Gmos

GMOs: Ethical Considerations
The debate over GMOs versus Organic foods has gained a lot of press in the past
couple of years.
Some of the arguments presented have completely missed the mark.
For example, when a reporter in a grocery store asks a group of people to try to
identify the difference between GMO and organic tomatoes through taste test, he is
clearly focused only on taste.
• Many reporters don’t fully understand that the discussion surrounding GMO use
would more appropriately be related to safety testing, and the effects that GMOs
have had on our environment and health.
Ethical Considerations with GMOs:
• Safety Testing
• Pesticides and the environment
• Farming Practices
• Pesticides and our health
Safety Testing
For this argument, we have to redefine the term GMO.

GMO, as most of us know it, stands for Genetically Modified Organism,
and has come to stand for crops that have had their genes modified in a
way that could not have happened through cross pollination. This is a little misleading.
We should really be calling GMOs ‘Genetically Engineered Organisms’, because

even those plants that have been modified naturally through cross pollination could
be considered to be a modified product.
• Here is why it is important: Any new organism that has been engineered or
modified should be tested for safety before it is sold to the public as food.
• “It is therefore important to recognize that the food product itself, rather than the
process through which it is made, should be the focus of attention in assessing
safety.” –Society of Toxicology
The current testing for traditional, modified, and engineered foods is the
same, even though about 80% of food contains some type of modification.
The probability of these engineered foods to produce an allergic response,

effect gene expression, or change the nutritional value of the end product are
some of the concerns that need to be studied.
Farming Practices
• Farmers used to buy their seeds to plant for each season. The farmer owned these
seeds and the product of them. At the end of each harvest, the farmer could save
some of the excess product to plant the next season. Many farmers would even
cross breed plants to make the best products for the climate and soil in their
geographic location.
• Today, companies that engineer seeds own the patent on the seeds they sell.
Farmers are no longer able to save seeds from year to year. This is understandable
from the company’s point of view – they produced an improved product that they
expect to make a return on.
• In the 1990’s, when these companies began supplying seeds for crops modified to
either tolerate or produce pesticides, it was a huge benefit for farmers who could
now save time, money, and produce more crops. A win-win.
• The problem began when patented seeds were grown in proximity to non-patented
seeds.
• Here is an example: Modified Farm has planted patented-seed crops, and its
neighbor, Old McDonald Farm, has not. After the season is complete, Old
McDonald saves some of the seeds for the next season. Unfortunately, that year,
the plants that Old McDonald Farm planted cross pollinated with the patented-
seed crops from Modified Farm. The resulting hybrid seeds are now a patent
infringement, and Old McDonald Farm can no longer use the saved seeds without
paying the patent owner.
• This process severely reduces the biodiversity of crops available, and poses a
couple of interesting questions:
• Should farms that choose not to use patented seeds be protected?
• Should farms that use patented seeds be responsible for containing their crops?
• Questions regarding the responsibility of farms that knowingly plant GMO seeds
brings us to another ethical concern. GMOs facilitate the use of pesticides which
may have negative effects on the environment and our health.
Pesticides and the Environment
• Genetic modifications to food crops are not necessarily a bad thing. Cross
breeding plants has allowed for advances and improvements in foods. It allows for
bigger, more colorful produce, and grows heartier plants against disease and pests.
• One of the reasons why so many people are concerned with GMOs is due to their
connection with pesticides. Pesticides are chemicals aimed at killing anything that
interferes with growth of crops. These undesirable factors include weeds that can
compete for nutrition and light sources, insects and rodents that eat food crops,
and fungus or other microbes that can destroy the harvest.
• The relationship between GMOs and pesticides can happen in two ways:
• Crops have been developed that are more resistant to sprayed pesticides. This
allows farmers to be able to spray large areas to kill weeds, insects, and fungus
without damaging their crops. Previously farmers would have to spot spray weeds,
which was much more time consuming.
• Crops can be developed to produce their own bacteria based insecticide, killing
any insect that tries to eat it. These plants are called BT GM crops (Bacillus
thuringiensis Genetically Modified). This process allows farmers to reduce the
amount of insecticide chemicals they must spray.
• The effects of using wide-spread GMO food crops were not considered in regard
to the environment at first.
• Emerging effects of large scale pesticide usage:
• Damage to beneficial insect populations like pollinators (honey and wild bees), prey insects
(food for birds, bats, frogs, fish, spiders), and predator insects (lady bugs, wasps) that protect
crops by eating pests that do harm crops.
• Extensive pesticide and herbicide use has created weed and insect resistance. This creates a
need for more severe types of chemicals.
• According to a 2009 article published in Advances in Agronomy, “Generally, long-term
application of pesticides can disturb biochemical equilibrium which can reduce soil fertility
and productivity.”
• Soil contamination by pesticides and herbicides leaches into ground water. According to
NPIC, “Although the EPA regulates and monitors several drinking water contaminants, many
pesticides are not regulated contaminants.”
• Sprayed pesticides can drift onto or into water sources, sensitive wildlife populations, and
human populated areas where they should not be.
Pesticides and Our Health
• In the GMO debate, consumers are often told that GMOs are not harmful to
humans. This may be true. Here’s the catch…while GMOs are not inherently
harmful, their facilitation of pesticides likely is.
• We already know that pesticides can leech into ground water and drift into
unintended places like populated areas.
• What consumers need to know is that pesticides, while not immediately harmful to
a human cell, are harmful to processes important for human biological function.
• Pesticides are associated with increased risk for diabetes, obesity, heart disease,
celiac disease, and certain cancers.
• Pesticides can be a problem even for people who don’t live near farms, because
pesticides are used in many every day home products, including shower cleaners,
anti-bacterial cleaners, toilet cleaners, foggers, moth balls, swimming pool
chemicals, yard weed killers (Round-up®), flea collars, and roach traps. Some of
these products are necessary, but be sure to read all labels prior to use.

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GMOs: Ethical Considerations

For this argument, we have to redefine the term GMO.

We should really be calling GMOs ‘Genetically Engineered Organisms’, because

The probability of these engineered foods to produce an allergic response,

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