In today’s
agricultural world diversity is becoming a thing of the past. Much of the genetic
pool is becoming dangerously shallow. Modern industrialized farms largely
utilize mono crop production methods. These methods favor uniformity and limit
diversity on the farm.
So what is
an heirloom breed? Well an heirloom is basically a pure breed. An heirloom
variety by definition would be a seed from a plant breed that is at least 60
years old. The plant breeds pure and pollination takes place the old fashioned
way, with birds and bees being the main tool used. Remember that conversation
your parents were supposed to have with you. This is where the term originated.
The technical term is open pollination. The resulting seeds will produce exact
genetic replicas of the parents. The development of these plants has been done
for centuries by picking the vegetables that were the best, and keeping the
seeds. Not by breeding different plants together. Heritage vegetables tend to
be more flavorful, colorful and disease resistant. This process has been going
on both intentionally and not intentionally since the beginning of agriculture
about 7000-10000 years ago. An example of purposely improving a breed would be
by keeping the seeds out of the best tasting tomatoes. A non purposeful
improvement would be when disaster strikes, such as a disease outbreak. Seeds
from the fruit and vegetables that survive are obviously more resistant to the
disease. Heritage breeds tend to be more flavorful. Each breed is well adapted
to its area of origin.
F1 Hybrid
plants are bred by hand. Many times
the seed company actually patents the seed produced. Two plants are cross
pollinated to create a new variety of vegetable. The new variety is usually
more uniform and many times is sterile. The sterility factor is great for seed
producers because unlike heritage vegetables, hybrid seeds cannot be kept for
planting the next crop. If the seeds are able to produce a plant, the plant
would not usually breed true. Instead, most of the time, it will revert back to
one of the original parent plants. Therefore the farmers are left purchasing
new seed every year. By forcing farmers to buy new seeds every year, the seed
factories in effect control food prices. New breeds can be created by cross
breeding. However it takes 6-8 generations to establish a reliable crop. Then
it will take even more time to improve the crop using traditional breeding
methods.
The new
creatures on the block are the genetically modified organisms or GMOs. These
are plants that have had their genes altered by man. An example would be
isolating the antifreeze gene out of a cold water fish and forcing it into a
tomato plant hoping that the resulting plant would be more frost tolerant. The
real danger here is that humans do not fully understand how the genetic
material works, or how it will affect the end user. The process is usually over
simplified by the scientists. For instance, just because you install the
antifreeze gene into the tomato plant does not mean that it will “turn on”. Our
DNA contains thousands of genes, but not all of them are expressed. After the
gene has been added, scientists must add a promoter gene at the beginning of
the DNA sequence, which forces the gene on, and a terminator gene at the end,
which forces the gene off. Scientist also add a marker gene. The marker gene is
usually a gene for antibiotic resistance. This allows the scientist to then
dose the cells with antibiotic which will kill all non modified cells. Then the
GM cells are multiplied before being added to a plant. The most popular method
is to use a bacterium which infects the plant. The bacterium used is a
genetically modified version. The original bacterium (Agrobacterium
tumefaciens) is a tumor causing variety that injects its DNA into a plant,
which causes a tumor. The genetically modified version injects the modified DNA
instead. This is still a very simplified version of what happens, but you get
the idea.
The problem
with GMO food is that they hit the market with very little testing. In the USA,
where much of our food comes from, the FDA has no GMO safety testing
requirements. All research that supports GMO foods is voluntarily provided by
the companies that produce them. However independent studies are beginning to
prove otherwise. In fact Jeffrey m. Smith’s book Genetic Roulette discusses new
evidence of the risks associated with GMOs. Some of the problems are directly
related to the gene insertion process. Including unwanted gene expression, gene
relocations and promoter genes turning on unwanted genes. An example would be
GM soybeans (90% of the soybeans planted in the USA are GMO). It has been found
that these soybeans produce less cancer-fighting isoflavones. GM proteins in
soybeans, corn and papaya are similar to know allergens and may cause
allergies. One of the scariest facts I have read is that the transgenes survive
digestion and can transfer to gut bacteria or move into the blood and organs,
including passing through the placenta into the fetus and through the blood
brain barrier. GM soybeans have been found to transfer genetic material into
human gut bacteria. Once in the human gut bacteria, the transferred portion of
the transgene produced herbicide-resistant protein. If the antibiotic-resistant
genes that have been inserted into most GM foods on the market are able to do
the same, then antibiotic resistant diseases could develop.
Another
expert in the field Dr. Pusztai released his findings on experiments using lab
rats. The results were not in favor of GMO foods. In fact the result ended up
getting him fired, and his team was released. However the after a huge uprising
in the UK he was allowed to tell his story in parliament. The results of his
study showed that rats fed genetically modified potatoes that were created to
produce a “safe” insecticide called GNA lectin showed potentially pre-cancerous
growths, smaller brains and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and damaged immune
systems. Most of the changes happened within ten days. Another group of rats
were fed normal potatoes spiked with GNA lectin, some at 700 times more than
what was in being produced by the GM potatoes. These rats showed no ill
effects. Dr. Pusztai concluded that the problem is the actual genetic
manipulation that is causing the problems.
So why does
it matter that our agricultural products are less genetically diverse? Our crops
have been bred for centuries. Each breed was bred for unique traits that were
or are important to the farmers in the area of origin. The breeding may have
developed a variety that is resistant to disease in that particular area, or
possibly adapted to the climate and local pests. Less genetic diversity is
leaving our crops more susceptible to disease outbreak. GM foods have hit the
market with full force. It is estimated that over 90% of corn and soybeans grown
in the USA are GM. On top of that over 80% of the products at your local
grocery store have one or the other as an ingredient. From an economic
standpoint, buying heritage vegetables prevents the big corporations from
patenting and controlling our sources of nutrition. We must remember that
corporations are responsible to their stock holders, not their customers.
Robert
Holden
holdenfarm.net
