The Future Of GMOs – a presentation by Linnea Russell

Citation:

              At the Sarah Lawrence science fair, which I attended this Thursday, the twelfth, I came across Ms. Russell’s presentation on GMOs. We had recently learned about GMOs in class so I found the presentation, which was very interesting, as more of an extension of my learning rather than a whole lesson.

Summary:

GMO stands for genetically modified organisms. The majority of GMOs are crops, plants made so that they’re healthier, stronger, bigger, and tastier. To create a GMO, there is a process called DNA splicing. The plasmid of a bacteria is taken out and cut by a specific enzyme that will only cut the plasmid once. Then, another piece of DNA is taken and cut with the same enzyme so that only the piece of DNA that the splicer wants to transfer to the plasmid is cut out. Then, the cut pieces of DNA are mixed together and the open single helixes on the DNA will bond together making the plasmid whole again with the added piece of DNA attached. The plasmid is then reinserted and the bacteria will continue with its normal functions, with adding in whatever the added DNA codes for.   

The author of the presentation gave an example which was very helpful to explaining GMOs and the benefits and problems with it. The example given was Golden rice. The goal behind Golden rice was to make rice more nutritious for the lower income people living in almost complete poverty that would sometimes only have rice to eat in a day. The thought process behind it was that even if they can only afford to eat rice, then at least we can make the rice healthier for them and more beneficial. The problem was that the Golden rice hybridized with the native rices and began to make it so that there was only Golden rice; a monoculture. Then, the Golden rice was actually found to have much more vitamin A then expected until it posed health risks and was therefore disbanded.

Linnea Russell, the created of this presentation, also created her own webpage. The goal of her webpage is to get the support of farmers, activists, and environment scientists to put a stop to law such as the Monsanto Protection Act which allows Monsanto to go unregulated by the USDA and doesn’t allow courts to halt any on Monsanto’s dangerous testing.

Relevance:

              GMOs are a huge part of peoples live and most people either don’t know, or don’t care about it. About 70% of all American produce is genetically modified. For these foods, no health issues have been detected, so far, but just like the golden rice, these genetically modified foods could pose serious health problems later on. Also, since major companies like Monsanto can place a copyright on their GM plant seeds, farmers can’t save seeds and are forced to buy the seeds year after year. Then, even farmers who chose not to by genetically modified seeds are now being sued because the genetically modified seeds have spread into their crops through nature and they are now replanting GM seeds without knowing it. GM plants have allowed certain companies to create an agricultural monopoly over select plants. This creates a monoculture in certain plants and takes away from the diversity of agriculture.

Critique:

              I really enjoyed this presentation because it was very factual yet the presenter completely knew her topic from start to finish. The poster she had the presentation on was great with good visuals and a great diagram. One thing I think the presenter could have added more on was the negative effects of GMOs and why so many people try to fight them. The presenter was in fact pro GMOs but she said that she was in favor of what GMOs could become; not quite what they are now. Also, the presentation had a very large portion dedicated to her new website, but I don’t think all of that was needed because, being a new site, it hasn’t actually accomplished much.