© by Mark Dempsey
In one of my favorite Netflix shows--Adam Ruins Everything--the fact-spouting comedian Adam Conover declares there’s no difference in the nutritional value of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food when compared to “natural” food...as though the heavily bred plants and animals we consume are natural.
But he is missing the larger context. Unlike plant or animal breeders, scientists creating GMOs insert genes from completely unrelated species into their products. That’s how they can create a rabbit that glows like a jellyfish. That rabbit may be nutritionally identical to one that is not a GMO, but his place in the ecosystem is certainly different. It would be much more difficult for him to hide from a coyote at night, for example.
The harm from GMOs is often not in nutrition, it’s in the ecosystem. Consider bacillus thuringiensus (“BT”), a natural bacterium that sickens plant pests, but is harmless to humans. Organic farmers can use this without concern that it will kill bees, or pollute the environment.
BT has been around for a long time. The natural bacteria only persist for a few weeks without being washed off of plants, so insects do not have enough time to breed BT resistance, too.
Along comes Monsanto, though, and puts the BT genes in their BT corn. This means the BT insecticide persists throughout the growing season, and is incorporated into the entire plant. Now the insects can breed several generations of pests, and will certainly come up with BT-resistance as a result, just as the weeds around “Roundup Ready” plants are becoming resistant to Roundup.
That’s the big problem with GMOs. Monsanto’s profit comes first; forget everyone else, or the ecosystem. I’d say Monsanto owes millions in damages to organic farmers everywhere by effectively depriving them of an insecticide that’s both harmless to humans and natural...but I’m not going to hold my breath until the courts provide justice in this case.
In one of my favorite Netflix shows--Adam Ruins Everything--the fact-spouting comedian Adam Conover declares there’s no difference in the nutritional value of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food when compared to “natural” food...as though the heavily bred plants and animals we consume are natural.
But he is missing the larger context. Unlike plant or animal breeders, scientists creating GMOs insert genes from completely unrelated species into their products. That’s how they can create a rabbit that glows like a jellyfish. That rabbit may be nutritionally identical to one that is not a GMO, but his place in the ecosystem is certainly different. It would be much more difficult for him to hide from a coyote at night, for example.
The harm from GMOs is often not in nutrition, it’s in the ecosystem. Consider bacillus thuringiensus (“BT”), a natural bacterium that sickens plant pests, but is harmless to humans. Organic farmers can use this without concern that it will kill bees, or pollute the environment.
BT has been around for a long time. The natural bacteria only persist for a few weeks without being washed off of plants, so insects do not have enough time to breed BT resistance, too.
Along comes Monsanto, though, and puts the BT genes in their BT corn. This means the BT insecticide persists throughout the growing season, and is incorporated into the entire plant. Now the insects can breed several generations of pests, and will certainly come up with BT-resistance as a result, just as the weeds around “Roundup Ready” plants are becoming resistant to Roundup.
That’s the big problem with GMOs. Monsanto’s profit comes first; forget everyone else, or the ecosystem. I’d say Monsanto owes millions in damages to organic farmers everywhere by effectively depriving them of an insecticide that’s both harmless to humans and natural...but I’m not going to hold my breath until the courts provide justice in this case.
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