Genetically modified Organism Dangers

With many complexities of modern life, it is easy for us to get so bogged down in discussions of the complex issues. By focusing on the many details surrounding them, we may forget to establish the basics and understand the fundamentals.

Few topics are more important to consumers and equally filled with unknowns and confusion than the subject of gmo food.

No matter how much we may think we know, science and technology keep adding to our understanding and it is helpful to try to keep the foundations of our beliefs on solid ground.

Hopefully this will do just that, beginning with the terminology used to describe a set of molecular techniques that can alter the genetic structure of organisms and transform food as we know it.

The terms usually heard are gmo and ge, short for genetically modified organism or genetically engineered. They are used interchangeably to describe the organisms that result from a process of inserting genes to create novel substances that have genes from dissimilar species and could never occur in nature.

Through this process of genetic alteration, scientists are able to take genes from any organism, a plant, a virus, a bacteria or even a human and engineer them into another organism to try to produce a desired characteristic.

The process occurs by extracting genes from one organism, adding a promoter, which is generally a virus or bacteria, coating it all with antibiotics and literally shooting the extracted gene in the form of microscopic pellets, into another gene.

With the gmo foods, which we will focus on, the genes are introduced into the plant tissue in a laboratory by either being coated on tiny pellets of gold or tungsten and fired with a special gun or sometimes are bought in via a microorganism in a way some have likened to a viral infection.

The genes are segments of DNA that specify the structure of proteins. The proteins are like the building blocks. Each one has unique characteristics. Now don’t get overwhelmed, we aren’t going to lose you in deep science.

It helps me to think of the different proteins being combined, somewhat like a imagining a toddler playing with an assortment of blocks. When the whole collection of different proteins is seen like different blocks, it is easy to imagine how they can be combined in very many different patterns to create very different results.

In much the same way the toddler will never make the exact structure twice, there is no way of predicting where the new protein, inserted to create the trait, will go when it’s shot into the gene. Because these alterations occur once, in totally unique ways that can not be repeated, the resulting new organism is termed a genetically engineered "event".

All of the plants that are produced with that trait are bred from that original event. In nature we don’t see that type of identical replication because nature is based on diversity and traits evolve in response to environmental changes and crossing of traits between like organisms.

In the case of the genetically altered foods on the market, the traits conferred are either herbicide resistance or pesticide producing abilities. About 71% of the crops are engineered to resist herbicide, including Liberty (glufosinate ammonium) and Roundup (glyphosate). About 18% produce their own pesticide. And 11% do both. The ones that do both are called stacked.

The herbicide tolerant plants are also called Ht and the pesticide producing are known as Bt for the Bacillus thuringiensis;. Most of the herbicide resistant forms in the America’s food supply, are created to tolerate glyphosate, sold commercially by Monsanto as their trademark Roundup® weed killer.

You’ve probably seen the television commercials, boasting that it kills weeds for up to three months and not even the rain will stop its power. The same stuff, but about six times stronger, is soaked on the crops. Everything but the gmo resistant plants die; they’re created to resist that one herbicide.

The seeds are sold as Roundup Ready® or RR-soy, RR-corn, RR-cotton, RR-canola, etc. They are patented and registered by names like MON863 or NK603, but since they all resist the Roundup herbicide they are all called Roundup Ready® crops.

These genetically altered varieties now make up about 90% of America’s soy, about 50% of the corn, canola, cotton and lesser amounts of other crops including papaya, squash, potatoes and others depending on the year.

Genetically engineered events often have names to identify the company that holds the patent as in MON for Monsanto. Others indicate the herbicide they tolerate. That’s the case with Bayer’s LL601 rice, the source of a widespread accidental contamination in 2006 that had other nations pulling US rice off the shelves, as we were hearing about e-coli spinach.

The LL601 was created to have a tolerance to an herbicide called Liberty Link made by Bayer Crop Science. The designation LL helps growers match the altered seed with the herbicide or pesticide it is grown with. It’s not so yummy to think of LL601 Rice Krispie Bars or Frosted MON863 Corn Flakes but that’s what’s in much of it here in America where the gmo crops are unregulated and unlabeled.

Beyond the idea that the names aren’t exactly a marketing departments dream, these genetically altered events have special properties that are important to talk about. Now the industry claims that changing a single gene isn’t significant and in the case of foods it doesn’t change the traditional varieties in ways that affect us when we eat them.

There is both serious science and feeding study results that suggest quite the opposite.

In some ways common sense tells us that to change the basic genetic code that has evolved over the course of the history of life on the planet, to produce characteristics in plants where they tolerate toxic herbicides or make their own pesticides to kill the bugs that eat them, is not quite the same as a food that has evolved to nourish the planet’s life forms. But there is science to cite so we’ll move along to that.

We know now that genetic modification requires the insertion of foreign genetic material into the gene of the plant. In the case of gmo foods they accomplish that with a promoter which is generally an antibiotic resistant marker and the entire thing is then coated with an antibiotic.

That creates cause for concern on several levels. As we know Nature is based on evolving and all organisms, including the human body is designed to mutate in response to threats encountered. Our internal operations are much like a microcosm of the global ecology. Our immune system needs to identify the proteins that are threats and attack them.

Genes are ecologies too, they work in conjunction with one another to build defenses against natural attackers. When we introduce new genetically modified substances they posses new proteins. These are novel substances in the plant and they are substances our bodies have never encountered in nature.

The new proteins are also alien to the plant. When those plants then interact with the entire ecosystem and the human body, nature is faced with challenges that evolution has never prepared for. In a worst case scenario these novel proteins may be toxic. In a lesser extreme they can trigger allergic reactions or other immune system responses.

The body identifies the novel substance as a foreign substance that it does not recognise as a food. The numbers of reactions an immune system can have to this foreign protein are as varied as the varied novel proteins and as the individuals.

Just as one person may be allergic to peanuts and another has no problem eating them, the proteins that generate an immune response, and what that response is in terms of severity and body reaction, varies as much as we do. It goes back to the basic divirsity of nature and the fact that no two living organisms are exactly alike.

One person may get a rash while another gets breathing problems from an allergic reaction to an identical item of conventional or natural food. The protein that triggers the reaction is the same but the individual immune system responses are different.

We do share many traits within species though. That’s when numbers come into play and we begin to see paterns of reactions. For example we look for a spike in the number of individuals who are afflicted with a given ailment and try to find a common source for the problem.

In the case of the genetically altered foods and patterns resulting from those we would look to the US as a test group. Since we have been eating these for a decade indicators of allergic reactions would manifest in rising food allergies or increased rates of other auto-immune diseases.

Then there are the groups of side effects that would show antibiotic resistance that may suggest that the novel gene proteins have mutated the antibiotic promoters. Or there may be problems with the digestive tract, suggesting the Bt inserted to kill a bug that eats the plant, is similarly attacking the gut of humans who eat the bacterium with regularity.

If we look at the television commercials for treatments it would seem that many of the allergies and ailments are growing right along with the volume of these crops in our diets.

These were introduced by the petrochemical companies with claims that there was no basis for concern and no reason to test for novel proteins or track human health effects. No premarket testing was done and no post market follow up was put in place to record health effects.

At a very minimum it should be a subject of serious medical investigation and a right of every consumer to know what we are eating. For more detailed discussion of the modification process and the health issues this Dr.E. Cullen has done a brilliant job in this month’s Irish Medical Journal has one of the best articles I’ve ever read, written in a way anyone can understand.

These gmo crops began as a business plan aided by political policy and now it is time to put them on the agenda as a public health issue. After all we are what we eat and our health and the health of our families and children is priceless.

We as consumers, especially here in America, have the power to to stop the feeding experiment by avoiding corn, canola, soy, white rice or papaya that are not certified organic. We can end the toxic policies that have allowed our Nation to be fed a Roundup Ready diet.

Knowledge is power. Become informed and involved. Call your Members of Congress and tell them it’s your right to choose what we eat and take the blank check from the chemical companies off the table. Put pure food on the National priority list.

One by one, day by day and acre by acre we will regain the gifts of Nature and health that comes from pure food, water, air and environment for our children.

Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 and be polite but firm; the Congress works for you.