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[Music Plays] >> Dr. Wahby:
Welcome to Global Technology 5173. Where are we now? What time is it now? Fall, 2013. I
cannot believe we are coming to the end of our semester. It has been a wonderful semester.
I hope, and today is no less even maybe the best day in the class. Now, this is your day.
How about that? This is your day. When I point at you, say, to shine. This is your day,
>> Class: To shine.
>> Dr. Wahby: Excellent.
>> Brad Oyer: All right thank you. Our group, group one,
the five person group, we are going to talk about genetically engineered corn. Genetically
engineered foods are kind of a broad subject. We tried to narrow it down to corn, but in
reality, in order to talk about genetically modified corn; we also have to look at some
other genetically modified foods, as well. We live in unique times right now. Right now
we have the ability to use technology in ways that it hasn't been used before to manipulate
foods that we have in order to provide better crops, more healthy crops, as well as even
infused vitamins into the food that we eat. But nothing comes without a price. There is
a cost to this to utilizing this technology. And a lot of circles, a lot of places in the
world, this has become very controversial subject. Some countries are even outlawing
the use of it completely. So what we are going to do, is we are going to do an overlook on
the technology itself, and then we are going to talk about some of the ethical factors,
and then wrap it up. >> Nicole Beals:
I am going to focus on the history of GM corn. Genetic modification has been used through
out history. In its simplest form, just simply keeping the best seeds to plant the next year.
Breeding and cross breeding plants in order to get better flavor, better sized products,
longer lasting products, higher yields, to create new varieties. All of this is genetic
modification. But genetic engineering is something different. It is transferring specific genes
not thousands of genes, and transferring them even between unrelated species. This can create
what they call transgenic organisms and they do this to help farmers with perennial problems.
To help them fight weeds, to fight insects to fight disease. Bacillus thuringiensis is
a soil bacterium that was discovered way back in 1901 by a Japanese biologist who was studying
what was causing silk worms to die. It was rediscovered in 1911 by another scientist
and again in 1915 that scientist noted that there was a crystal in the BT, and that crystal
would later be very significant in genetic engineering. BT began being used as a pesticide
in 1920, but there were some drawbacks from applying it topically. It got washed away
by the rain, it got degraded by the sun's rays, it only affected certain insects, and
if the insects were inside the plant, or underground, then they weren't affected by this pesticide.
So, it was researched in more depth, starting in 1956, when they found that that crystal
inside the BT was what had the most effect on the insects. in 1961, it was registered
with the EPA as a pesticide, and before 1977, there were only 13 specific strands of BT
known, and it only affect moth larvae. In 1977, they identified some strands that affected
flies, and in 1983, they identified some strands that affected beetles. In the 1980's there
were some concerns over the mad-made pesticides, because they weren't as effective any more,
and there was also concern over their impact on the environment. So, BT, since it is organic,
and less harmful to the earth, and only affects certain insects, they decided to put more
money into further research. And after that extended research, thousands of strands of
BT were identified and each had distinct toxic crystals in their DNA. So, at that point the
race was on, to be the first company to, be the first ones to sell a brand of GM corn.
CIBA-GiGY, Mycogen, was one company, Monsanto-DeKalb was another company, and Monsanto was the
one that owned the patents for technology and there were lots of lawsuits involving
patent infringement. The first GE corn was registered with the APA in 1995. The first
company to sell it, the one that won the race, was CIBA-GIGY and Mycogen, back in 1996. Shortly
after that in '97, Yield Guard was sold by Monsanto DeKalb, and they also sold a hybrid
corn that was resistant to the round-up pesticide which killed weeds but not the corn. There
also was another company, Adventis Crop Science and they had their own hybrid called Star-Link,
but the EPA had concerns about Star-Link because they thought it might cause an allergic response.
So, there was an agreement in '98 that they wouldn't use this for humans. They would only
use it for animals and industry, but it got out. It was found in some taco shells and
corn chips in 2000, and so there was a recall, even though there weren't any reported cases
of an allergic response. Finally, the way this corn works is the insect bites it, their
digestive tract is attacked and the insect dies within days. In 1996, one percent of
the US corn was GE corn. In 2000, 25% of it was, and most recently in 2011, we are up
to 88% of our corn. >> Kendra Gallion:
All right. So now I'm going to talk about the explanation of GM corn. So, what is GM,
which is Genetically Modified? And Genetically modified foods are food plants that have been
genetically altered by the addition of foreign genes to enhance a desired trait. The purpose
of it allows plants to inherit traits much faster and more accurately and it also insures
the plant can be herbicide tolerant and insect tolerant, which means it kills weeds and plants,
in case you didn't know that. GM corn is modified by BT, which is what Nicole talked about earlier.
And the BT gene is used to produce a protein, which kills larvae, which she also mentioned
earlier. I found a six-step process of how corn, specifically, is genetically modified.
There are six steps, which are extraction, integration, multiply and copying, spraying,
and then the results. And there's just a graphic to show it all, but I'm going to break it
all down step-by-step for you. So, step one is extraction. This is the first step in which
a gene with a required characteristic is extracted from the bacteria, and you can see from the
image right there, it's being cut. So, step one. Step two is integration, and in the second
step the gene is integrated into the DNA of another bacterium, which you can see the red
gene from another is integrated. And the third step is called multiplying, and it's kind
of self-explanatory. The gene is multiplied, which you can see there. There's three now
instead of one. Step four is when the gene is made into copies. And then the copies are
fixed into the micro particles. The fifth step is spraying. This is when the cell chromosomes
are integrated and the micro particles are sprayed into the cells, once again, you can
kind of see how it works there. And step six are the results, which is pretty much the
final product. It's when the corn is grown, and has the ability to resist the insects
and herbicides. According to Web MD, sixty to seventy percent of processed foods that
are sold in grocery stores have a genetically modified ingredient, or have GM ingredients.
Some items that contain ingredients of GM corn which is one of the most widely grown
crops. SO this is just one statistic. Obviously, I know that they have a few more, and it kind
of raises the question about you know, is GM corn safe for human consumption or not.
>> Patrice Gurley: All right. I'm going to talk about the current
status of GM corn. As Brad mentioned, it's a very controversial topic to the point where
there are some countries and states that are now banning it. Mexico actually placed a ban
on GM corn in 2013 in October of this year. The Mexican Federal Judge stated that the
reason for the ban was the imminent harm to the environment and to the people. And they
also banned transnational’s from releasing the transgenic corn in the Mexican countryside.
And also there are collective action law suits moving through the system about the GM corn.
In addition to Mexico, Hawaii has also implemented a ban. Well, they are pushing for a ban right
now. The big island of Hawaii County council committee passed a prohibition bill, and there's
a vote of 6-2. If this bill is adopted, all open air cultivation of GMO's will be banned
with the exception of papaya. And recently in 2012, there was a study done in France
in which there were two groups of rats that were fed with Monsanto GM corns, and then
there was a control group that were fed normal corn. The rats with the GM corn developed
tumors and also suffered from severe liver and kidney damage, and they died earlier than
the control group. The MK603 corn, which is a Monsanto corn, is a variety of seed modified
to withstand Monsanto's Roundup weed killer, and this corn is approved for consumption
in the US, Europe and other countries. So, the rats were observed for two years, which
is typically a life span of a rat. Fifty percent male and 70% females that were given the GM
corn died prematurely. In contrast, 20% male and 30% female of the control group. And this
research received wide media coverage, which energized [unclear dialogue] GM food. And
the French Prime Minister Jean [unclear dialogue] I'm not French, said that if the results were
confirmed the government will press for a Euro-wide ban on the maize. And of course,
there's always two sides to the story, so now there is evidence of the findings. Some
scientists oppose the findings, like they [unclear dialogue] refutes safety, said that
the design reporting and analysis of the study of the paper was inadequate, and insufficient
scientific quality needed to be considered for valid risk of assessment. So, who knows,
but yeah. And in 2003, President Obama passed a bill which gave provision to Monsasnto and
other manufacturers of GM seeds for federal courts and the provision was removed from
the bill in September 2013 by Senator Barbara McCulsky who introduced an amendment to change
the language of the bill. Now Brad is going to talk about the ethical issues.
>> Brad Oyer: Ethical issues of genetically modified foods.
We can go both sides of this, the ethical issues. We are going to talk about the ethical
issues in doing it, and we are also going to talk about the ethical issues in not doing
it as well. One of the, these are the issues really that people stand out when they talk
about the ethical issues. Use of herbicides, pesticides, world hunger, the environmental
issues, and the bottom one is something most people don't think about when they are talking
about the ethical issues of your food, and that's the religious issues. We are going
to talk about those also. Would having genetically modified seeds to reduce the amount of herbicides
needed be a good thing? On the surface we might say that yes, in order to, if we could
genetically modify them to reduce the amount of herbicides used and sprayed in the for
lack of a better term, the water system, because as we know, everything that gets put into
the earth ends up in the water system. But there's something else you've got to look
at too. We could be producing super bugs, and with pesticides especially. You end up
with insect population which gets resistant to certain pesticides, ended up being super
bugs or you end up with, depending on how you genetically modified the plant, in this
case, corn, you end up with the insects taking on some of those traits which will in essence
cause them to be much more resistant to the natural things that should control their populations.
World hunger. Here's the other side of the coin we have to look at though, too. If we
have this power, and we know millions of people all across the globe die of hunger. And if
we are able to increase our yields per acre, wouldn't that be a good thing? And if we can
do that, shouldn't we do that? Why would we want to sit on the power and sit on this ability
to create something good without exercising it? And that is the constant struggle from
both sides of the issue. Here in the Philippines, this is one issue right here. Six hundred
and eighty thousand die from Vitamin A deficiency. Another quarter to half a million people are
blinded annually. These are remote areas of the world, highly populated developing nations.
And they are able to take; the one on the left is called golden rice. And it's Vitamin
A infused rice. So they are getting a vitamin that they are not getting from other parts
of their diet and it's helping keep people from being blinded and it's able to keep people
alive. Wouldn't that be a good thing to do? Well, that's the argument. Monsanto takes
a big hit for this one, too. A lot of people blame the death of the honey bees on Monsanto,
because we are talking about the spraying herbicides on the earth. A lot of people believe
and its science is back and forth on this, whether Monsanto is to blame for the death
of the honey bees, but without the honey bees, there's no pollination, and without the honey
bee, we could actually be going backwards. If we are killing off the honeybees, then
the food is not going to be pollinated. And I really like this visual. But, this is something
else they are talking about doing, and that is infusing the food that we eat with certain
vaccines. So, you don't need to go get shots to get vaccines, or to get certain meds, you
just naturally get them through the foods you eat. Now there's a whole host of ethical
considerations in this. Just to start, just to whet the appetite of thought on it, would
be what about all the animals? The wildlife that eats these foods also? As you may or
may not know, here in Illinois we grow an enormous of corn, and enormous amount of the
wildlife population is also eating that corn. Everything from groundhogs to squirrels, raccoons,
and deer also help themselves to the farmer's field. And what you'd be doing with your wildlife
population is infusing them also with these vaccinations. And here are the religious aspects
of this I wanted to put out. One of the things they are talking, with strawberries too, they
want to infuse fish genes into strawberries to keep them more frost resistant. Now, on
the surface, some people might say, again, well, that'd be good. You'd be able to save
your crops, the farmer wouldn't lose a lot of money to an early frost, which does happen.
But what about if you are infusing certain say, pork, some people have a religious opposition
to eating pork. And if the scientist put that pork gene into strawberries, apples, whatever,
and then the person was doing something that truly is against their religion, and unbeknownst
to them, and then they find out later their religious considerations have to be taken
into consideration, especially when you are crossing animal genes into the vegetables and the fruits that we eat
today. I'll turn it over to Darius. >> Darius:
All right. I'll be talking about the future of GM corn. I stated earlier from a true slide,
the United States has invested in 2013, in Monsanto, which is over the GM, Genetic Modified
corn. GMO has been established in 1996, and up to 2011 there has been fifteen years of
increase of 8%. GMO have been known to be virtually everywhere from food supplies of
fruits, vegetables, and meat. This has become more and more of an issue when the [unclear
dialogue] fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's, and stuff like that. It was even in recent
news that Gerber and McDonald's actually come under fire with the kid's meal, and Gerber
with the baby food, they think they was actually using more genetically modified reserves,
McDonalds as far as the apples, that served the kids, and Gerber, obviously the food.
What ended up happening was that McDonald's and Gerber decided not to go forth with the
GMO's as far as that, if you understand what I’m saying. The following list of countries
that have embraced the GMO's, which is the United States, California counties such as
Trinity, Miriam, and Mendocino, has essentially banned GMO's in South America, India, Philippines,
and Britain have embraced the GMO's. As previously mentioned, the big island of Hawaii council
has passed a GMO prohibition; actually in October 16. And a Mexico judge has banned
GMO corn citing that it possesses a eminent threat. They didn't really go into details
as far as the threat, but going to other research, more like, developing cancer cells is more
prominent. Also, the tumors and kidney damage, so this questions to scientists, does it help
people live longer? The rejection of GMOs according to the article, The Future of GMOs,
states that genetic engineering for food crops is over. Genetically engineered crops will
be obsolete soon. [Unclear dialogue] obsolete anytime soon, unless people [unclear dialogue]
the best out of it, but I am also positive, it's like a 50/50 with it to me. This statement
is supposedly supported by the rejection of GMOs from other countries such as Europe and
Japan and it is stated that the United States have lost some money off of the investment
that they had invested into GMO, so they might just end up scratching it because of the loss
of investment, which I just stated. Conclusion. Did anybody else want to do [unclear dialogue]
Thank you. Thank you so much. In conclusion, in conclusion, in conclusion, all right, I
had to get my thoughts together, I am sorry. All right, in conclusion, we as stated both
the ethical concerns about the GMO corns and the positive and the negative, yeah, the positive
and the negative, the positive and negatives of GMO corns. Now, the question is, do you
guys believe that it is a positive thing or a negative thing? I am opening the floor.
Oh, my bad. Sorry. [Unclear dialogue] Sure. >> Dr. Wahby:
Please give them a hand. [Applause] Now, we have this microphone, if you have a question,
so it will be taped there. So you tell us your question.
>> Really? I am afraid now.
>> Dr. Wahby: Any other questions? You have a question?
Any question here? Any question? I have two questions. First, what is the truth, if you
found anything in your research that says that the companies who are doing, like Monsanto
and others, have a lease or relief from putting this food as genetically modified so you don't
have [unclear dialogue] to tell people this is modified, this is one question, and the
other side of it. Is it true that if anybody dies or has any problems with these foods,
they cannot sue this company, so it is a double? Here.
>> Darius: All right. To answer you first question, the people of California they
have been voting on it, to see if they want to know whether their food possess GMOs. What
ended up happening the people in California that said, no. Now they are trying to do it
again, the other people in California, I just realized that was a stupid decision, and now
they are trying to vote on it that they want to know if their food are GMO's. The problem
is like about 90% of the stuff that we eat are GMO's. The second question, can you repeat
the second question again? >> Dr. Wahby:
Yeah, [unclear dialogue] >> Darius:
Yeah, I mean, because you can't really prove that because I ate this particular corn, this
is why >> Dr. Wahby:
If it is proved, [unclear dialogue] >> Darius:
Yeah, they are immune. >> Dr. Wahby:
the company cannot be sued. >> Darius:
I mean, yeah, .> Dr. Wahby:
Are there any other responses here? You don't know? So, this is one thing to think about.
Are you with me? If you like to pursue this, think about this, there's no law that forces
the companies to write on the books that this is genetically modified so people
>> Darius: That is why they can't get sued.
>> Dr. Wahby: And then, if somebody gets killed or dies,
or sick, or something, they are immune. >> Darius:
They have no choice. Whether or not you knew it was genetically modified, it was your choice
to eat it, you should have did the research before.
>> Dr. Wahby: So, it goes back on the shoulders of who eats.
Because you eat, you chose that. >> Patrice:
But if its not labeled you don't know if it is GMOs, so
>> Darius: That's the thing I was going to say. Because
its in more research, that's like suing McDonalds because you got a bad hamburger, but issue
is. It's kind of like that. Because you know that the stuff is not good for you. Yeah,
I mean, it's vegetables and fruits and stuff like that, but you should be aware that GMOs
is pretty much in every crop. >> Dr. Wahby:
Question for you. Is genetically modified engineered food the same like food with fats
that you eat knowingly? Is it the same thing, or no?
>> Brad: There are different models of genetic modification
also. And a lot of people argue it doesn't matter, because you are already eating genetically
modified foods, but when you take it and you cross certain things, yes, you've modified
the food that we eat, but when you take it to the next level, and you start infusing
it with other things, like the vitamins, people might go well, ok, they can handle that, but
once you start moving into crossing animals, putting animal genes in there for certain
reasons, there's a curve here on what people are, I think, are going to find acceptable.
And eventually, I believe that there will be an outcry in that they need, the people
want to see how their food is modified and it should be labeled as such.
>> Dr. Wahby: I leave you with a question. Question for
you. Mr. Farmer has always farmed, has always been farming for tomatoes for fifty years;
he and his parents for generations and generation and their one acre can get five tons of tomatoes
per year. Now, comes a company with genetically modified things, and they give him free seeds.
Free seeds and with these free seeds, he can get in a year, not in a year, in three months,
not five tons, but 50 tons per quarter of year. So, his land in a year would do the
math, how much he can get out of that. And it's free for the first year, and the second
year, and the third year. But after this, it becomes very expensive. Is this ethical?
>> Darius: I'm sorry. I didn't know he was going to talk.
They wouldn't do that, just because Monsanto kind of cornered the markets as far as giving
out seeds to farmers. >> Dr. Wahby:
I'm not talking about Monsanto. Just a company. >> Darius:
No, I'm saying, that'd be the company that would give out seeds. I see what you are saying.
It's not ethical, but I mean, if you take it from a business standpoint, I'm making
more money. >> Dr. Wahby:
Ok. Please give them a very hand. Would you stop the taping for a second please?
[Music plays]