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31 days at curiositystream.com/realscience The 1840s were a bleak time
in Irish history. Imagine one in every six people you know slowly painfully
dying of starvation or disease. Then in the next few years, as many people leave
the country and never come back. And over the next few decades the number of
people in your town is half of what it used to be. During the Irish Famine, 1
million people, or about 15% of the population died. Another 1.5 million
people fled the country in its immediate aftermath leading to a
permanent decline in the Irish population. Ireland and the whole world
was changed forever due to one persistent devastating fungus.
The late blight or phytopthora infestans is a fungus that attacks the
potato plant leaving the potatoes inedible.
The fungus spores spread easily in the wind and quickly infect neighboring plants. It
was particularly disastrous to Ireland due to the potato being hugely relied on
for food by the rural poor. By the 1850s the widespread blight eventually ran its
course but it did not disappear entirely. To
this day blight remains a significant problem for potato and tomato growers
that has to be battled year after year. 160 years after the famine, late blight
is still a five billion dollar problem for the global potato industry. Some
potatoes can be bred to have some resistance to the fungus but this can
take decades. So the reality is that farmers need to spray their crops with
lots of fungicide every week indefinitely. But in 2015 a breakthrough
occurred - a new variety of GMO potato was developed that can resist the very
blight that killed so many. Using blight resistant genes from wild potato plants,
scientists precisely adapted a version of the common potato to withstand the
fungal disease. This GM potato, called the Innate Potato, can save farmers huge
amounts of time and money and can reduce the amount of environmentally damaging
pesticide that gets sprayed on the fields - up to eighty or ninety percent.
And so naturally Ireland with its history of massive crop failure killing
a million people and its commitment to green agriculture says - nope let's ban it
and in fact let's try to ban all GMOs. Okay so what is going on? "so it's made in
a laboratory and more often than not they're inserting viruses or bacteria
into these plants" "what you need to know is that the process itself is flawed."
We've all probably seen debate like this. GMOs are bad, they're bad for you, they'll
give you cancer, they'll give the world cancer, and that they are literally the
devil. Yet others say GMOs will end world hunger, stop climate change, and that
they're completely harmless. There are so many videos articles and interviews on
both sides of this and the amount of unresearched unscientific claims out
there to sift through is infinite. There's an ever-present sense of
hysteria when discussing anything to do with GMOs and this public sentiment
informs government decisions for better or for worse...usually for worse. But like
most things, the issue of GMOs is not as black and white as many people would
lead you to believe. GMOs are not what will save the world nor are they what
will destroy it. Before we get into whether or not GMOs are good or bad,
let's first understand what they even are. Genetically modified organisms are
organisms that have been altered using genetic engineering methods. The key
steps involved in genetic engineering are first to identify a trait of interest.
Then isolate that trait, insert that trait into a desired organism, and then
propagate or breed that organism. Most of the GMOs on the market today have been
given genetic traits to improve their quality, provide tolerance to drought, or
to provide protection from pests like the GM potato I mentioned before being
resistant to fungal infection. Another big example of this in the world of GM
foods is insect resistance. BT maize for example is a strain of insect resistant
corn. Corn farmers are challenged with a number of pests, but the most damaging
are caterpillars that are stalk borers, ear or leaf eaters, and beetle grubs that
eat the roots. The European corn borer for example was nicknamed with the
billion dollar bug because it costs growers over a billion dollars annually
in insecticides and lost crop yields. For years farmers have largely relied on
chemical insecticides to protect their crops, but in 1996 farmers were
introduced to genetically engineered corn with resistance to the European
corn borer. These genetically modified plants
produce proteins derived from the soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis, hence
the name BT maize. The proteins that are produced by the bacteria are crystal
proteins which are toxic to caterpillars like the corn borer,
and are introduced into the corn through a process called transgenesis. The first
step in this process is identifying an organism with the desired trait - in this
case something that is toxic to caterpillars. Around a hundred years ago
silkworm farmers noticed that populations of silkworms were dying and
scientists discovered that a naturally occurring soil bacteria was causing the
deaths. Scientists now know that these soil bacteria that are toxic to
silkworms are also toxic to the European corn borer. The next step in the
transgenesis process is to extract the desired DNA out of the bacteria. This is
accomplished by taking a sample of bacteria containing the gene of interest
and taking it through a series of steps that separate the DNA from the other
parts of the cell and isolate the gene of interest, usually using cloning
vectors. The next step is gene insertion, in our case getting the BT gene into the
corn. Since plants have millions of cells it would be impossible to insert a copy
of the transgene into every cell. Therefore tissue culture is used to
propagate masses of undifferentiated plant cells called callus, which are kind
of like stem cells in humans. These are the cells where the transgene will be
added. The transgene is inserted into some of the cells using various
techniques, such as with a gene gun or by electroporation. The main goal of these
methods is to deliver the transgene into the nucleus of a cell without killing
the cell. The cells can then be treated with a series of plant hormones allowing
it to grow into an entire plant. You now have corn crops that contain their very
own insect resistance. The huge benefit of this is that one, the corn crops don't
get destroyed by these caterpillars and two, that less insecticide is needed to
combat them. Studies have shown a pretty indisputable decrease in insecticide use
when BT or similar crops are planted. GMO crops can also stave off malnutrition in
many parts of the world. Vitamin A deficiency has been recognized as a
significant public health problem continuously for more than 30 years. The
problem is particularly severe in populations where rice is the staple
food and diversity of diet is limited, as white rice contains no micronutrients.
Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in
children and increases the risk of disease and death. Mirroring our Irish
Famine example from before, these deaths are caused by diseases which thrive in
malnourished people. To combat this, scientists engineered what is called
Golden Rice. This rice produces beta-carotene which is the precursor of
vitamin A. It's the same pigment found in carrots and just one cup of golden rice
per day per person can prevent vitamin A deficiency and has the potential to save
thousands of lives. It's never possible to prove a food is completely a hundred
percent safe .We can only say that no hazard has ever been found to exist. And
there have now been over 500 scientific studies looking for and failing to find
conclusive risk to human health from GM crops. Take the example of crops
containing insect resistance - many studies have confirmed that BT toxins
can only work in alkaline environments and require specific enzymes and
receptors in the insect gut to cause toxicity. Humans have very acidic
stomachs and lack these enzymes and receptors and so are not affected by the
BT crystal protein. Other ways scientists test GM foods before releasing them to
the public are by simulating the behavior of GM
proteins in the human gut to see whether the proteins degrade during digestion, or
more conclusively, to test the GM crop on animal models like lab rats. The rats are
first fed a single meal of the GM crop or protein to test for acute toxicity.
Then the rats are fed repeated meals of GM food for 90 days and sometimes up to
a year to test for chronic toxicity, which is the type of harm that only
appears with repeated use. Despite many studies like this failing to find
anything harmful about GMOs there is still radical opposition. In 2013
anti-gmo activists, heavy air quotes there, invaded and destroyed a field
trial for Golden Rice in the Philippines setting the study back months and
jeopardizing the technology's implementation. Ireland as we mentioned
before is trying to approve blanket restrictions on GMOs citing the need to
maintain their international reputation as a green sustainable food producer. So
all this leaves many of us thinking why are people so opposed to something that
seems to be so good for the world? Is there any basis for this? While the
misinformation that spread seems endless and the number of bogus claims that
circulate are frustrating it would be disingenuous to pretend that the rise of
GMOs has only been a good thing, but not because of the reasons most anti GMO
groups on Facebook and Irish politicians are claiming. While things like BT crops do
reduce insecticide use there is another side to the coin. One of the most common
types of GMO crop around the world are ones that are resistant to herbicide,
specifically glyphosate. Roundup Ready is the Monsanto trademark for its patented
line of genetically modified crop seeds that are resistant to its glyphosate
based herbicide Roundup. So in an opposite way to the BT crops we
discussed before Roundup Ready crops mean farmers can use more herbicide on
their crops. One study shows that on average adopters of GE glyphosate
tolerant soybeans used 28% more herbicide than non-adopters. Another
study says that globally glyphosate use has risen almost 15 fold since Roundup
Ready crops were introduced in 1996. And roundup is not exactly good for people
or the environment. Glyphosate can leak into soil and
surrounding water affecting wild plants and animals, which ultimately can hurt
the food chain. And recently the World Health Organization has declared roundup
to be probably carcinogenic, after years of debate around this point. Other
research points to its possible effect on mitochondrial and brain function and
animal models. This research is still being carried out and there's increasing
concern about the chemical combinations used in commercial weed killers and
their long-term impacts especially for the people using it every day. And right
now Monsanto is embroiled in lawsuits with people alleging that Roundup caused
their cancer. A jury in California just awarded a couple two billion dollars in
a verdict against Monsanto which is the third in a string of recent court
decisions involving claims that the company's Roundup weedkiller caused
their cancer. And while a jury is not a scientific panel of experts and there's
much debate around the truth of these cancer claims, the money was awarded on
the basis that Monsanto manipulated its own
research, colluded with regulators, and intimidated scientists to keep secret
the cancer risks of glyphosate. We could make a whole video just about the shady
business practices of Monsanto, so it is not implausible to think that Monsanto
is capable of something like this. So as we can see this is a nuanced
conversation and any doubt people may have about this hugely complicated
subject can easily be exploited. Pew Polls have found that some 49% of US adults
surveyed said that foods with GM ingredients were worse for one's health
up from 39% just two years ago. Another Pew poll published in 2015
found the biggest gap between the public and the experts on the GMO issue that on
any other area of science controversy, including vaccines, climate change, and
nuclear power. And to make things worse evidence has emerged that Russian bots
and trolls have been making great efforts to spread anti GMO memes among
Western audiences in order to undermine public trust in science. Yes we should
criticize Monsanto and similar large corporations for shady and damaging
business practices of which there are many. Yes we should question what role
GMOs should play in our world and study the effects rigorously. But to say GMOs
are harmful is like saying the Internet is harmful. Yes it can be used in harmful
ways but it also has the potential to do absolutely wonderful things for millions
of people. To oppose GMOs unequivocally as so many do is simplistic and
misguided. Ireland's push to prohibit the cultivation of genetically modified
crops for example is completely at odds with the country's ambitions for climate
action, and it is deceitful to equate GMO cultivation free status with green and
sustainable. Gene edited crops have the potential to cut climate emissions in
agriculture and reduce harmful chemicals in the environment as long as they are
regulated properly. A recent report highlighted how Ireland is ranked second
worst in the EU for tackling climate change and will not meet its EU 2020
commitments. Yet the push to blanket ban GMOs continues as Ireland turns away
from a major tool in the toolbox to help tackle this problem. And if such
politicians had any sense of irony they might take a look at the people across
the world from vitamin A deficiency or the crops
failing year after year because of drought in East Africa and see the
parallels between what is happening there and their own country's history.
But instead their moral posturing will add to the increasing tide of voices
drowning out sensible conversation about this technology. Like plant geneticist
Pamela Ronald has said, what scares me most with the loud arguments and
misinformation about plant genetics is that the poorest people who most need
the technology may be denied access because of the vague fears and
prejudices of those who have enough to eat. The future of our society is linked
with the future of food and genetic engineering of our crops is just one of
many ways we can sustain the world's growing population. You can learn more
about different food and farming solutions from vertical urban farming to
producing more insect protein in a documentary titled "The Future of Food" on
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Great video that explains a complex subject very succinctly. Subscribed.
As a gardener and science fan, I am horrified that the mainstream conversation revolves around modified organisms, rather that that of global soil depletion. Modern farming has caused farmlands to essentially be "used up" by compressing them, polluting, and denutrifying them. Regenerative agriculture and ancient practices are the ONLY PROVEN WAY to solve this issue. From my own backyard experience, I have successfully grown virtually any plant with zero pest or disease challenges if I stick to healthy, biologically diverse soil.