Genetically Modified Foods

I first want to state my stance on genetically modified foods.

Throughout human history we have been modifying animals and plants and genetic modification is not as new or complicated as one might think.

Lets take the Aztecs for example. By the 16th century they had a population of 250 000 people in their capital Tenochtitlan. Their main food was maize. Maize is a plant that was developed by interbreeding different cereals and creating a more effective filler that could support more people more efficiently. Maize eventually spread to the rest of North America and the population hit over 60 million people, which wouldn’t have been possible without maize.

Genetic modification doesn’t mean a plant is injected with toxins, it is as simple as taking two species and breeding them together to create a new plant, or forcing plants to adapt quicker than usual as a sort of forced evolution.

Genetic modification has taken place for thousands of years as farmers have manipulated their crops to increase yields and create all the food we eat today. Non genetically modified food just doesn’t exist except for in limited circumstances, and they are extremely rare.

Radiation is used to mutate foods the same way all life on earth has been mutating for millions of years. Without radiation we cannot create plants with traits that don’t exist in the wild. Here is an example; if a new disease popped up and started killing all our oranges, scientists would need to mutate the oranges to give them resistance to this disease. Without radiation oranges would have been completely wiped out.

At least 3000 fruits, vegetables and crops have been mutated and most of the food we eat is mutated. An example of a genetically modified fruit is the grapefruit. The reason it’s red and barely has any seeds is because scientists subjected grapefruit trees to thermal neutrons which created the modern grapefruit we eat today. If your grapefruit is red its genetically modified, even if the box says it isn’t. In fact many of the foods that have been subjected to radiation are labelled as “organic” and “natural” and the fact that they were mutated is not labelled.

The Nijisseiki pear made up 28 percent of Japan’s pear crop in 1990. Thanks to mutation this plant still exists today. In 1962 the pears were exposed to gamma radiation to help them combat black spot disease, which would have completely killed them off if it wasn’t for radiation. In 1981 the plant developed complete immunity to the disease and had no symptoms when subjected to it.

Crops produced through mutation breeding have been sold in supermarkets for decades with no label or widespread common knowledge about their genetic alterations. These varieties can even be labeled organic as long as they are grown meeting other production requirements. They are not required to undergo any testing, and mutation breeding may still require years of continued crossing to separate preferred traits from undesirable ones. If we stop the genetic modification of food we will destroy a tradition thousands of years old that has allowed our population to grow to its current level.

Research in the field of genetic modification continues and someday we will have flawless ways to modify plants without creating any negative effects, decreasing the amount of time needed to develop new foods. Although it is considered old technology, mutation breeding is experiencing a re-emergence in popularity thanks to new techniques known as “tilling,” which allow researchers to rapidly identify mutations in specific genes.

Governments who block genetic food research, such as Scotland, actually allow more shady institutions from abroad produce their food since the domestic, tested, trusted and certified institutions are shut down by the government. This allows more foods with negative effects into our diet.