Globalization and Genetic Engineering
Sage Ludeman
Latin American Center

Humans have been manipulating the properties of organisms for hundreds of years. Cross-pollination creates the pear-apple for example, a fruit that is the shape of an apple and has the skin of a pear. Plant grafting attaches the bud or shoot of one plant to a host plant, which accepts the new appendage as its own. Grafting is often done for visual appeal such as is the case with Japanese cherry trees that have a variety of blossom colors which are abundant where I live.

Within the last 25 years a new form of manipulation has been born, commonly known as "Genetic Engineering." This differs from anything done in the past because it gives us the power to change the DNA structure. What is genetic engineering? To understand what it is first one must know what the basic make-up of an organism is. Every organism is made up of thousands of cells, and within each cell is a nucleus where all the genetic material is held. This material is packaged together in what are called chromosomes. Each chromosome connects to the next, creating a strand of chromosomes called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA is what creates the traits that make one organism different from another. It can be thought of as a coding system or place where information is stored. My DNA gave me my blond hair and determined the size of my feet. The reason genetic engineering is so named is because scientists take genes from one organism and place them into another or simply rearrange genes in one organism.

In other words, they examine the strands of DNA in an organism to find which chromosome/gene has the desired trait and when it is found the gene is broken off from the DNA strand and placed into the strand of a foreign DNA. The host organism takes in the new information and its DNA is altered, creating a whole new organism that would have never been produced by Mother Nature. The problem with cross-pollination is that a plant carrying both the positive and negative characteristics would be created, but with genetic engineering it is possible to create a plant with only the positive values.

Plants such as soybeans, maize, rape (what canola oil is made of), wheat, sugar beet, and chicory have been made resistant to herbicides. This means that plants can be sprayed and only the weeds will die. A similar thing is done for insect resistance. Plants such as maize, corn, and potato have also been modified to carry insecticide inside them so that when the bugs eat their leaves they die. There are also tomatoes that ripen on the vine but don't turn soft so they can be shipped across the country without being bruised. Since all these plants no longer have a natural gene combination one concern is that they may cause allergies when eaten.

It should also be mentioned that genes can be exchanged across species. This means that a gene from a fish can be put into a potato! If someone allergic to fish eats a modified potato, causing an allergic reaction, he or she would have no way of understanding what the cause was because labeling of genetically-altered foods is not required now or done. There is also the question of moral rights. A vegetarian would not want to eat any produce that contained animal genes. Others, with religious concerns, might object to humans playing God.

One of the major genetic engineering players is a mega corporation known as Monsanto, one of the largest producers of GMO's (genetically modified organisms). Originally a chemical and pesticide company, Monsanto is also heavily involved in patenting seeds and producing numerous genetically modified products, the best known being "Roundup Ready" corn, soybeans, rape seed, and cotton containing an herbicide that has been injected into their embryos. The farmer who buys this seed can spray his field with Roundup herbicide and kill everything but the desired crop. Thus, the farmer becomes dependent on Monsanto's seed every year because GE seeds do not reproduce live ones; the farmer can only buy Roundup, so Monsanto makes quite a profit.

There are many problems though. What happens when a genetically modified plant cross-pollinates with a regular plant?

What sort of impact will GMO's have on our bodies? Perhaps, because they contain a mutated gene, the same mutation will occur in the body and cancer will result. No one knows the answers to these questions and they are not matters than can be tossed aside to consider later after we have already contaminated the food chain.

Monsanto also makes a bovine growth hormone (Bgh), a synthetic copy of a naturally occurring hormone made by cows. Injected, it makes them produce more milk. Drug companies claim that Bgh "merely enhances a natural process," but it is not natural.

Cows produce hormone amounts that are in agreement with what their bodies can handle. When these levels exceed normal amounts the cows' bodies suffer from many different and serious types of stress.

Moreover, studies have shown that, as is the case with cows, humans can be adversely affected by an increase of this hormone with the likelihood increasing of women getting breast cancer and men developing prostate cancer. Then there is the question about the quality of the milk. Obviously if the cow is not healthy, the milk will not be healthy either.

Monsanto and other producers of GE seeds like DuPont, Syngenta (Switzerland), and Aventis (France) are prime examples of the negative impacts of globalization. They sell products that are advertised as being beneficial to the public, but in truth they actually cause more harm than good. One of the factors of globalization is the privatizing of what was once government-owned. Only a few large corporations around the world control production of commonly used products and small businesses are disappearing. It is easy for me to feel hopeless after learning about the scary possibilities of GMO's and the uncertainty of the future but I think the best way to attack the problem is to support the use of alternative products, not only by purchasing them, but also by supporting stores that sell them and by boycotting stores that don't. Ultimately, though, I think the best way to make change is simply to educate.