GM Food
problems. In 1998, a researcher at the Rowett
A A lot of people think we could be
headed for trouble by tampering with Mother
Nature and producing genetically altered food.
But those who promote genetically modified foods
say it’s no more unnatural than traditional selective
breeding, to say nothing about synthetic fertilizers
and chemical pesticides.
B Most Canadians regularly eat
bioengineered food. Anyone who consumes cheese,
potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans, corn, wheat, and
salmon is taking in genetically modified (GM)
food. In addition, 75% of processed foods contain
GM ingredients. In fact, around 65% of the food
we get from the shops has some genetically
modified component. GM food does not have to
be labeled as such in Canada, so most of us don’t
know we are eating it. Some of the items that have
a high likelihood of containing GM material might
surprise us. They include chocolate bars, baby food,
margarine, canned soup, ice cream, salad dressing,
yoghurt, cereals, cookies, and frozen French fries.
And, there’s nothing new about this.
C Farmers and plant breeders have used
genetically modified foods for centuries; if they
hadn’t, we’d probably still be eating grass instead
of wheat. They’ve refined the foods we eat through
selective crossbreeding, combining different types
of wheat, for example, and eliminating weaker
varieties. Today, however, genetic engineering is
changing the nature of plant breeding even more:
it’s no longer just a case of mixing different
varieties of the same species. Now, genes from
completely different life forms are being combined-
fish genes into tomatoes to make the latter more
frost resistant, for example.
D Such “tampering with Nature” makes a lot
of people anxious. They wonder if the foods that
come out of genetic modification are safe for
human consumption. Scientists say they are
completely safe; GM is just a way of adding genes
to plants to make it possible for them to survive
without the use of pesticides and to increases
yields. But, the non-believers point out that
scientists said that nuclear power, the toxic
insecticide DDT, and a host of other things, were
also completely harmless.
E Fans of agricultural biotechnology think
producing GM food is a move in the right direction,
that it will ultimately improve health, the
environment, and the economy. They’re convince
it will solve the world’s hunger’s problems by
boosting the nutritional content of foods, lead to
a drop in pesticide and herbicide use, and result
in more efficient and profitable farming. Critics say
it could also create superweeds and insects, disrupt
global food systems, destroy ecological diversity,
put small farms out of business, and cause long-
term environmental problems. All that aside, they
thin consumers have a right to know what is in their
food.
F After all, GM products do pose some
Institute for Agriculture in Aberdeen announced to
the world that genetically engineered potatoes did
some nasty things to the rats they were tested on.
The potatoes were engineered to produce a
molecule which is a natural insecticide that make
them resistant to aphids. But, the rats that ate the
potatoes didn’t grow as large as normal rats and
were less resistant to disease. Further research
showed that the added gene wasn’t the only cause
of concern: the genetic engineering process itself
was causing some serious problems in the
development of organs such as the kidney and
spleen.
G Some genetic modifications have been
clearly beneficial. Fore example, one variety of
maize has been genetically manipulated to produce
a natural insecticide that protects it from the corn-
borer moth. Scientists have also developed GM
soybeans which are not damaged by some common
herbicides used to kill weeds. What is more, the rats
that were fed GM potatoes may not have been
harmed as a result of genetic modification but
possibly as a result of the way the potatoes were
grown; all in all, there are just too many variables
to blame the genetic-engineering process alone.
Still, some believe that the potential problems with
gene modification are so well known that existing
safeguards, in both America and the European
Union, can prevent them.
H Supporters of GM foods look on the bright
side. According to the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (financed
largely by biotechnology firms), the insect-resistant
maize has increased yields in fields where it is
planted by 9%. And there might be an
environmental advantage too. In 1997, 2.8 million
hectares of this variety of maize were planted in the
U.S. and farmers were able to avoid using $190
million worth of insecticide. Herbicide-resistant
soybeans also needed less spraying, pumping
between 20% and 40% fewer chemicals into the
environment.
 Natural assets worth
saving in the Outback
Glossary
Assets: items of positive value

Array: large group of animals which is attractive

Balance sheet: a statement that shows the value of

company’s assets and its debts

Bounce: jump

Hit on/upon: think of an idea

Marsupial: small animal which lives in bag on its

mother’s body

Outback: the wild, uncultivated land, especially the

desert

Swamp: very wet soft land

Termite: white ant

Torch: flash light

The world’s rubbish dump: a garbage tip that
stretches from Hawaii to Japan

A “plastic soup” of wastes floating in the Pacific

Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now
covers an area twice the size of the continental
United States, scientists have said. The vast
expanse of debris – in effect the world’s largest
rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling
underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches
about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast,
across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost
as far as Japan.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who

discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or
“trash vortex”, believes that about 100 million
tons of flotsam are circulating in the region.
Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-
based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which
Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: “The original
idea that people had was that it was an island of
plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is
not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It
is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as
continental United States.”

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading

authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of
plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and
compares the trash vortex to a living entity: “It
moves around like a big animal without a leash.”
When that animal comes close to land, as it does at
the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic.
“The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach
covered with this confetti of plastic,” he added.

The “soup” is actually two linked areas, either side

of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and
Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of
the junk – which includes everything from footballs
and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is
thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes
from land. Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across
the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a
short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht
race. He had steered his craft into the “North
Pacific gyre”- a vortex where the ocean circulates
slowly because of little wind and extreme high
pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it. He was
astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish,
day after day, thousands of miles from land. “Every
time I came on deck, there was trash floating by,”
he said in an interview. “How could we have fouled
such a huge area? How could this go on for a
week?”