Soybeans Case Study

Soybeans are one of the most widely cultivated and consumed crops in the world. Native to East Asia, soybeans have been cultivated for over 5000 years (Wang et al., 2012) and are presently found in every continent except Antarctica. This versatile bean is rich in nutrients and a suitable soil fertiliser, perfect for human consumption, animal feed and non-food items. Given its importance, scientific research was done to find ways that quality and quantity of soybean crops could be improved. Eventually, the emergence of modern biotechnology opened doors for the possibility of growing genetically-modified soybeans. Genetically modified (GM) products are created by inserting a foreign gene into cells of a species (Skogstad, 2011). Finally in 1996,

Research results on risks assessments of consuming GM soybeans should be published to the public eye (Soares, 2011). This will improve transparency and seek to gain the trust of consumers that no side effects from consuming GM soybeans have been reported so far. Alternatively, labelling GM food with their nutritional contents can serve to educate consumers that GM soybean products provide similar nourishments or even pack more nutrients than the conventional product. These actions are less extreme than banning cultivation of GM soybeans altogether in the

Glyphosate herbicide is used to remove weeds that compete with soil crop plants for nutrients. However, this herbicide inhibits the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) that is essential for synthesis of amino acid in soybean plants (Nakatani et al., 2014). Hence, using this herbicide comes at the cost of reduced soy crop yields. With transgenic soy plants, a mutated gene is inserted to prevent enzyme-inhibtion, and so usage of glyphosate will not damage the soy crops. Unfortunately, cross-pollination of GM soy plants with wild plants may have lead to unintended transfer of herbicide-tolerant gene, forming “superweeds” that are resistant to glyphosate. Farmers are then forced to spray larger quantities of the herbicide, which in turn, puts their health and ecosystems at risk (Gilbert, 2014). So far, 24 glyphosate-tolerant weed species have been identified since the inception of Roundup-tolerant crops such as GM soybean (Gilbert, 2013). However, there is no causality between GM crops and herbicide-resistant weeds, primarily because “superweeds” have been a problem for farmers regardless of whether they plant GM crops. For example, no GM crops are resistant to the atrazine herbicide, yet 64 atrazine-tolerant weed species have already been recorded (Gilbert, 2013). This is primarily due to natural selection favouring herbicide-resistant weeds ahead