BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRINT SOURCES

(Articles from newspapers, magazines and print periodicals)

 

Bilston, Renee, “Food in the Future” in Australian Table magazine, vol. 1 no. 5, December 1999, pp 22-23

 

Biotechnology Australia & CSIRO’s Double Helix Science Club, “Juggling Genes” in The Helix, Feb/March 2000, pp 10-15

 

Biotechnology Australia & CSIRO’s Double Helix Science Club, “Green gold” in The Helix, no. 31, Aug/Sept. 1993, pp 17-20

 

Brouard, Josephine, “Your easy guide to genetically-modified foods” in Family Circle magazine, October 1999, pp 18-22

 

Fitzgerald, Paula, “Improved crops are set to lift production” in Farming Ahead, no. 89, May 1999, pp 39-42

 

Gilchrist, Gavin, “Strangled at birth: the superpig” in the Sydney Morning Herald, 25th March, 1996, pp 1+6.

 

Lloyd, Anne, “Gene-tech access: Growers in limbo”, in The Land , 14th September 2000,

pp 38

 

Mack, Debbie, “Food For All” in New Scientist, 31st Oct, 1998, pp 50-52

 

Macneil, Angus, “Keep emotions from GM debate” in The Land, 7th September 2000, pp 15

 

Malin, Craig, “Marketing key to GM crops” in The Land, 14th September 2000, pp 38

 

Walsh, James, “Brave New Farm” in Time, Jan. 11th, 1999, pp 50-52

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

NON PRINT SOURCES

(world wide web sites, CD ROM)

 

Fagan, John B. Ph. D. “Genetically Engineered Food - A Serious Health Risk”. [online]

 

Rose, John.  “Genetic Engineering of our Food”. [online] 7th October 2000. URL<http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/john.rose/

 

“Plant Breeding” in INFOPEDIA, Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopaedia, CD-ROM. Australia: Future Vision Australasia Pty Ltd, 1995.

 

 

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

 

*      Genetic modification of food involves the introducing, improving or deleting of characteristics from foods, depending on whether they are considered desirable or undesirable, by controlling genes.

*      Through genetic engineering it is possible to take the genes of one organism and mix them with the genes of another. Genetic engineering allows new combinations of traits that wouldn’t occur naturally.

*      The chemical language of DNA is the same in all living things, so a gene can be transferred from one organism to another without changing other characteristics of the organism receiving the gene.

*      By cutting and splicing DNA, genetic engineers can transfer genes particular to one type of organism, into any other organism on earth.

*      A range of enzymes is used to cut the DNA. They are called restriction enzymes as they are restricted to cutting the DNA in certain places.

*      A gene probe will find the fragment of DNA which matches best with the gene it is seeking.

*      There are 2 common ways of introducing DNA into plant cells: using microbes, which normally infect plants, to carry the DNA and by using a “gene gun”.

*      The chances of getting the new DNA accepted and joined into the cells own DNA are very small, so tens of thousands of cells are exposed to the prepared DNA.

*      Genetically modified plants and animals can usually breed normally, passing on their modified genes to the next generation.

*      Genetic engineers cannot possibly predict all of the effects of introducing new genes into living organisms, as they are highly complex.

*      The introduced gene may act differently when working within it’s new host, the original genetic intelligence of the host will be disrupted and the combination of genes will have unpredictable effects.

*      By altering the genetic make-up of a plant, food can have it’s shelf-life extended, nutritional value and quality improved and crops can be grown with an in-built tolerance to herbicides, viruses, insects and weeds.

*      The whole subject of genetically modified food is highly controversial and it is opposed by many people as they fear it’s safety. The long-term health effects are unknown and it may pose a long-term threat to the environment.

 

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

 

*      In the US, current regulations require only minimal safety testing for some genetically modified foods and none at all for others.

*      Dangers identified so far include: new toxins and allergens in foods, the creation of herbicide resistant weeds, the spread of diseases across species barriers and the disturbance of ecological balance.

*      Artificially induced characteristics and inevitable side-effects will be passed on to all subsequent generations and to other related organisms. Once released, they can never be recalled or contained.

*      Genetically modified foods are strictly regulated in Australia by regulatory bodies, including the GMAC (a section of a Federal Govt. department), ANZFA, which regulates and ensures the safety of all food in Australia and the CSIRO who are involved in gene technology research.

*      Problems with genetically modified foods can take years to show up and will be hard to trace without labelling. Under present regulations, manufacturers are introducing genetically modified ingredients into many processed foods without informing consumers.

*      In Australia, cottonseed is the only plant crop that is genetically modified on Australian soil and it requires between 50-70% less insecticide than conventional cotton.

*      Five genetically modified plant ingredients are found in various foods on our supermarket shelves. These are soya bean, canola, sugar beet, potatoes and corn/maize and are imported into Australia (usually from US) to be included in foods sold in Australia.

*      The main obstacles to the release of more genetically modified crops in Australia are: consumer/customer resistance, lack of capital to compete on the international scene and lack of access to genetically modified “intellectual property”. Intellectual property means that farmers cannot reproduce the genetically modified crops they buy from companies without breaking the law.

*      80% of patents for genetically modified foods are currently owned by only 13 multinational companies, mainly in Europe and US, so the power of farmers is potentially threatened.

  

HOW GENE TECHNOLOGY WORKS

 

Genetic modification of food is where the characteristics of foods are introduced, improved or deleted, by controlling genes. Genetic engineering takes the genes of one organism and mixes them with the genes of another, to allow new combinations of traits that wouldn’t occur naturally.

 

Genes are segments of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which form part of each chromosome and provide hereditary information, which determines a particular characteristic of an organism. The chemical language of DNA is the same in all living things and so a gene, and the physical characteristics it controls, can be transferred from one organism to another, without changing other characteristics of the recipient organism.

 

By cutting and splicing DNA, genetic engineers can transfer genes between organisms. A stretch of DNA , which may be a complete gene or only part of one, can be taken from one species, modified, then stitched into an existing DNA strand in a different species. A range of more than a thousand enzymes, most isolated from bacteria, are used to cut DNA. They are called restriction enzymes, because they are restricted to cutting the DNA only in certain places. Isolating a gene from the huge amount of DNA in an organism is an extremely difficult task and scientists use gene probes to find genes. After the DNA of an organism is cut up into small fragments by enzymes, a “library” of these fragments is made and a gene probe will find the fragment that corresponds best with the gene it is seeking.

 

Once the correct stretch of DNA has been found, it is multiplied so that thousands of copies are available. This prepared stretch of DNA is put into a living cell by using a specially modified virus or bacteria to infect the cell, or by removing the wall from the cell to allow the DNA to go through the cell membrane. The new DNA is then incorporated into the cell’s own DNA. Another method of introducing a new gene into a plant involves a “gene gun”. Tiny gold particles are coated with DNA and a high-pressure air gun then “shoots” them into the plant cells. The chances of the new DNA being accepted and joined into the cell’s own DNA, in a place where it doesn’t disrupt the functioning of an existing gene, are very small. So, tens of thousands of cells are exposed to the prepared DNA and marker genes, that generate an easily detectable product, are included in this DNA to tell whether the inserted DNA has “taken”.

 

With both methods, the cells containing the new gene are grown under tissue culture into a fully functional plant, with the new desirable characteristic, from

 

which thousands more cells can be taken to grow up clones. Genetically modified plants and animals can usually breed normally, passing on their modified genes to the next generation.

 

ARGUEMENTS FOR USING GENE TECHNOLOGY TO GENETICALLY MODIFY FOOD

 

1. Gene technology has the potential to improve food quality, nutrition, health and fibre production. It could be used to eliminate allergy-causing properties present in some foods, such as peanuts, and  increase the shelf life of foods.

 

2. It could increase production efficiency, producing higher crop yields, while using  less fertiliser and pesticides. Genetic engineering is used to modify the genetic make-up Australian cotton, resulting in cotton which will produce it’s own biological insecticide, controlling one of the worst insect pests on cotton, the Heliothis caterpillar. Genetically modified cotton has already reduced pesticide use by over 50%.

 

3. Genetic modification can help the farmer by modifying crops to: tolerate drought better, grow in soil ruined by salt, be resistant to frost and control the ripening of fruits and vegetables.

 

4. Gene technology will assist farmers to increase production without increasing the use of chemical pesticides and accompanying environmental degradation. There is the potential to equip plants with inbuilt mechanisms to fight pests and diseases and help reduce the use of chemicals. For example, the potato can be genetically modified to make it resistant to the potato leaf roll virus.

 

5. World food production needs to double during the next 30 years to keep pace with demands from industrialised and rapidly developing countries. Genetic engineering provides the possibility of feeding the Third World countries through plants with increased yield. There will also be a global growth in demand for higher quality and healthier food products, as developing countries become more affluent.

 

6. Consumer calls for “clean, green” products are growing and pests’ resistance to major pesticides is becoming more common. Gene technology offers agriculture a chance to address these concerns.

 

7. Gene technology offers farmers increased flexibility in farm management and an opportunity to bring Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies into full use on-farm, reducing chemical usage while maintaining or increasing yield and quantity.

 

ARGUEMENTS FOR USING GENE TECHNOLOGY TO GENETICALLY MODIFY FOOD

 

8. Genetically modifying foods can reproduce quantities of vitamins, such as B12, and food flavourings and develop products designed for cancer and heart disease patients. Citrus fruit without seeds and fruits, such as bananas with in-built vaccines, may also be made possible.

 

9. Developing low-fat, high protein food products. Biotechnology is responsible for developing a fungus similar to grilled beef, but lower in fat than meat and high in protein. It can be reconstituted as soups, biscuits, mock chicken, ham and veal.

 

10. Animals can be engineered to produce leaner cuts, resist diseases and produce drugs for human illnesses. For example, the “superpig”, the first domestic food animal in Australia to be genetically modified and patented, carries an extra gene to make it grow faster and has 10-15% less body fat and 10-15%more meat than conventional pigs.

 

ARGUEMENTS AGAINST USING GENE TECHNOLOGY TO GENETICALLY MODIFY FOOD

 

1. Unknown dangers - not enough is understood about how new combinations of genes will behave to be confident that all potential risks have been accounted for. Sale of genetically modified food is being allowed without proper assessment of the risks and without adequately informing the public.

 

2. Genetically modified foods may contain allergy-causing genes which are transferred from another food. For example, some people are allergic to particular components  which occur naturally in certain foods, such as proteins in peanuts. If genes from the nut plant are put into another plant, it’s possible that people with an allergy could suffer an attack.

 

3. Some genetic combinations may activate previously dormant toxin paths that plants often contain as a defence mechanism.

 

4. Ethical debate - Third World countries should not be “spoon-fed” to solve their problems. It could destroy the diversity, local knowledge and sustainable agricultural systems, that the farmers have developed in these countries, and so will undermine their capacity to feed themselves.

 

5. Multi-national companies have taken out patents on their DNA modified seeds, making their crops “intellectual property”. This means that farmers cannot reproduce the genetically modified crops they buy from these companies without breaking the law. The power of farmers is potentially threatened, by this monopoly ownership of such a basic resource.

 

6. Genetically modified crops could wreak havoc upon our environment. For example, if you introduced a new gene-crossed crop on one farm in the countryside of Britain, you can be sure that the pollen from these crops will travel the entire European continent in time.

 

7. There is a risk that genetically modified foods could make people very sick. The Mad Cow disease caused dozens of deaths and there was a recent toxic Belgian chocolate scare. A genetically engineered food supplement, genetically engineered tryptophan, has killed 37 people and disabled 1500 others.

 

8. The increased use of chemicals on crops, will result in increased contamination of our water supply and food. The use of herbicide resistant crops will lead to a threefold increase in the use of herbicides.

ARGUEMENTS AGAINST USING GENE TECHNOLOGY TO GENETICALLY MODIFY FOOD

 

9. The creation of herbicide resistant weeds. When new genetic information is introduced into plants, bacteria or animals, it can be easily passed into related organisms, through processes such as cross pollination. This process has already created “super weeds”. Existing species, can also be displaced from the ecosystem with disastrous effects.

 

10. Cross-species transfers are being made, such as between fish and tomatoes, or between other unrelated species, which would not happen in nature and may create new toxins, diseases and weaknesses.

 

11. Artificially induced characteristics and inevitable side-effects will be passed on to all subsequent generations and to other related organisms. Once released they can never be recalled or contained.

 

12. The disturbance of the ecological balance. As crops are being engineered to produce their own pesticides, this will promote the more rapid appearance of resistant insects and lead to excessive destruction of useful insects and soil organisms, seriously disrupting the ecosystem.

 

13. Engineered foods undergo no pre-market human tests, yet health threats include allergic reactions, cancers and mutations. Like nuclear pollution, genetic pollution may be permanent.

 

14. Some people’s religion prohibits them from eating certain foods, for example a pig or a cow. If a pig gene was inserted into a sheep, this may effect Jewish or Muslim people. Vegetarians may also be concerned if an animal gene was inserted into a plant.

 

15. Herbicide-resistant crops has led to many farmers using Roundup, a herbicide chemical, on their crops. Roundup has an average half life of 60 days in the soil and two weeks in water, and is particularly toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms. Farmers using Roundup on genetically modified crops, could end up wiping out more wild plants than ever before, which support insects that provide a food source for birds. The whole balance of the ecosystem could be threatened.

  

 

EXPOSITION - GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD IS GOOD FOR EVERYONE.

 

Genetically modified food is not good for everyone, as the long-term health risks and environmental effects have not been proven, which poses an unnecessary threat to the health of people, the state of our environment and the future of the agriculture industry. Lack of adequate testing and labelling of foods containing  genetically modified ingredients, and the monopoly which multinational companies hold over the patents of genetically modified foods, add to the problems posed by this technology.

 

Firstly, one of the main concerns about genetically modified food is it’s health safety for consumers and the lack of adequate labelling to inform consumers of the risks.  Genetically modified food has no history of safe use and the long-term effects of consuming this food are unknown. New allergens and toxins may be introduced into foods which were previously naturally safe. People with a known allergy to a product, may unwittingly eat a product with a genetically modified ingredient added, which could make them sick. Genetically modified foods could also produce other unpredictable health damaging effects, such as cancers, mutations or new diseases, and these foods undergo no pre-market human tests, to determine the risks before they are released onto the supermarket shelves.

 

Due to inadequate labelling, consumers are not aware as to whether a product contains genetically modified ingredients, which creates a health risk. Once genetic engineering releases artificial characteristics into our food, they can never be recalled or retained and will be passed on to all subsequent generations and other related organisms.

 

Another danger presented by genetically modified food is the threat it poses to the  environment, such as increased chemical usage, the creation of herbicide-resistant weeds and disturbance to the ecological balance. Crops can be genetically modified to be herbicide-resistant and this could lead to a threefold increase in the use of herbicides. Farmers can drench their fields with chemicals more often, and at higher doses, to get better weed kills without harming the crops. This will  result in the chemical pollution of food, increase the contamination of our water supply and be toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms.

 

Genetically modified crops with an inbuilt resistance to disease or pests, could have an advantage over natural flora and become “super weeds”, displacing

 

existing species from the ecosystem. The whole ecological balance could be disturbed as genetically modified crops produce their own pesticides, this will result in the appearance of resistant insects, lead to the destruction of useful insects and soil organisms, and destroy wild plants which support insects that, in turn, provide a food source for birds. The full impact of genetically modified crops and the release of genetically engineered material on earth’s ecology, cannot be foreseen, and “genetic pollution” may be permanent.

 

Lastly, the monopoly which multinational companies hold over the patents of genetically modified foods puts farmers under threat. Eighty percent of genetically modified  patents are currently owned by only thirteen multinational companies, mainly in Europe and US. The patents on their DNA modified seeds, make their crops “intellectual property”, which means that farmers cannot reproduce the genetically modified crops they buy from these companies, without breaking the law. The high price of genetically modified technology may mean that only the well-off farmers will be able to afford to use it and so the power of farmers is potentially threatened, by this monopoly ownership of such a basic resource. These multinational companies claim that they will be able to feed the Third World countries, through plants that have been genetically modified to increase their yield, however these companies are more interested in the financial gains they can receive, rather than feeding the hungry of the world. This also raises the ethical debate over whether this type of assistance is the most beneficial way to address the problems of these countries, or if there is a more relevant way, such as education and financial aid.

 

Therefore, genetically modified food is not good for everyone as genetic manipulation of food may not only threaten the health of the individual and pose large-scale health threats, but could also have damaging, irreversible effects on the environment and the balance of ecology. Due to a lack of adequate testing, assessment of risks, regulations and information, the only people to benefit from the use of genetically modified foods will be the large multinational companies who will make a profit. The consumer, the farmer, the environment and society in general, will all suffer from the risks imposed on them, by the introduction of genetically modified foods.