According to Dr. Rick Meilan, molecular tree physiologist at Purdue University, the original genetically modified organism was utilized over 30,000 years, although an enormous breakthrough is marked by the 1973 success of pasting genes to implement antibiotic resistance upon the other organism (Meilan). GMOs are defined by the living organisms whose gene is manipulated through breeding, or by adding a gene, according to Melvin J. Oliver from Supervisory Research Geneticist (Oliver). Although GMOs are widely used around the world by approximately 17 million farmers, it was continuously debated whether it should be used or not. One aspect of assessing the impact of GMOs is considering the environmental lens, especially because the environment has a direct relationship with human activities. According to Melvin Oliver, a Supervisory Research Geneticist, the constant population growth will result in the maximum of 3 billion more than the current population. This is important since increasing population and human activity can possibly deteriorate the general condition of the environment(Oliver). While the negative implication of GMOs insist that the experimental trial wasn’t sufficient to prove safety, Peter Jaret, the author of “In Self Defense: The Human Immune System” disagrees with the notion that argues the benefit of GMOs can outweigh that instability in the long term, in which GMOs can take a lead role in reducing the long term environment deterioration. (Jaret) To further elaborate how GMO influences the environment, its effect in soil health, pesticide usage, and emission of carbon dioxide should be considered.
<Soil Health>
Wayne Parrott, Ph.D. at the University of Georgia claims that GM crops can reduce soil erosion, which is the main cause of soil depletion. Among the common practices to eliminate the weed is tilling, which causes erosions and soil runoff. One way to counter it is using a pesticide called Herbicide, which can simultaneously kill the weed and the plant. Herbicide-tolerant crops are resistant against the herbicide, thus eliminating the weed without causing erosion(Parrott). Still, because the development of herbicide-tolerant crops doesn’t mean that the land won’t be exposed to the toxic pesticide for weed, the National Pesticide Information Center emphasizes the possible soil breakdown, which suggests the ineffectiveness of GMO on soil health. Corinne Zurbrugg from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution further states that GMO plants allow faster degradation of organisms in the soil to stimulate the process of decomposition, the process that provides essential nutrients for the soil. (Zurbrugg )Zhaolei Li from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research further suggests that insect-resistantly modified crops contain a more abundant amount of enzyme, with stronger enzymatic activities. This is important because soil enzymes accelerate soil reaction to support the ecosystem processes(ISAAA). The soil health should be considered because with the maximum 3 billion growths in the human population by 2050 possibly, the land available for food production won’t be adequate. The arable land decreasing from 0.242 to 0.18 hectares shows that around 30 % of the land will be depleted. Therefore, this suggests that the GMO’s support in soil health is crucial for not just the short term but also in the long term, with further depleted soil that makes up our environment (Oliver).
<Pesticide Usage>
One way to cope with the abundant pesticide usage is utilizing GMOs, according to Graham Brooks, PG economics in the UK. For example, insect-resistant crops don’t require pesticides for killing the insect. The global insecticides' savings against rootworms in 2016 marked 8.7 million, which is 82% lesser than the natural crops and savings for the cotton plant marked 18.9 million, 56% lesser in the same year (Brooks). Peter Barfoot from PG economics in the UK further elaborates this idea with a different example, the infrared treated soybeans planted for an experiment during 2013-2016. Compared to the conventional soybeans, the GM soybeans reduced 7.4 million kg of pesticide usage, which resulted in 6.3% of environmental benefit measured by the “environmental impact quotient”, the method devised to determine the environmental impact of pesticides (Brooks). Joan Conrow from Cornell University also proposes a similar experiment taken in China. The herbicide-tolerant crops reduced 776 million kg or pesticide, which is 8.6% of total pesticide usage from 1996 to 2018. This indicates the reduced environmental impact measured by EIQ. He further elaborates on how GMOs prevent runoff of herbicide inside the soil by holding water. For example, with GMO corn, farmers can hold 175 percent more water by reducing evaporation (Brooks). Wasim Aktar from Pesticide Residue Laboratory Pesticide asserts that pesticides can contaminate not just soil, but also the “water, turf, and other vegetation, with to mention the toxicity to birds, fish, beneficial insects, and non-target plants” that make up the food chain under the ecosystem. Therefore, it’s crucial to observe the GMO’s possible role in pesticide usage.(Aktar)
<Emission of carbon dioxide>
Humberto Blanco-Canqui from Carbon Management and Sequestration Center states that GM crops can reduce carbon emissions, which is the prominent cause of global warming. He says there was 6,586 million kg of carbon dioxide that hasn’t been released but secluded inside the soil in 2016, which is the amount equal to taking 14.9 million cars on the road in one year. While the traditional way of farming such as plowing can excavate an excessive amount of soil to reveal the hidden carbon dioxide, GM crops don’t require plowing. Thus, GM crops resulted in savings in carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to 2,945 million kg in the same year. This amount of savings can be explained as taking 1.8 million cars off the road for one year (Conrow). Peter Barfoot from director of Agricultural Economics agrees with Humberto Blanco- Canqui by suggesting another way that gene modification technologies contribute to carbon dioxide reduction, which is planting GMO trees (Barfoot). GMO trees extract genes from the fast-growing weed called Arabidopsis, to modify the plant cell’s structure and stimulate natural growth. Additionally, Stanley Hirsch, the chief executive of the Israeli biotech company FuturaGene used this process to come up with the experiment, resulting in modified eucalyptus with fostered growth (16 feets a year, which is 4-10 feets more than the traditional eucalyptus), and 20-30% more mass(9). The reason why this is highly regarded is that the mass of a tree is proportionally related to carbon absorption. According to the EU, half the area of the EU will disappear by 2050, and 80% of the tree will be cut by the year 2030 in 11 places around the world including the Amazon(EU). Therefore, GMO’s role in reducing carbon dioxide can be elongated into the long term as well. (Barfoot).
<Conclusion>
The environment is the habitat of human beings and is crucial to protect for us, and the next generation. Therefore, GMOs’ impact on certain environmental aspects, including soil health, using pesticides, and global warming should be thoroughly considered in evaluating GMOs’ usage. Although there is information suggesting the GMO’s positive effect, several other searchers are still aware of its instabilities, especially with the destruction of the food chain due to the GM crops’ rapid growth compared to the conventional breeding crops. On the other hand, positive views suggest that gene modification leading to the increased variability in DNA would actually result in genetic diversity, the key element making up the stable ecosystem with sufficient numbers of species. Therefore, because every GMOs and related technology can’t be tested in every country, Theresa Phillips from Nature Education claims that“full potential of GMOs cannot be realized without due diligence and through attention to the risks associated with each new GMO on a case-by-case basis” , which shows the further requirement of researching and experiment (Phillips).
<Reference>
1)A. Ahmad, G., H. Bathon, P., S. Baumgarte, C., C. Crecchio, G., N. Escher, B., S. Flores, D., . . . C. Zwahlen, A. (1970, January 01). Decomposition dynamics and structural plant components of genetically modified Bt maize leaves do not differ from leaves of conventional hybrids. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11248-009-9304-x
2)Aktar, M., Sengupta, D., & Chowdhury, A. (2009, March). Impact of pesticides use in agriculture: Their benefits and hazards. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984095/
3)Authors, A., & Barfoot, G. (2018, November 2). Environmental impacts of genetically modified (GM) crop use 1996-2016: Impacts on pesticide use and carbon emissions. Retrieved October 15, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645698.2018.1476792
4)Conrow, J. (2020, July 27). New study: GMO crops reduce pesticide use, greenhouse gas emissions. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/07/new-study-gmo-crops-reduce-pesticide-use-greenhouse-gas-emissions/
5)EU. (2019, July 26). By 2050, business as usual will wipe out pristine tropical moist forests the size of more than half the EU. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/news/2050-business-usual-will-wipe-out-pristine-tropical-moist-forests-size-more-half-eu
6)Häggman, H., Raybould, A., Borem, A., Fox, T., Handley, L., Hertzberg, M., . . . McLean, M. (2013, September 11). Genetically engineered trees for plantation forests: Key considerations for environmental risk assessment. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823068/
7)I. (n.d.). Pocket K No. 4: GM Crops and the Environment. Retrieved from http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/pocketk/4/default.asp
Jaret, P. (2015, December 8). GMOs in Food: Do Benefits Outweigh Risks? Retrieved from https://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food-safety/article/gmos-frankenfoods-or-future-food
8)Meilan, R. (n.d.). What. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://ag.purdue.edu/GMOs/Pages/WhatareGMOs.aspx
9)Oliver, M. (2014, November/December). Why we need GMO crops in agriculture. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMParrott, W. (2018, December 05). The largely unknown benefits of GMOs on soil health. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://medium.com/@gmoanswers/the-largely-unknown-benefits-of-gmos-on-soil-health-e31915eaa44f
10)Phillips, T. (2008). Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): Transgenic Crops and Recombinant DNA Technology. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetically-modified-organisms-gmos-transgenic-crops-and-732/
11)Says:, R., Says:, K., Says:, Y., Says:, B., Says:, B., Says:, L., . . . *, N. (2018, March 19). Thirsty Plants: Can plants be genetically modified to need less water? Retrieved October 19, 2020, from http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/thirsty-plants-can-plants-genetically-modified-need-less-water/
Writer: Amy Jeong
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