy.^[6]

As we can see from the previous paragraphs, GMO’s have the potential to be a major health risk. But, there are ways of preventing us from being affected by these problems.

One of the ways to prevent these problems is to eat organic. Organic food is food that does not use additives or pesticides. This is healthy because there are not GMO’s to give you allergies, there are no GMO’s to help lose you fertility and there are no GMO’s to give you immune system problems. Organic food is widely available and commonly found in stores around the world. Organic food is grown or produced in small quantities, as there is more time needed and more feed and water needed to produce it.

But by using more food/water and taking more time to produce the food, it causes problems. Organic food is much more expensive than genetically modified food as it takes more time and resources to grow or produce the food rather than the concept of GMO’s which is short time, little resources and maximum production. “The cost of organic food is higher than that of conventional food because the organic price tag more closely reflects the true cost of growing the food,” says the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). ^[12]

The idea of GMO’s is that it is produced cheap so people can afford it, but when someone is pushed to buy organic food they might not be able to afford it as it is much more expensive.

Another advantage of GMO’s is that it is farmed fast enough to feed the world’s demands due to its fast growing/producing time. This is not the case with organic food as organic food takes a much slower time to produce, referring back to my example from the introduction, a GMO cow will produce double the amount of meat it will produce in 12 months, in just 10 months (only an example). This shows how GMO’s are built to keep up with the ready demand but Organic food is produced at nowhere near the speed it needs to feed the world’s demand for food.

More problems with Organic food include the fact that more people are questioning is actually health benefits, why spend the money on organic foods if they are not healthier than GMO’s? This has become a big problem as people are still falling back on GMO’s because they have been ill informed on its actual health benefits compared to the health disadvantages of GMO’s.

One of the possible solutions to the problem with organic food is to raise awareness of the harmful effects of GMO’s and encourage more people to eat organic. This is a good solution for only a small percent of the people. This only works with the people who can afford to eat organic food but choose not to as they see no benefit, but by informing them well about the problems with GMO’s they might choose to eat healthier, eat organic. Another way of raising awareness has been implemented in Vermont, the first US state to take such action. A law has been passed to make all GMO foods clearly labeled and to make it illegal to pass off GMO’s as ‘natural’ or ‘all natural’.^[13] This is done in effort to increase knowledge about GMO’s and to make people think twice before buying.

This still leaves us with the other two problems, cost and demand. For these, the solution is much more difficult, as stated by OFRF, the labor and management used on organic farming are “frequently more expensive than the chemicals routinely used on conventional farms”.

A considerable solution to this problem is to improve the farming techniques so that organic food is produced more efficiently and also faster to meet the demands of the world population. This can be done by increasing the size of organic farm plots and also by not using valuable farmland for urban development. A method of finding this valuable farmland was introduced by the US in the early 1990’s. The method was to use a satellite to identify the best and worst areas of soil to farm on. ^[14] This was a break through in the agriculture industry as now the farmers knew where to grow crops and also developers knew where not to develop urban areas. This is an expert idea which reduces the waste of valuable land and by doing so increased the area in which a farmer can produce high quality food products, also by knowing which areas are the best to farm in we can maximize these use of these areas to produce as much organic food as possible.

Other solutions include some that have been implemented on a local and national scale; an article that China had released is that they plan to ban the distribution of GM rice. (Stated in February 2012) This was a smart move as by stopping the effects of GMO’s in one of the country’s largest food source, the nation as a whole is better off.

Hong Kong as also taken action against GMO’s, in the supermarket, all the food must be approved by the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance. This is to ensure the health and safety of the Hong Kong population. ^[16]

To conclude this essay we have found that GMO’s have the potential to be harmful to the human body. Studies have shown that allergies can be created; fertility problems arise and out immune systems are compromised. All in all the GMO has the potential, but currently no significant damage to our human body but if we keep changing and “improving” the methods used for GMO production we could start to experience more sever effects.

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