Genetically modified crops are used more than landrace crops in agriculture, specifically glyphosate resistant crops. Glyphosate’s usage has increased, due to the main feature of “no run-off”. This seemingly perfect solution to farmer’s weed control problem has negative impacts not only towards the environment, but also to living organism’s health. Glyphosate is increasing plant’s susceptibility to diseases, which in turn will reduce crop yields. Glyphosate also decreases the amount of nutrients in crops, causing a stunt in growth and also a decrease in yields. The herbicide is also a threat to human health, resulting from the residue left on the crops that are eaten. These human risks include Celiac Disease, damage to cells, and suppression of CYP enzymes. To protect the health of our crops and our community, farmers must use different methods of weed management as an alternative to the herbicide glyphosate, including crop rotation, mechanical cultivation, delayed planting, and weed-free crop seed.
The product label in many herbicides including Roundup®, Glyphomax Plus®, and Clearout 41 Plus® list the active ingredient as “Glyphosate N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, in the form of its isopropylamine salt” (Boerboom et al. 2010). The common name for the active ingredient is glyphosate. Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide, meaning that it kills most plants (Glyphosate 2010). It was first issued into the United States in 1974, and is now one of the most widely used herbicides. Glyphosate works by binding and inhibiting the enzyme enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase, or EPSPS (How 2013). The EPSPS is located at the beginning of the shikimic acid pathway, which converts simple carbohydrates to many important plant metabolites...
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The insecticide has high ability to produce the desired results. It has a broad spectrum of insect and pest control for farm crops and cereal storage. The insecticide is less toxic to mammalian organisms. The toxic levels of the insecticide to human is very low but is designed in a way that it can control some pests such as rats, California quail bird and Rainbow Trout. It is toxic to bees if it is directly sprayed on them but its dried residue is nontoxic to bees (Thompsom, 2011). This insecticide has minimal environmental hazards as compared to other insecticides. Spinosad has a long residual effect that keeps cereals well protected to a period of 2 years.
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has had an affected human health and native species. Being resistant to pesticide and herbicides, the plant’s DNA is split and combined with other DNA through genetic engineering, which is impossible in nature. Eating these genetically altered and processed foods can lead to increased risks of disease, cancer, and even death. Most of the time, we do not even know that we are eating these harmful toxins because they are infused with our foods. There are many farms in California that are able to grow just about anything due to the weather and fertile soil. Although we live in an area known for growing a diverse variety of food, GMOs are starting to, if they have not already, take over. Not only are these genetically modified foods dangerous to the environment but they also have a huge negative effect on animals and humans.
Traits from various organisms lead to the DNA development to increase pest resistance within GMO crops. A study from UCSD (The University of California in San Diego) presents a report about how a toxic bacterium can both increase pest resistance and be safe for human consumption. This reduces the overall quantity of pesticide chemicals manipulated upon plants hence possibly diminishing pesticide exposure.
Herbicide resilient crops increase the use of herbicides, swelling costs for farmers as well as creating conservational problems, affecting inferior communities who live near large GM farms in developing countries, as well as causing pollution. Insecticide crops are constantly producing toxins when they're not even necessary, and can indiscriminately kill other insects beneficial for the environment. Continued manufacturing promises about the ability of GM crops to tackle the world's growing social problems are pure myth: there is still not a single commercial GM crop with increased yield or salt-tolerance, enhanced nutrition or other 'beneficial' traits. GM crops are confined to a handful of countries with highly developed agricultural subdivisions – where GM-cash-crops are grown to be sold on the world market for materials, feed and fuel, and not intended to feed
Qiu, J. 2013. Genetically modified crops pass benefits to weeds. p. 1. Available from: doi: doi:10.1038/nature.2013.13517.
Did you know that pesticides have been used since the 1600s? Yes in the 1600s the romans burned sulfur to kill insects and they used salts to control weeds. The romans also used honey and arsenic to control ants. The ancient romans crushed the petals of the pyrethrum and they used ants to to eat undesirable insects. By World War II, only thirty pesticides existed(During the late 19th century, farmers were using copper acetoarsenite, calcium arsenate, nicotine sulfate, and sulfur to control insect pests in crops. Pesticides are products that are intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or to mitigate any pest. Pesticide use emerged after World War II, when DDT, BHC, Aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, and 2, 4-D was introduced. After these were introduced, people began abusing these pesticides and the pests became genetically resistant to pesticides. When this happened, non-target plants and animals were harmed and pesticide residues appeared in unexpected places. Researchers during the 1960s, began developing a different approach towards pest control. This was called integrated pest management (IPM). There are ups and downs to pesticides. When we didn’t have pesticides, there was bug spots on the produce,and blemishes. Most people won’t buy the produce if it has these kind of disorders. After pesticides were invented, we didn’t have these sort of problems, therefore sales went up.
...ate, this was deemed by the European Union to be “dangerous to the environment.” It produces super weeds that require higher toxic chemicals, deplete soil quality, and affect wildlife along with non-pest population. Even though these studies were made of glyphosate, bio tech companies were still claiming that their product was “biodegradable”, “safe with low toxicity”, and stating that “it leave the soil clean after use.” These were clear and false claims that were immediately called out by the French Union. Another important environmental risk is the fact that since these GMO crops have foreign DNA in them, it is unknown exactly how they will react in the environment around them or how they will affect the current population of species. It is evident that these crops are uncontrollable and are a mutation that will have some sort of effect on the world around them.
When it comes to herbicides the most conversational topic is the effects of the herbicide on human health. The American Cancer Society has glyphosate as a member of their Probable Carcinogen (meaning it could be cancerous) list, where the statement was last medical review in 2014, and was last revisited in 2016 but not medically tested (American Cancer Society, 2016). This is the proof that backs up the statement the Ecology Action Centre (2016), an organization located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, whose goals are to build a sustainable future, used as a main point to advocate against the use of glyphosate in Nova Scotia’s Forests. A study done in Changwon, South Korea by Dr. Young Kim (2014), shows that glyphosate is nothing to fear, as his patients
Presently, Monsanto is commonly known for its potent herbicide named Roundup. As the biggest-selling weed killer in the world, Roundup accounts for 17 percent of Monsanto’s total annual sales of $9 billion (Arax, 1997). The main ingredient of Roundup is glyphosate. Glyphosate is the eighth most commonly used herbicide in U.S. agriculture and the second most commonly used herbicide in nonagricultural settings (Cox, 1995). It’s estimated annual use according to the U.S. EPA is between 15 and 20 million pounds in agriculture and between 4 and 6 million pounds elsewhere (Arax, 1997). Monsanto claims that Roundup breaks down quickly in the soil, so that little or no toxic byproduct accumulates in plant or animal tissue - a viewpoint often disputed.
Also, it currently listed as likely carcinogenic to humans. This cancer causing chemical is used without mercy in the modern day agriculture industry, with it on most pears, plums nectarines and 90% of soybeans. Glyphosate blocks the vitamin a signaling pathways in unborn babies which is critical for proper development, also it is linked to downfall of monarch butterfly populations. Also the cancer causing toxin our food is linked to non hodgkins lymphoma s type a of cancer. This chemical is also linked with inflammatory bowel disease ( leaky gut syndrome) and crippling kidney disease. Rural farming towns in argentina also as the fumigated towns where glyphosate is used significantly high levels had almost double the rates of cancer than normal towns where carcinogenic materials are used at unfortunately high rates. Roundup ready crops have made the spraying of glyphosate or (roundup ready) much simpler and much more extreme. The next paragraph dives into the legality and the legal processes for and against Monsanto's shining
Meanwhile, detrimental effects of GM seeds might outweigh their benefits. There is lack of researches that can gauge the long-term effects of GM seeds on humans and animals’ health. Critics blame glyphosate which is the main ingredient of Roundup herbicide for causing harm to farmers’ health and also the surroundings because of its lasting residues. In addition to the drawbacks of GM seeds, organic farmers stated that GM products will contaminate their conventional seeds and the combination between those seeds can create mutative one which poses a threat to the
Glyphosate is an essence that can alter the chemicals in your body; it is 100% unnatural and unwanted in the human body. The CYP pathway (the pathway that is completely interrupted by glyphosate) is fundamental for keeping our body communicating within itself. When this pathway is harshly interrupted by the glyphosate in GMO’s it can lead to weight gain, depression and Alzheimer’s disease. (CITE) The Genetically modified corn also has a much high amount of Glyphosate. The EPA standards show that the amount of glyphosate should be around .7 ppm; The amount in the man-made corn was 13 ppm (130,000 times higher than what is toxic in water). (CITE). Many scientists have found evidence that shows how the Genetically modified crops can in fact be transferred into the people who eat GMO’s. You are what you eat; it’s a common
As time has progressed, there has always been an overarching need for high amounts of crop production throughout the world. With the rapid rate of population growth, the need for crops and other sources of nutrients is only increasing. In order to meet these high demands and increase yields, farmers and other agriculturalists have started implementing the use of pesticides. These chemical mixtures are being used in order to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pests from destroying growing crops. However, using pesticides on crops can create massive amounts of pollution, negatively affect an individual’s health, and can spark biodiversity loss within an ecosystem. According to Michael C.R. Alavanja, “Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used within the United States (US) each year and approximately 5.6 billion pounds are used worldwide”. With all this in mind, it is clear that pesticides should not be made available to farmers and agriculturalists, and should
Farming practices that do not use pesticides/herbicides are slowly becoming introduced bit biologically created pesticides are not nearly as productive as found in preliminary testing. Biotechnology has shown to have successfully resisted pests in plants that were destroyed by pesticides but still hasn’t proven itself as a better alternative. William Liebhardt Ph.D. is an Agricultural Specialist at the University of California, Davis and he says, “When you start spraying with pesticides, you disrupt the natural balance that exists in nature. As a result, you end up killing beneficial insects, then insects that were not a problem become problems and this happens repeatedly” requiring more and more spraying.