“Some studies have supported the premise that Roundup herbicide, used in conjunction with the GM seed called “Roundup Ready”, can be harmful to birds, insects, and particularly amphibians” (Ferrell, Thorne, & Ferrell, 2016, p.431). Additional studies indicate that umbilical, placental, and embryonic cells may be harmed by Roundup herbicide. While there is no direct link to Roundup herbicide killing honey bees, critics argue that Monsanto is killing off the bees creating the need for their mechanical Robobees to pollinate crops. Because wind, bees, and other insects carry seeds across the environment, organic farmers are concerned that their crops are being contaminated by the GM products. As plants develop resistance to herbicides, chemical manufactures will develop stronger herbicides that will potentially be even more …show more content…
Monsanto should do more than manage the potential harm to plant and animal life as a result of using products such as Roundup (Ferrell, Thorne, & Ferrell, 2016). Monsanto must do more than maintain a stance that their product rarely gets in ground water. As part of their quality standard the herbicide manufacture will implement strict guidelines of testing, storing, and shipping their product. Ground samples will be routinely tested to validate contamination has not occurred. As the use of chemicals continues for a long period of time both weeds and bugs my develop immunity to the herbicide creating the need for even stronger herbicides. A herbicide is designed to kill unwanted plants; however the mixture could be so effective that it kills not only the undesired weeds, but also the kills the plants that are not the target. Safety concerns with herbicide will be handled in an
Why we should ban GMO’s? In GMOs 101 Stephen H. Howell, director the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University, stated “Other GM plants, such as Roundup Ready corn, were created to survive the spraying of the herbicide Roundup, which kills weeds and would normally kill the plant, too”. It tells how some crops were made to survive herbicide sprays that would normally kill the plant, like Roundup. Think about that for a minute, the plant can withstand round up, which is deadly to humans, should anyone really be consuming
On the contrary, the tools of GE are created to snip nature’s crop by damaging the environment, increasing the number of herbicides and pesticides used and the risk of permanent genetic trash. Monsanto and other companies mention their seeds and food have been tested for safety. But no environment or food safety has been recorded on genetically engineered crops and foods before commercialization. The companies have done the whole enchilada within their level to steal the rights to safe and healthy foods from the societies and consumers. Vandana emphasizes that other organization have told that soybean covered with Roundup crops are additional estrogen and could claim as hormones. Dairy cows that eat Roundup Ready soybeans produce milk with increased fat levels that cows that eat consistent soybeans. Vandana complicates matters further when she writes. “Super weeds could lead to "bio invasions," displacing local diversity and taking over entire ecosystems.” Monsanto and a former life sciences organizations created a method of injecting the toxin producing gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) into corps. This specific BT gene harvest a toxin that restricts insects, and the genetically engineered BT plants and therefore, able to create their own
Plague is an infectious disease that can lead to fatality. There was once a plague called pesticides. This plague would kill off dwarves rapidly and painfully thus causing extinction. However, the dwarves were responsible for a third of the food we consume daily. This plague surfaced in the areas where dwarves live and infected many of them. Weeks later, the dwarves begin to die, leading them towards extinction. Because of the extinction, a third of our food is diminished. Nonetheless, individuals would only care about the remaining two thirds of the food leaving people . As a result, many scientists are realizing that pesticides are the reason for the extinction of the dwarves and steadily declining food supplies.
Colony Collapse Disorder and Pesticides From around the year 2006, many bee farmers in the U.S.A and some parts of Europe started reporting sharp declines in their bee stocks. The reason for these declining numbers was not known and therefore scientists named it colony collapse disorder (CCD). Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a not very old phenomenon and it became popular when large numbers of bee colonies started disappearing. The disappearance was mysterious since no dead bees were found in or around the beehives after a colony’s number was reported to have gone down or vanished.
“(Silent Spring) spells out in memorable detail through out the book the effects of synthetic insecticides and herbicides on water, soil, plants, wildlife, fish and human beings. But in the book’s final chapter she suggests alternative courses of action for mankind —- a way out of this march toward death.” (Holmes, Pg. 123)
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
Honey Bee Population Decline Daisy Childs 11-20-14 Professor Garcia ENG 1027. INTRODUCTION: Apis mellifera, commonly known as the honey bee, are solely responsible for pollinating one-third of the world’s crops, and they are in danger of dying off, according to the article “Natures Dying Migrant Worker,” written by Josephine Marcotty for the Star Tribune. This honey bee population decline poses a huge threat to our environment, farmers, and economy. It is assumed by BBC News writer Zoe Gough in her article,"Wild Honey Bees: Does Their Disappearance Matter?" that all of the wild honey bees in England and Wales are gone.
To help keep crops from being destroyed, conventional farmers use many methods such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Nearly 1 billion pounds of these chemicals are used every year (“pesticides”). Because of this excessive use, some scientists express concern that using artificial chemicals in the farming process could produce unhealthy crops. People who ate it over a long period of time could suffer from degraded health and stunted growth (“Organic Foods”). For example, in 1989, the EPA banned the use of Alar which was a chemical used to ripen apples (“Farming, Organics”). This chemical proved to be carcinogenic after causing tumors in mice after several laboratory tests (“Organic Food”). As a result of these findings there was a dramatic increase of the sales for organic food (“Organic Food”). Another study found that Atrazine (one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States) has the potential of being carcinogenic and reducing sperm counts in males (“Organic Food”). This was further proven when evidence was found that chemicals u...
...ortation of plants, fruits, vegetables, and animals. Indiscriminate pesticide use kills the good with the bad. Long term and wide spread pesticide use poisons underground water sources, which, in turn, poison plants, animals, and humans. And, finally, by our uninformed actions, new super races of pests continue to evolve and create even greater dangers than the original.
While corn is a really important part of our economy, it has a number of other problematic effects. Nearly all corn grown in the states is treated with glyphosate, a weed killing chemical introduced by seed giant Monsanto in 1974. Glyphosate contaminates surface water and has been detected at lower levels in ground water, which is what is used for drinking water. There are experiments that show that glyphosate could be responsible for increased mortality rates in tadpoles and other amphibians. And while information on the effects that glyphosate has on the health of human beings is limited, the UN’s International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that glyphosate may raise the risk of cancer in people exposed, as it has been found in farmworkers’ blood and urine, chromosomal damage in cells and more (Grossman). Little information is known on the potential of low levels of exposure to glyphosate over long periods of time, but it is clear that there are risks involved with the heavy use and exposure to the chemical, which is used on a growing number of
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
Genes were successfully introduced into plants in 1983 by both biologists at Washington University and Monsanto–a huge leader in the agricultural biotechnology field (Stone). The first modifications dealt with insect resistance by encoding genes with crystalline proteins. Bacillus Thuringiensis, more commonly known as BT, is a bacterium that produces these toxic, crystalline proteins. These toxins target and attack a wide range of insects and nematodes, reducing the need for chemicals. In 1999, scientists developed a new type of corn that could withstand applications of herbicides, which are toxic substances used to destroy unwanted vegetation. Referred to as, “RoundUp Ready Corn,” it could survive these deadly substances. The government approved
It was brought to my attention that I couldn’t find a product in the supermarket that did not have some sort of ingredient of corn, which at this point I have looked and they all do have some type. It is literally in everything you use daily, even baby diapers. This happens because seed corn is cheap and can be used in virtually anything to save money. The farmers that tried to have their own corn farm will be taking over by GMO’s or another company by the name of Monsants. The monsants is a publicly traded American multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Greater St. Louis, Missouri. It is a leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed and of the herbicide glyphosate, which it markets under the Roundup brand. 90% of all soybeans contain the product Round Up. Round up is a weed killer that contains glyphosate which is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses known to compete with commercial crops grown around the globe. The Monsants will use drones or aircraft to fly over your farm and see if you will be keeping any of your own seed. If you would get caught keeping your own seed and not letting Monsant’s own them, you will be turned over to a list and then deal with consequences through them. The monsants are also known to put GMO in all of the
The U.S. food and drug administration defines the term genetically modified organisms as "used by scientists to denote a living organism, that have been genetically modified, By inserting a gene from an unrelated species". In other words, they describe GMOs as an organism which has been inserted with a gene from an unrelated species. It is evident that the majority of American farmers utilize biotech seeds, because of the risks that the insect-resistant and herbicide-resistant traits help reduce. GMOs make the life of a farmer much easier as they do not have to worry about rushing to spray herbicides, keeping weeds out, or worrying about insects damaging crops and having to spray pesticides. For instance, Brian Scott, a farmer in Indiana, when corn root worms start indulging on his organic crops, the worms will cause significant damage before he can react accordingly and eliminate the problem with the use of chemicals.