Genetically modified crops

Genetically Modified Crops: The Trouble Is In The Soil

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One of the most detrimental issues about GM agriculture is the effect it has on our environment, specifically our soil and water. The findings regarding GM in the media, science, and FDA reports are almost solely focused on the ways in which GM affects human health. Whether what causes this negligence is because of deeply ingrained anthropocentrism in our society, or genuine ignorance of the institutions that inform us, the fact is thatGM agriculture has extremely damaging affects on the health of this earth.

First, it is important to discuss the arguments for and against GM food production. The field is split in two: one side being the supporters of GM agriculture, the other being the adversaries. Each side has arguments to support their positions backed by scientific data and valid documentation.

Supporters claim that GM is the only way to feed the exponential growth of our population in upcoming years. In this view sustainable agriculture is achieved by creating organisms that are able to grow and produce high yields despite disease and unfavorable conditions that do not allow their unmodified counterparts to. They also hold tight to the fact that there are no documented cases of that point to the harmful effects of GM products to humans. [1]Monsanto, the world’s largest supplier of GM seed, claims that they are the most vigorously tested crops in the history of agriculture, testing for nutrient retention, allergens, and gene safety, which is used as proof for safe consumption. [4]

Conversely, adversaries argue that since GM food production is banned in 38 countries and requires labeling in 64 countries, there is a huge concern for safety. [3] Although there are no documented cases of the GM food itself causing harm to humans, there are in fact documented cases of human harm caused by contact with the chemical glyphosate, the main ingredient in the pesticide ‘Roundup’ used to spray all GM crops. [2] Despite the defamation of the well known 90 day test conducted by French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini, which found that rats who consumed GM corn developed tumors and other fatal ailments, other third party GM testers who found no health issues in shorter (78 day) studies using the same species of rats were not discredited. [5][6][7][9]

The fruits of these arguments seem to mainly reside in the question of human health and safety. Arguments by the supporters GM food claim that the actual GM product do not cause harmful effects on humans, while arguments made by opponents claim that it is not the GM product itself, but the carcinogen glyphosate in which the danger of GM food resides. [8] The battle will continue and each side will pump out evidence that discredits the other, it seems, until human cancer is officially linked to GM food or until Monsanto allows and funds a true long term, third party study that fully validates the safety of GM consumption.

What people decide to put into their bodies is their choice as long as they are able to make informed decisions; this does not affect other people. If GM supporters have no issue consuming carcinogens, then GM adversaries have no authority to tell them otherwise, and vise-versa. The issue here lies in tactics to conceal information and also make false claims on both the supporting and opposing sides.

Genetically Modified Crops - The Trouble Is in the Soil - False Claims

However, the larger issues of GM reach far beyond the question of human safety into that of our planet, whose health we all depend on to survive. We cannot escape this fact, no matter how much yield comes from a field, or how many new medical procedures, and drugs we discover to prolong human life. As long as we continue to support GM agriculture, we are indirectly subjecting other people on this planet to the direct harm it poses to our environment. We will not survive if we turn our planet into an inhospitable environment.

It is important to understand that genetic modification was a necessary creation in order for conventional agriculture (ie. not organic, monocultures) to sustain itself on this planet. So, when GM advocates talk about sustainability, this is what they are referring to: the sustainability of an already unsustainable method.

Even before World War II, corn and soy were America’s leading crops; however, they did not produce nearly as much yield due to their high nutrient intake from soil. Farmers practiced crop rotation, a method for letting soil restore its nutrients. Often, farmland was completely abandoned after just a few years of monoculture because the nutrients in soil became severely deficient. After WWII, our government was left with a surplus ingredient for making explosives, ammonium nitrate. [10] [15][16] This chemical is a source of nitrogen, which is one of the most essential ingredients for all plant growth. [13] It was decided that the surplus would be sprayed onto America’s farmlands, and chemical fertilizer was born.

The introduction of chemical fertilizer, created a prime habitat for plant growth, which allowed for a tremendous increase in crop yield, but also a high increase in weed growth, which created more habitats for pests. There was a greater demand for labor on farms for removal of weeds and maintaining increased crop yields, which intensified the need for herbicides and pesticides. In the late 1970’s the herbicide Roundup was introduced into agriculture. [11][12] However, Roundup does not distinguish between ‘weeds’ and ‘food’, and so much of a desired crop is lost when it comes into contact with the herbicide. [14][16] In order to continue on the same path, Monsanto invested billions of dollars in the development of genetically modified plants that could survive when sprayed with Roundup and other pesticides. The chain is logical, narrow, but logical nonetheless, and it is made by our culture’s affixation with instantaneous results and short term solutions that act as band aids instead of antidotes.

What has developed since the adoption of GM agriculture is an enormous loss of healthy soil. Monocultures already stripped soil of its nutrients, but adding lethal poison has worsened the conditions. Nature has adapted to the toxic soil conditions we created in the form of ‘superweeds’ that are resistant to glyphosate. This is the main issue that the majority of America does not understand fully: healthy soil.

Genetically Modified Crops - The Trouble Is in the Soil - Healthy Soil

What is happening beneath our feet in healthy soil is a complex web of microorganisms, fungi and root systems all supporting each other to in life and procreation; they are absolutely necessary to create healthy soil conditions. Soil is believed to have the most diverse ecosystems on earth. Organic and biodynamic farming methods use these elements to their advantage and work in crops that both support and are supported by other root systems, fungi and billions of microorganism. [13][14][15]

Roots systems form a symbiotic and highly complex relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. Simply explained, the fungi is able to absorb minerals in the soil that plant roots cannot. Fungi attaches itself to the root systems of plants and exchanges these minerals for carbohydrates from the plants. Microorganisms are also indirectly essential to this exchange because they decompose organic matter, which turns into minerals that are able to be consumed by plant roots and mycorrhizae. If there are no microorganisms in soil, organic matter will remain in complex molecules that plants and fungi cannot use. [13][14][15][16]

Chemical fertilizers, chemical herbicides and chemical pesticides kill microorganisms and mycorrhizal fungi. When this happens, the complex and highly intelligent systems that nature has perfected for the past four billion years cannot be utilized, and our crops become dependent on humans altering their conditions for survival. In this way soil becomes inorganic, compacted, and completely dependent on chemical additives for fertilization. Compacted soil is what causes runoff of chemicals directly into our water supplies and oceans. This has created dead-zones, areas where marine life cannot survive because of high levels of toxicity, in our oceans. Compact soil also signifies that rainwater cannot penetrate through the soil to replenish our aquifers. When groundwater is not being filled, water scarcity and drought conditions occur. The little water that does reach the aquifers is often unclean, and heavy ridden with chemicals. [14][16]

Organic agriculture utilizes the systems already in place in soil, and expands on it by added more organic matter that work as fertilizers like compost, gypsum rock, feather meal, bone meal, mulch, etc. Microorganisms thrive in these types of soil conditions, and allow the soil to remain un-compacted and highly fertile, and retain high levels of biodiversity. As long as organic matter is continuously added, crops are rotated, and microorganism are able to thrive, soil continues to become more fertile over time, which allows for greater crop yields over time. Water is able to penetrate through soil that is rich in organic material, and what’s more is that this kind of soil actually filters harmful chemicals and bacteria from water. [14][15] This is what truly sustainable farming looks like; sustainable is not confined to our human methods, it encompasses our methods in harmony with the methods of our natural world.

Genetically Modified Crops - The Trouble Is in the Soil - Harmony

Conversely, conventional farmlands that are stripped of microorganisms, fungi and organic matter will produce less yield over time until it is completely unusable. [14][16] No amount of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms can change this fact. It is the way of nature. We can develop GM after GM and nature will continue to hurtle new superweeds, new super pests, new diseases that will render our farmlands unusable, empty our underground water supply and expand the ranges of ocean dead zones. As humans, we cannot survive in these conditions.

Genetically Modified Crops - The Trouble Is in the Soil

This issue is far more severe than whether or not GM food causes cancer to humans – it is cancer to our earth. If our nation’s farmers cannot adopt organic practices, we will continue to poison this land that we depend on for our food and clean water, and actual food and water shortages will occur. All life depends on the health of our soil. Fresh water, the most essential element for human life, depends on healthy soil for filtration. Food security does not depend on how well we can mutate genes; it depends on how well we can care for our soil.

We exist as one giant ecosystem. Every single living being is affected by us, and we in turn are affected by every single living being. We are ecosystems within ecosystems within ecosystems. The complexity of these systems are extremely difficult to fathom because most of the time they are not visible to us; most of the time they affect us indirectly, but without this web, life would not be possible. Look at the devastating consequences our earth has endured just from the partial elimination of our soils ecosystems by GM agriculture. We cannot escape our interconnectedness to all life, and it is our responsibility to work with life, not against it, to ensure human survival on this earth. Nature will always adapt and find ways to survive, but whether or not humans will is our choice.

Genetically modified food may or may not be bad for our bodies, but it is proven to be harmful to our earth. It is time we abandon this old method and fully embrace, on an international level, biodynamic agricultural methods that allow us to work in harmony with the already perfectly balanced ecosystems that run deep and wide across this ancient land.

 

Genetically modified crops.

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ON NOVEMBER 4th voters in Colorado rejected a ballot initiative that would have required special labels for foods made with genetically modified (GM) ingredients. As The Economistwent to press, voters in Oregon seemed likely to say no to a similar proposal there, though the count was not complete. Regardless of the outcome, however, the referendums indicate the strength of feeling generated by GM crops: the Oregon vote was the costliest ballot in the state’s history. By chance, the day before the poll saw the publication in PLOS ONE of the largest review yet conducted of the crops’ effects on farming. It concludes that these have been overwhelmingly positive.

The review in question is a meta-analysis. This is a statistically rigorous study of studies, rather than a mere summary of the literature. Its authors, Matin Qaim and Wilhelm Klümper, both of Göttingen University, in Germany, went through all examinations of the agronomic and economic impacts of GM crops published in English between 1995 and March 2014. This provides a near-complete survey. Most studies of the subject have been published in English, and the widespread adoption of such crops began only in the mid-1990s.

Commercial genetic modification for crops comes in two forms. One makes them resistant to insect pests. The other confers tolerance to glyphosate, enabling farmers to spray their fields with this herbicide and kill off all the other plants (ie, the weeds) in them. As a consequence, the study found, herbicide-tolerant crops have lower production costs—though this was not true for insect-resistant crops, where the need for less pesticide was offset by higher seed prices, and overall production costs were thus about the same as for unmodified crops. With both forms of modification, however, the yield rise was so great (9% above non-GM crops for herbicide tolerance and 25% above for insect resistance) that farmers who adopted GM crops made 69% higher profits than those who did not.

Many poor countries eschew GM crops, fearing they will not able to export them to areas which ban them, notably the European Union. This has a big opportunity cost. Dr Qaim and Dr Klümper found that GM crops do even better in poor countries than in rich ones. Farmers in developing nations who use the technology achieve yields 14 percentage points above those of GM farmers in the rich world. Pests and weeds are a bigger problem in poor countries, so GM confers bigger benefits.

In debates about GM the methodology of studies has often generated as much controversy as the crops themselves. Drs Klümper and Qaim have done something to moderate these controversies, too. Though some studies they include were not peer-reviewed, and a few of the early ones did not report sample sizes, limiting their value, the data they used for the meta-analysis—which include conference papers, working papers and book chapters as well as work published in academic journals—may correct for perceived publication bias, the tendency of journals to publish only the most dramatic findings. This large body of evidence enabled the authors to control for possible differences in matters other than whether a crop was modified or not, such as fertiliser use. They also found that who pays for a study does not seem to influence its results.

Dr Klümper and Dr Qaim conclude by expressing a hope that their work “may help to gradually increase public trust in this promising technology”. To judge by the heat generated in Oregon and Colorado, that may take time.

How GMO Farming and Food Is Making Our Gut Flora UNFRIENDLY.

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Two studies published in the past six months reveal a disturbing finding: glyphosate-based herbicides such as Roundup® appear to suppress the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, leading to the overgrowth of extremely pathogenic bacteria.

Late last year, in an article titled Roundup Herbicide Linked to Overgrowth of Deadly Bacteria, we reported on new research indicating that glyphosate-based herbicides such as Roundup® may be contributing to the overgrowth of harmful bacteria, both in GM-produced food and our own bodies.  By suppressing the growth of beneficial bacteria and encouraging the growth of pathogenic ones, including deadly botulism-associated Clostridum botulinum, GM agriculture may be contributing to the alarming increase, wordwide, in infectious diseases that are resistant to conventional antibiotics, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which the CDC’s director recently termed a ‘nightmare bacteria.’

How GMO Farming and Food Is Making Our Gut Flora UNFRIENDLY

GMO Herbicides May Lead To The Overgrowth of Harmful Bacteria, Including Deadly Clostridum Botulinum

Now a new study published in the journal Anaerobe titled, “Glyphosate suppresses the antagonistic effect of Enterococcus spp. On Clostridum botulinum,” confirms this herbicide’s ability to adversely affect gut bacteria populations (i.e. generate dysbios).[i]  In an attempt to explain why Clostridum botulinum associated diseases in cattle have increased during the last 10-15 years in German cattle, researchers theorized that since normal intestinal flora is a critical factor in preventing Clostridum botulinum colonization in conditions such as infantile botulism perhaps the ingestion of strong biocides such as glyphosate found in GM cattle feed could reduce their natural, lactic acid bacteria dependent immune defenses as pathogenic microbes.

They reported on the toxicity of glyphosate to Enteroccocus, the most prevalent lactic acid bacteria species in the gastrointestinal tract of cattle, and concluded “Ingestion of this herbicide could be a significant predisposing factor that is associated with the increase in C. botulinum mediated diseases in cattle.”

Of course, the implications of this finding extend beyond the health of cattle or poultry. The majority of American consumers who don’t even have the legal right to know through truthful labeling if they are eating GMOs, are consuming non-organic, Roundup Ready soy, canola, cottonseed or soy on a daily basis, and therefore are being exposed to glyphosate residues year round; additionally, animals fed Roundup sprayed GMO plants will bioaccumulate glyphosate and/or glyphosate metabolites, adding to the consumer’s bodily burden of these gut flora-altering, highly toxic chemicals.

GMO Herbicides Kill More Than ‘Weeds,’ Are Broad-Spectrum Biocides

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum biocide. It does not discriminate by killing only the “weeds” that compete with the genetically modified plants resistant to it. In fact, it has been found to be toxic to human DNA at concentrations 450-fold lower than presently used in agricultural applications.[ii] When combined with adjuvants and other so-called ‘inactive’ ingredients, the glyphosate-formulations are far more toxic than their component ingredients taken in isolation.[iii] Nor are the toxic effects limited to plants. A 2012 study published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment found that Roundup herbicide has DNA-damaging effects to fish after short-term, environmentally low concentration exposures (6.67 μg/L, or, 6.67 micrograms per Liter).[iv]  For a comprehensive list of the toxic effects of Roundup and glyphosate visit our research page on the topic: Glyphosate formulations.

One of the most concerning adverse effects of glyphosate most relevant to the topic of this article is its destructive effects on the fertility of soil itself. In an earlier expose titled, Un-Earthed: Is Monsanto’s Glyphosate Destroying the Soil?, concerning findings published in the journal Current Microbiology were discussed showing that Roundup® herbicide is having a negative impact on the microbiodiversity of the soil, including microorganisms of food interest, and specifically those found in raw and fermented foods.[v]

One of the key implications of this finding is that since many of the beneficial bacteria that make up the 100 trillion bacteria in our gut necessary for health come from our food, and these bacteria-rich foods nourish and help maintain the flora in our gut, the removal of key beneficial microorganisms from the  soil will likely result in profoundly disrupting the bacteria-mediated infrastructure of our health.

We Must Reject GMO Farming Practices Or Face Dire Consequences

We must, of course, consider carefully the origin of our food. Conventionally produced produce and animal products are often grown or fed from farming practices that involve the use of factory-farmed manure and raw human sewage. Animal and human excreta today is exceedingly toxic, and contains a wide range of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hormones and antibiotic resistant bacteria and related pathogens that.  contaminate our food and our bodies if we choose to eat it. It also causes us to employ ‘food security’ technologies like nuclear waste-based food irradiation and bacteriophage sprays try to disinfect inherently toxic food, only generating different and sometimes far more dangerous compounds as a result.

Instead of succumbing to the intellectually unsophisticated concept that disease is primarily caused by germs ‘out there,’ rather than viewing our risk of infection as primarily determined by immune susceptibility ‘in here,’ we must shift our understanding radically if we are to survive the wholesale destruction of our biosphere, also entirely refraining from supporting, buying, consuming food produced through GM-based farming practices.  Our body is literally woven from the  molecular fabric of the body of the Earth. And so, when we poison or genetically modify our environment, and we poison and genetically modify ourselves.

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