Genetic Pollution

Genetically Modified Food

Genetic Engineering

Grupo INFRAVENZ

Genetically Modified Food

What are genetically-modified foods?
The term GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. The enhancement of desired traits has traditionally been undertaken through breeding, but conventional plant breeding
methods can be very time consuming and are often not very accurate. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, can create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy. For example, plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will gain drought tolerance as well. Not only can genes be transferred from one plant to another, but genes from non-plant organisms also can be used. The best known example of this is the use of B.t.
genes in corn and other crops. B.t., or Bacillus thuringiensis, is a naturally occurring bacterium that produces crystal proteins that are lethal to insect larvae. B.t. crystal protein genes have been transferred into corn, enabling the corn to produce its own pesticides against insects such as the European corn borer. For two informative overviews of some of the techniques involved in creating GM foods, visit Biotech Basics (sponsored by Monsanto) or Techniques of Plant Biotechnology from the National Center for Biotechnology Education
What are some of the advantages of GM foods?

The world population has topped 6 billion people and is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. GM foods promise to meet this need in a number of ways:

Pest resistance Crop losses from insect pests can be staggering, resulting in devastating financial loss for farmers and starvation in developing countries. Farmers typically use many tons of chemical pesticides annually.
Consumers do not wish to eat food that has been treated with pesticides because of potential health hazards, and run-off of agricultural wastes from excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers can poison the water supply and cause harm to the environment. Growing GM foods such as B.t. corn can help eliminate the application of chemical pesticides and reduce the cost of bringing a crop to market

Herbicide tolerance For some crops, it is not cost-effective to remove weeds by physical means such as tilling, so farmers will often spray large quantities of different herbicides (weed-killer) to destroy weeds, a time-consuming and expensive process, that requires care so that the herbicide doesn't harm the crop plant or the environment. Crop plants genetically-engineered to be resistant to one very powerful herbicide could help prevent environmental damage by reducing the amount of herbicides needed. For example, Monsanto has created a strain of soybeans genetically modified to be not affected by their herbicide product Roundup A farmer grows these soybeans which then only require one application of weed-killer instead of multiple applications, reducing production cost and limiting the dangers of agricultural waste run-off

Disease resistance There are many viruses, fungi and bacteria that cause plant diseases. Plant biologists are working to create plants with genetically-engineered resistance to these diseases

Cold tolerance Unexpected frost can destroy sensitive seedlings. An antifreeze gene from cold water fish has been introduced into plants such as tobacco and potato. With this antifreeze gene, these plants are able to tolerate cold temperatures that normally would kill unmodified seedlings (Note: I have not been able to find any journal articles or patents that involve fish antifreeze proteins in strawberries, although I have seen such reports in newspapers. I can only conclude that nothing on this application has yet been published or patented.)

Drought tolerance/salinity tolerance As the world population grows and more land is utilized for housing instead of food production, farmers will need to grow crops in locations previously unsuited for plant cultivation. Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in formerly inhospitable
places

Nutrition Malnutrition is common in third world countries where impoverished peoples rely on a single crop such as rice for the main staple of their diet. However, rice does not contain adequate amounts of all necessary nutrients to prevent malnutrition. If rice could be genetically engineered to contain additional vitamins and minerals, nutrient deficiencies could be alleviated. For example, blindness due to vitamin A deficiency is a common problem in third world countries. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Institute for Plant Sciences have created a strain of "golden" rice containing an unusually high content of beta-carotene (vitamin A). Since this rice was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, a non-profit organization, the Institute hopes to offer the golden rice seed free to any third world country that requests it. Plans were underway to develop a golden rice that also has increased iron content. However, the grant that funded the creation of these two rice strains was not renewed, perhaps because of the vigorous anti-GM food protesting in Europe, and so this nutritionally-enhanced rice may not come to market at all.

Pharmaceuticals Medicines and vaccines often are costly to produce and sometimes require special storage conditions not readily available in third world countries. Researchers are working to develop edible vaccines in tomatoes and potatoes. These vaccines will be much easier to ship, store and administer than traditional injectable vaccines.

Genetic Pollution

The results of numerous investigations carried out in recent years have been warning of a phenomenon called "genetic pollution" for which the transgenes become part of GM plants and foods. Genetic contamination is a serious assault on the environment and health of people and causes that can cause it are various. Of particular concern is when the genes end up polluting our food and are consumed without any knowledge. There must be a subject matter expert to deduce that the small-scale experiments in small plots may mean hot spots and filtration unpredictable and unknown. Because, really, is unknown behavior and characteristics of these transgenes when subjected to the dynamics of agricultural ecosystems in a given area.

These products are filtered in the market because they are separated from the natural transgenic varieties, but provide mixed. In places of collection, and non-transgenic GM crops are mixed to facilitate the sale and interference of the transgenic. These transgenic varieties, camouflaged among non-GM varieties, can easily circumvent the limited and poor controls and enter countries where they may be banned. This problem is worse in economically poor countries.

The increased risk of genetic screening comes from excessive tolerance in the legislation to GM crops, allowing the cultivation and processing of varieties that are banned in many countries. But eventually, genetically modified products are just entering disguised in many countries due to lack of labeling, lack of safe controls, permissiveness of a corrupt political class and because of commercial pressures and blackmail through the WTO, IMF, structural adjustment, neoliberal agendas, etc.

Known cases of genetic pollution filtration and were discovered by environmental and consumer organizations. All of them are NGOs with limited financial resources, technical and human. Therefore, if an investigation with higher food resources consumed by the case of genetic screening would overflow.

The genetic screening is already a fact and a reality. Today there are a large number and variety of transgenic genes, and diverse forms of filtering and genetic pollution. These are very difficult to find and it seems almost impossible to remove. Indeed, the opposite happens, then extend without limits. A dangerous and unacceptable environmental consequences involving GM products must be added, now a grave danger that arises from the filtration in the human diet from genetic contamination.

Causes and Effects of Genetic Pollution

Causes 

• Cross-breeding of GM crops with the wild varieties by cross pollination   
• Consumption of GM foods Improper disposal of unsuccessful GM crops 
• Improper disposal of unsuccessful GM crops

Effects 

• The transfer of modified genes by wind-borne pollen might wipe out countless species of organisms. For instance, the Bt corn produces wind-borne pollen (able to be spread 1km from farms) that kills the caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly. When the life cycles of this butterfly are disrupted, the beautiful Monarch butterflies can only be found in our memory and photographs.

• Gardening job will be tougher as the weeds acquire the modified genes to become super competitive weeds that rampage through the countryside and destroy other life forms in the process. Would you want your beautiful garden to turn into a mess of green weeds that you can never get rid of?
• The risk of the evolution of common plant viruses to become more resistant or form new strains will be greatly increased. Microbiologists have come up with an important point that if genetic modification is carried out extensively, new viruses with greater potential to harm mankind may evolve anytime, and the probability of this occurring can be quite high. A research paper commissioned by the British government supports this point. It concludes that crops genetically altered to be resistant to common plant viruses cold risk creating mutant strains that could wipe out the entire forms.
• The resurgence of the pests from primary pest outbreak to a more destructive secondary outbreak may occur. After a pest has been virtually eliminated by any means, the pest population not only recovers, but also explodes to higher and more severe levels. This phenomenon is known as resurgence. To make matters worse, small populations of pests that used to be of no concern due to their significant numbers may suddenly rocket, creating new problems. This phenomenon is known as secondary pest outbreak. Do you think it is safer and more logical to sacrifice a small portion of your crops in exchange for the insurance that you can enjoy the destruction of all your available crops?
• Abnormalities, mutation, and extinction of species may become widespread and cause a biological havoc that either takes ages to return back to equilibrium or enters a stage of no return. Genes produces proteins in the cells that they are programmed to work in, but when transferred into another system, the proteins may act differently, thus resulting in the outbreak of allergies and the disasters mentioned above. This will be a great blow to Gaia, as the harmony that the Earth's closely-linked ecosystems that have settled down to will vanish, leaving the Earth's inhabitants to reorganise themselves to build up the balanced structures. And this might take a few centuries, or even forever.
• This form of dangerous biotechnology will only benefit largely towards the GM crop farmers in form of monetary gain. According to relevant statistics, farmers would save more than US$3.3 billion annually on herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. So come to think of it. Is it worthwhile to become the guinea pigs just to save a few bucks, while those farmers are sitting down there counting their huge earnings without inflicting any risks on themselves?

Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering (the IG)

Is a branch of genetics that focuses on the study of DNA, but in order handling. In other words, genetic manipulation of organisms with a predetermined purpose.At this point it will deepen the knowledge on the methods f gene manipulation. The purpose with which they perform such manipulations ill be discussed further when analyzing the scope of this science.

Restriction enzymes.
As noted, the IG is the manipulation of DNA. In this very important process called restriction enzymes, produced by various bacteria. These enzymes have the ability tom recognize a particular sequence of nucleotides and remove the rest of the chain. This sequence, called estriction Fragment Length Polymophism or RLPM, can be repositioned with the help of another class of enzymes known as ligases. Similarly, the restriction enzyme becomes a"scissors DNA, and ligase in the" glue. " Therefore, it is possible to remove a
main chain gene and instead put another.

Vectors.
In the process of handling are also important vectors, parts of DNA that can be independently self-replicating DNA of host cells where they grow. These vectors allow for multiple copies of a specific piece of DNA, which provides a large amount of reliable material with which to work. The process of transforming a portion of DNA in a vector is called cloning. But the concept of cloning that "flows" and is on everyone's lips is broader: it is "manufactured" by natural or artificial, genetically identical individuals.

DNA polymerase.
Another method for the production of newly discovered DNA replication is the use of the polymerase enzyme. This method, which consists of a real chain reaction, is faster, easier to perform and economical delivery technique.