Engineered Crops the Rapid Advancements

¶ … Engineered Crops The rapid advancements in genomic science have created new possibilities in the fields of agriculture and in the treatment and management of diseases. The biotech revolution characterized by genetically engineered food products is regarded as a boon to the human society, a life saving solution to manage the food crisis of our globe. The farming community were promised economic benefits by way of increased yield and decreased expenses on pest and fertilizer.

Bio engineered food products, thus were destined to turn the scarcity into surplus, and become the new agricultural way of the 21st century. However, as with every human effort to dabble with nature, bio engineered food crops are not without environmental hazards. Let us briefly discuss GM farming and analyze the problems associated with the use of genetically modified food crops by a study of some recent scientific articles, which espouse this viewpoint.

GM Food Crops Altering specific sequences of DNA allows plants to develop resistance to pesticides, resulting in increased yield. Using genetic engineering methods such as electroporation, gene gun, gene silencing and vector mediated transfer, scientists are now able to insert a new gene or control the expression of an already present gene in a plant. [UCS] in a special report from the 'New scientist' the author discusses some of the possibilities of applying genomic science into farming practices.

Using these biotech processes scientists have created disease and herbicide resistant crops promising huge increase in productivity. The result of this biotech revolution was amazing. Vitamin boosted rice, Onions without tears, potatoes enriched with proteins, Soya built resistant to pesticides, and even caffeine free coffee became a reality and bio-engineered products offered endless possibilities. [John Pickrell] While there is no doubt that this initial success was enthralling it transpired pretty soon that genetic modification of plants had unforeseen environmental consequences, which are discussed in the other articles under study.

Environmental Impact (the Problem of Super weeds) recent article form the 'New Scientist' discusses the initial economic benefits as well as the later environmental impact. The United States and Argentina are two nations that ventured into GM farming in the later half of the nineties. Almost a decade into GM farming, the environmental impact of the same began to be studied with all seriousness. Recent studies conducted in these nations have revealed severe environmental consequences.

For Argentina, a nation swirling under a deep economic crisis, GM cropping offered a new ray of hope. In the late nineties almost half of the nations arable land (11.6 million hectares) was used to for the cultivation of GM Soya (Roundup Ready Soya from Montana). The farmers stood to benefit from the initial promise of high productivity (which reached 173%) and lowered use of pesticides.

The fact that the GM Soya was designed to be resistant to glyphosate (reportedly a least toxic pesticide) was an encouraging factor and even contributed to a great reduction in the use of other pesticides. [Branford, Sue] However the initial boost was not sustainable and new problems started to crop up. There was an unmoderated use of glyphosate as revealed by the increase in consumption from 13.9 million liters in 1997 to over 150 million liters in 2003.

The herbicide resistant GM Soya (from Montana) started to swap genes with weeds resulting in the formation of super weeds, which were resistant to herbicides creating grave consequences for the farmers. Glyphosate tolerant weeds started to grow uncontrollably requiring the use of greater quantities of pesticides than was necessary conventionally. [Branford, Sue] Gene Contamination Another problem is the increasing possibility of gene pollution on traditional crops by GM crops.

In a brief article, which discusses the health dangers of genetically modified foods, the author cites a recent study by the UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists). In the study, which analyzed samples of conventionally grown crops such as maize, soybeans and canola, it was found that more than half of the seeds were contaminated to some level.

As the report indicated the samples under study were, "pervasively contaminated with low levels of DNA sequences from GM varieties." [: Pearce, Fred] a clear example of this type of contamination is the shocking finding that traditional Mexican maize had genetically engineered genes. This problem will be more dangerous if pharming crops contaminate conventional crops. As microbiologist Margaret Mellon who was part of the study says, "If genes find their way from pharm crops to ordinary corn, they or their products could wind up in drug-laced cornflakes," [: Pearce, Fred].

So, the big difficulty before us is to avoid the possibility of GM crops getting mixed up with Non-GM crops. Given that pollens can travel up to 10 kilometers or more it is really a difficult task to separate GM from Non-GM farms. Sustainable Agriculture One of the suggested advantages of farming GM food crops was that they are sustainable.

However the results from Argentina have proved that in the long run GM farming only results in increased use of pesticides, which destroy beneficial bacteria in the soil and thus affect the soil fertility. Though in the case of Argentina sustained monoculturing practice (GM Soya) might have contributed to loss of soil fertility, it is still undeniable that the.