Organic Food vs. Genetic Engineering

It's always helpful to step back and take a look at things from an objective perspective, especially when we are personally involved.

Creating and sustaining an organic lifestyle means we are in the "center" of that activity, daily. Among all the other things going on in our daily lives, as moms, we are also trying to develop new habits for our family in regards to their health and well being.

So I thought it would be helpful for us all, myself included, to just take a step or two back and revisit the basic questions and reasons why we are pursuing an organic lifestyle to begin with.

What Is Organic Food?

Certified organic food is most commonly described as food grown and packaged without the use of chemicals, preservatives or additives. Food that is either completely or at least 70% all natural.

Another way to explain it, from a bigger picture standpoint is:

"Organic food is produced through a system that is based on ecological balance and humane care for the plants, animals and people that make up the farm environment."

One important reason to consider organic food, and an organic lifestyle, that I've not read much about previously, is genetic engineering. The Sierra Club site states:

"Eating organic food is one way you can avoid genetic engineering. All certified organic produce and ingredients are produced free of any genetic engineering"

What Is Genetic Engineering?

In layman's terms I would translate it to be the taking of genes from one species of plant and injecting another plant with those genes to force certain characteristics. For example, if you had a corn plant that was delicious and seemed to be resistant to pests, you would take its' genes and inject it into another plant of a different variety, in the hopes to force the taste and/or pest resistance onto the other.

Doesn't sound too bad, but when you understand the "risks" associated with genetic engineering, it doesn't sound so good either.

Here's a more technical description of genetic engineering and the associated risks:

"In genetic engineering technology, genes are isolated and transferred using a "gene gun" or a viral vector from one species into a foreign species, crossing over what is called the "species barrier." An example is the transfer of an insect-resistant gene from a soil bacterium (called Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt) into corn plants to confer insect resistance. This kind of genetic transfer never occurs in nature and cannot be achieved through traditional plant breeding methods. The new gene lands in a random spot in the genome of the recipient organism, and can disrupt normal functioning of that organism in unpredictable ways."

Risks of Genetic Engineering

Non-target insects, including ones that are beneficial to farmers are harmed by genetically engineered crops.

Genetically engineered organisms have harmed soil microorganisms, leading to stunted or killed crops.

Plants engineered to be insect- or herbicide-resistant can lead to resistance in weeds and insect pests. This means more chemicals or new genetic engineering.

New allergens and toxins are the potential result of genetically engineering food. Some are detected before market approval while others are not.

Pollen from genetically engineered crops can drift into wild environments and breed with wild relatives of crop plants.

The effects of this genetic pollution cannot be predicted. Once genetically engineered organisms are released into the environment they cannot be con-trolled and they cannot be recalled. Genetic pollution is irreversible.

So we can conclude that organic food is grown WITHOUT the use or need for genetic engineering. And if organic farming can help us avoid "genetic pollution", AND it's better for our health and well being, doesn't it just make good sense for everyone?

The Sierra Club article goes on to conclude that:

"The industrial approach is to "improve nature" and make food products exempt from natural systems and laws. Harmful consequences are corrected using new and more technologies, usually leading to further problems. In contrast, the organic approach is to understand these laws as much as possible and work with them. Organic farmers practice prevention, not correction."

I think any reasonable consumer, without a financial interest in the mass production of genetically altered foods would agree that when it comes to the foods we eat and the environment we need, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Organic farmers, like organic moms, care about the food and sustaining the land for future generations. We all know, whether we want to admit it or not, what the large corporations who mass produce traditional food crops are most interested in.

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Genetic Engineering

This subject is immensely intricate but hugely entertaining and stimulating for a human mind. It involves manipulation of material that has such wide diversity, which is yet not fully covered or even understood by the scientists. This article will try to tackle the subject by explaining its meaning and functions.

What does genetic engineering mean? If we break the words down, then we understand that it is engineering of some material that involves genes. Genetic is something involves genes and genes are the coded information contained within a material that is known as DNA. DNA is a chemical molecule, which contains information about the make up of an organism. For example in our DNA, the information will be about our looks, eye colour, hair colour, size of our body parts, our blood group, etc. So if we have a DNA of any organism we can (on paper) reproduce that very organism as we have all the information about it. It's like having a recipe for a dish, which can be used to make that exactly same dish again and again. DNA is just like a recipe for any organism. Going back to cooking analogy, if we use a recipe to cook a dish, when its cooked we don't like the taste because perhaps there was too much of some ingredient So next time when we cook the dish we either omit that ingredients or substitute with another ingredient. This will cause the dish to be different from the original recipe and may be more to your taste. We can say that recipe has been manipulated or engineered to give us the dish with taste that we like. Well Genetic Engineering is when we manipulate the DNA and try to bring about changes in the organism, which would improve the organism or make it do what would be beneficial to us. For example, an organism such as cow that produces milk, if we manipulate with her DNA and make her produce more amount of milk, we have genetically engineered the cow for our benefit.

As genetic is a huge subject, therefore its engineering stems to many varied directions. The basic technique carried many advantages and disadvantages. The advantages allow us to use this technique to treat or cure many diseases. Genetic Engineering is applied to gene therapy where the faulty gene that is causing the diseases is either replaced with a normal gene or omitted in order to cure the disease. An example is Cystic Fibrosis where one of the gene is faulty, that causes build up of thick mucus in a person's breathing system and the person suffers from chest infection and cough for most of their life. In this case, the normal gene (that does not cause the build up of thick mucus) is inserted into the DNA, which then gives instruction and helps to stop the build up of the mucus. Though this is a good technique to help the problem but it is very expensive and the research takes a long time to be able to clone the normal genes.

It is also used to genetically engineered microorganism. For example manipulating bacteria to produces antibiotics, hormones and enzymes. If we think of bacteria as a photocopier we can understand how it is used to make so many beneficial materials. A bacterium tries to survive by multiplying a very high rate. Whatever it ingests it will reproduce and multiply. If we insert the gene of interest (gene to make antibiotic) in bacterium feed, it will ingest and reproduce bacteria with that particular gene. The bacteria have photocopied information that we require in bulk such as antibiotics.

Genetic Engineering is used to improve nature, change animals, change plants, and to find many answers relating to human activities. Where its uses are immensely beneficial, they also give rise to many social ethical and economical issues. For example when it is used to select either sex of an unborn baby, or select features of baby such as eye colour, hair colour or any other in demand feature, giving rise to designer babies. This technique is also used to produce GM food (genetically modified) which also raises many issues such as if the use of GM food produces more illnesses in people and weather its use is should be allowed.

There is much more research needed to be done to advance this technique. Like everything else in life, it has advantages and disadvantages. Its correct use can be very beneficial for humankind and for that reason it should come with some legal limitations.

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How The Uses Of Genetic Engineering Are Endangering Dinner Time

In ancient times, farmers generally relied on the natural elements to plan their planting cycles. Crops were planted during dry season, and harvested before the wet season. Farmers also used organic or natural fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals to nurture their crops and eliminate harmful pests. As civilization progressed though, and the increasing population placed added pressures on farmers and societies to produce more food, scientists and crop experts began devising new methods for developing crops that were more resistant to varying weather patterns, pests and other external elements. Thus came forth the words genetic engineering.

In genetic engineering, the inherent structure of crops were modified in ways were they are considered safe to be eaten. Some crop breeders and scientists have even induced mutations in a crop's genetic structure though chemicals, radiation and chemicals. The process of altering a crop's genetic structure to make it pest and drought-resistant is now referred to as GMO development, or genetically modified engineering.

Is The GMO Industry Only Worried About Profit?

Today, gene transfer technology is available worldwide, and some even hail this development as a victory against pests and sudden weather changes. However, many worry that few large companies are slowly gaining full control of world agriculture, to the detriment of small farmers in poorer countries.

The GMO industry however counters that poor third-world farmers can actually adopt these GMO technologies, to help them achieve efficient farming practices, as well as to ward off harmful pests from their fields. However, critics of the uses of genetic engineering argue that genetic engineering is a technology is actually making global agriculture dependent only on large multinational companies. The potentially harmful effects of a number of GMO foods have also not yet been fully determined by health researches.

The Public Should Know The Truth Behind The GMO Research

Genetic engineering is not actually a truly safe process. One example of the hazards of GMO research was brought to the public limelight a couple of years ago, when scientists in the US state of Nebraska planned to transfer a gene from a Brazil nut to soybean, to get good quality protein. What happened was that people developed severe allergic reactions to the Brazil nuts. As a result of this debacle, the soybean genetic modification project was discontinued.

Staunch critics of genetic engineering also claim that the process has a negative impact on the environment and food safety. Although there have not yet been any publicly documented cases on any sever illness or environmental damage, the critics fear that the development of more GMO crops may lead to the possibility of creating disease or pesticide-resistant insects, as well as to the development of certain diseases and infections in humans.

Concerned whether the food you eat is genetically engineered or modified?

Recent polls show that over 90% of American's believe genetically engineered food should be labeled. Unfortunately this will not happen until consumers choose to get informed about what they are eating and stop purchasing genetically modified food.

You can take action by staying informed about GMOs at http://geneticallyengineeredfoodnews.com

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Genetic Engineering and Its Unpredictable Impact to Humanity

Genetic engineers see the potential of the industry towards being able to change the DNA. DNA recombinant technology has the potential to offer positive impacts to humanity but this goal is seemed to be opposed by several ethical groups due to various reasons. This article will investigate more on these issues over the unpredictable impact of genetic engineering.

The ability to accurately manipulate the human DNA is an opportunity to develop treatments for diseases that are impossible to cure as of the present. This can completely eliminate the possibility of having birth defects among babies. The technology can also be employed to prevent hereditary diseases and stop the transfer of these maladies from one generation to another.

Another possible benefit that this opportunity can offer is the application to agriculture by development of genetically modified plants and animals. Because of the growing population, farmers can produce more varieties of plants and animals that have more meat and fruits for food. This will allow more plentiful harvests and more access to food, which is very important especially in developing countries with larger number of mouths to feed. This will also be a prospect to develop more nutritious foods and even better tasting ones.

This intervention of men, however, can possibly have negative effects too. There are possibilities, due to the creation of these new organisms, that genetic engineering can cause havoc to our ecological balance. This is because the impact of these genetically engineered species to the environment can be unpredictable especially with our very little knowledge of the true nature of the DNA. Thus, there is the possibility of causing an imbalance in the ecosystem with the creation of these new types of organisms.

As an example of a possible scenario, genetically enhanced bacterial strains can be accidentally released to the environment to cause a serious epidemic just like the SARS epidemic. Another concern would be the possibility that genetically modified plants and animals can produce side effects such as allergies when consumed as food.

Genetic engineering can also fall to the wrong hands and be used as weapons for warfare. When this technology is used for destructive purposes, the effects can really be alarming. Genetically modified organisms can be used as biological weapons of mass destruction. Because these organisms will likely spread faster and be resistant to existing medicines, it can potentially be devastating to the society.

Genetic engineering is like a double-edged sword. It should be used with responsibility as it can produce either positive or negative effects to mankind. Yes, we may be ready to use this technology but the scientific community agrees with the fact that we are blind on all its possible consequences.

In ending, there are concerns with the little knowledge of the role of DNA among living things as of the present. But even with such lack of understanding, our genetic engineers are convinced that the potential of this newfound technology can dramatically affect humankind, either helping it or destroying it altogether. Without a doubt, there is a need to regulate this technology by different governments all over the world for it to be controlled and put to good use.

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Human Genetic Engineering Explained

If you are thinking of taking up genetics as your major, it is important to understand the basic concepts of the subject. In this article, we will discuss about human genetic engineering which refers to the process of genetically engineering the human beings by altering their genotypes before birth. The 'Genotype' refers to the individual's genetic constitution, with respect to the specific character under consideration. This process helps to control the traits that are possessed by the individual after birth.

The cells present in our body consist of the encoded information regarding the structure, growth, and functioning of the body, in the form of genes. The subject - human genetic engineering actually aims at de-coding this data and applying it to the benefit of mankind. There are basically two different types of genetic engineering, and they are somatic modification and germline modification.

In the case of somatic modification, genes are added to cells. This proves as a cure for several types of diseases that are caused by the defective genes. They cannot be inherited. The germline modification, on the other hand, is the form of human genetic engineering, where the genes in the early embryos are altered. The genes which are modified in this way are actually inheritable. This is quite an effective form of and it results in some enduring modifications.

The human genetic engineering can actually be classified as positive and negative. In the former kind of genetic engineering, the positive traits of the individuals are augmented. This results in increasing longevity or increasing in human capacity. The later type is about introducing the first-class copy of a definite gene into the cells. As a result, the suffering trait to genetic diseases can be lessened to a great extent.

In the case of human genetic engineering, the DNA or the genes of a human being are changed. This is used to bring about changes in the structure of the human beings. It can also be used to launch the genes for several positive and desirable characteristics in the embryos. It can also be used for finding a permanent cure for various diseases.

Some human beings possess exceptional qualities. When the genes are responsible for the qualities, they can be easily identified and implanted in early embryos. This results in what is known as the custom-made babies. If you want detailed explanation on the topic with illustrations, consider hiring a private tutor.

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Benefits of Genetic Engineering

Every human being inherits approximately 30000 genes at birth. These determine his or her physical and emotional attributes. Some of these genes might have mutated or become otherwise defective making the carrier predisposed to certain genetic diseases. These diseases may strike the person during his lifetime or alternatively may not do so at all. Nonetheless the person is a carrier and passes on these defective genes to his progeny. At some point, perhaps generations later when conditions are conducive, the disease will manifest itself.

One of the primary objectives in genetic engineering is to identify and isolate such genes with a view to repairing them or eradicating them so that their harmful effects are negated. An alternate strategy employed is to introduce a gene that has the effect of countering or combating the defective gene.

Another goal of genetic engineering is to find remedies and therapies to treat other non-genetic diseases. With preliminary data available long before the project was completed new protocols were developed to treat auto-immune and cardiac ailments.

The field of human reproduction, pharmaceuticals and medicine has gained significantly from genetic engineering. More sophisticated and effective medicines have been developed; bio-engineered insulin and human growth hormone being two such examples. With the new techniques available, at the fetus stage genetic diseases are being identified and successfully treated before birth.

Genetic engineering has thrown fresh insight into evolution and the origin and relationship man had with his primate ancestors 25 million years ago. This has enabled scientists to take a fresh look at some of the genetic diseases that might have descended through a process of evolution.

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Human Chromosomes,
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Who Invented Genetic Engineering?

If you are wondering who invented genetic engineering, do not be surprised to hear that this controversial area began way long ago in the early 1900s by the works of the Austrian monk and scientist named Gregor Mendel. What his work led to was the establishment of genetics as a scientific field to be studied. From then on, many other scientists followed through and made discoveries.

In 1944, Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty found that genetic information could be found in the DNA. From then on, scientists from all over began to study on DNA and its properties. In 1953, Watson and Crick made a breakthrough when they decoded the structure of the DNA. This was an important finding because understanding the structure allowed for specific alterations to the DNA.

Then in the 1960s, Ian Wilmut had begun developing ways to clone animals from the cells of mammals. Restriction enzyme was later discovered in 1968 by Swiss microbiologist Werner Arber, followed by type II restriction enzymes found in 1969 by American biologist Hamilton Smith.

More research in genetic engineering took place in the 1970s, which focus laid on bacteria and microorganisms. From there, gene isolation and alteration techniques were developed, allowing scientists to pull one gene of a plant to another. It was also found that this could be done with animals, which would create changes to the heredity.

In 1973, a process of slicing DNAs and attaching it to another DNA was developed by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, which allowed them to make bacteria reproduce. This was used in the production of insulin. Within that decade, scientists were also attempting to slice genes of other organisms of higher forms. The first of such was the insertion of human growth hormone into a mouse, in which made the mouse grow twice its size. In 1986, a virus that was genetically altered was sold as vaccine. In 1987, a conclusion was made that replacing genes from one organism to another would not pose danger to the environment.

Throughout the history of genetic engineering is filled with controversies and debate. While we will never know how the future will be influenced by it, the possibilities it bring is truly remarkable. Things would be different if there was no one who invented genetic engineering.

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