Food and Drinks

GMO foods or “Genetically Modified Organisms” are the subject of high controversy. We seem to have been lulled into something of a state of complacency, because when GMO foods first hit the headlines, there was a general uproar. Today however, despite the ongoing progression to design more and more varieties of GMO foods, we seem to hear very little by way of protest. I am sure that we all understand the logic behind the theory, and that to some extent we agree. After all, in a world where the population continues to expand at an appalling rate, food supplies are under more and more pressure. If we can develop crops that can be brought to harvest more quickly and that are far more resistant to disease, pestilence and drought, it all sounds very positive. But at what cost?

The truth of the matter is that the food chain is a crucial component of our environment. Mankind has become very adept scientifically and we are now able to affect so many of the things around us (including our selves) since unlocking the secrets DNA and gene modification. But does it give us the right to play God? The problem is that if you believe in a God, you believe in an ll knowing and all powerful being, but Mankind is neither. If we dabble with nature, do we fully understand the “knock-on” effects? How will the changes we make to a grain of wheat affect the chickens that feed on it, or the parasites that attack it? Until we fully understand all of the ramifications in what we are doing, should we allow ourselves to proceed?

One of the big concerns that people have about GMO foods is that we could be going down a path that will lead to less diversification of crop types. The wider the variety of crops that there are the better. What would happen for example if all grain crops were modified down to just one type, and there suddenly appeared, a parasite that could devastate that one type. World famine! Another concern is that if we were all dependent on one particular food strain, we would be so reliant on it that we may have to develop appropriate pesticides etc to prevent any catastrophic crop failures, thus self generating the thing on of the big fears of today; the presence and effects of pesticides in our food chain.

We are all familiar with the miracle of evolution. Plants and animals are in a constant process of evolution. It takes many decades and sometimes centuries for changes to be noticed, but they are going on all around us at this very moment in time. But if Mankind were to interfere with that process by putting in unnatural, dominant strains of crops, what will happen? One school of thought says that in time, Mother Nature will respond by developing a new super weed or pestilence to counteract this new dominant strain. There are several different scenarios that stem from here. One is that the new pestilence totally wipes out all of the new dominant strain of crop. Result? Potential starvation! Another theory is the development by Mankind of a super chemical agent to combat the pestilence. Result? (a) Once again we are introducing unwanted chemicals into the food chain, and/or, (b) we may cause another unprecedented and unimaginable ripple effect that causes further damage to the environment.

For the time being, we should halt any further development of GMO foods until such times as we fully understand all of the potential repercussions.