response to '8 reasons GMOs are bad for you'

'GMOs are bad for your body, bad for the community, bad for farmers and bad for the environment.'
the article is very bias as it ignores all advantages of GM foods.
Their first reason for why GM foods are bad for you is that its unsure if these foods are safe. but it is known that the Australian government and other developed countries test to see if a GM food is safe before it enters the country. And foods safety Australia ad New Zealand state that there hasn't been a GM which raises doubt of it safety enter Australia or any other country. Although not all resarch has been done to find GMO effect on health.

Genetic engineering reduces genetic diversity. This point is true as some alleles are lost and the gene pool is altered and its known that GMO are less suited to change in environment or a disease, so they are not the fittest.

GMOs are not the answer for global food security. GM foods are known to have improve living standard for millions in developing countries as they are able to add vitamins which is missing from their staple diet such a rice. Some GM plants are also designed to require less water which enables countries who are suffering from drought grow the fruit and vegetables needed. Theses are all answers to food security.

An examples of an experiment which is given by the author to support the argument that GM causes tumors was proven to be flawed. The species of mice that the 'Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize' were tested on were prone to mammory tumors. an ABC radio report discusess this issue further. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2012/s3594440.htm

The effects of GM foods are not completely known, however it is too early to completely rule out GM foods since there are many advantages of GMOs.

Bibliography:
http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/eight-reasons-gmos-are-bad-for-you.htm
http://truthfrequencynews.com/children-born-to-parents-who-eat-gm-wheat-may-die-before-age-five-warn-scientists/

The effects of genetic engineering on evolution

Evolution is the gradual change of species, and is based on the process of natural selection.The theory of evolution states that there is variations within a population, there are selection pressures which cause struggle for survival, organisms with best suited phenotypes will produce more offspring and so each new generation will contain proportionally more of the favourable phenotypes.

In order to have any evolution of a species whatsoever, there must be some sort of mutation and variation. Although in GM (genetically modified) foods the gene pool is limited and mutation is eradicated. therefore variation is lost causing an organism to be at risk of extinction if it is exposed to disease or change in environment conditions (selective forces).
The genetically engineered organism is no longer fit (able to survive and reproduce) as the normal wild type as they do not have the traits which enable it to resist some natural selection pressures

Another issue with Genetic engineering is that it has effects on organisms surrounding the GMO. In the case of a plant with a pesticide gene, most insects will die from the GM plant although some insects may survive. these insects will then reproduce and their offspring will also have the trait which enables it to be unaffected by the pesticide. And we begin to see a change in allele frequency or a genetic drift similar to a bottleneck effect (see image below). genetic engineering also cause pathogens, pests and weeds to become super resistant which makes it difficult control. This is all an interference to evolution.



Bibliography:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1911
Human intervention in evolution PowerPoint








similar to a bottleneck effect (genetic drift)

 

Australian government stance on genetically modified food

Food standards Australia and New Zealand state 'All genetically modified foods intended for sale in Australia and New Zealand must undergo a safety evaluation by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). FSANZ will not approve a GM food unless it is safe to eat'.

FSANZ believe that GM is just another method of artificial selection as we chose the desired phenotype.  they also see the advantages of using GM food such as insect resistance, less water required to grow and increasing fatty acid content in soy beans for frying.

The australian government has a strict system in regulating GM foods and have an Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) which oversees the development of genetically engineered foods and their impact on the environment. All GM foods must have a licence and this licences will not be issued unless the OGTR is satisfied that any risks can be dealt with so that people and the environment are protected.

Before a new genetically engineered food can be sold in Australia it is assessed to see the impact on the environment and people. FSANZ say they have not found any foods which raise any safety concerns to date.

Bibliography
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumerinformation/gmfoods/

Advantages and disadvantages of GM foods

Advantages

people tend to disregard the positives of genetically modified foods and the importance of GM foods in today's fast paced life style. Some of the many advantages of having GM foods are

• Herbicide tolerance: Farmers will often spray large quantities of different herbicides to destroy weeds which is time-consuming and expensive process that requires care so that the herbicide doesn't harm the crop plant or the environment. Crop plants genetically-engineered to be resistant to one very powerful herbicide could help prevent environmental damage by reducing the amount of herbicides needed.

• Nutrition: crops can be genetically engineered to have higher content of important nutrients. In third world countries where malnutrition is common and peoples rely on a single crop such as rice for their staple diet which does not contain adequate amounts of all the necessary nutrients to so to prevent malnutrition, genetically engineering the rice to contain additional vitamins and minerals will prevent malnutrition.

• Drought tolerance/salinity tolerance: As the world population grows and more land is utilised for housing instead of food production, farmers will need to grow crops in locations previously unsuited for plant cultivation. Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in places which were once unable to be inhabitable.

Disadvantages

however there are some criticisms (disadvantages) towards using GM foods.

• reduces effectiveness of pesticides: Some worry that insects will develop resistance towards pesticides.

• Cross pollination: another concern is cross pollination causing weeds to become resistant to herbicides and pesticides. plants engineered for herbicide tolerance and weeds will cross-breed, resulting in the transfer of the herbicide resistance genes from the crops into the weeds. These "superweeds" would then be herbicide tolerant as well.

•  another issue with cross pollination is introduced genes may cross over into non-modified crops planted next to GM crops. The possibility of interbreeding will cause farmers with unmodified crops to not be able to say that their crops are organic.

Bibliography
http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php

Genetically Modified Canola

Canola (or rapeseed), Brassica napus, is an oilseed crop used in many foods such as margarines and cooking oil and seed meal (the fibrous material left after the oil pressing process), has a high protein content making it highly desirable as a stock feed.



Canola (Brassica napus)

Why is canola genetically modified?

the main purpose of genetically modifying canola plants is weed
control. Two genetically modified (GM) canola varieties have been developed in Australia, Roundup Ready® and InVigor®. These varieties of canola plants are resistant to specific herbicides. therefore increasing quantity and quality of the grain produced.

 

 

How is canola genetically

The technique used to produce the herbicide resistant crops is DNA recombination. GM canola line contains the cp4 epsps gene which causes the plant to have herbicide tolerance in the GM canola plants. The gene is derived from bacteria (Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain) CP4 and encodes 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), an enzyme of the shikimic acid pathway which is involved in the biosynthesis of plant phenolics.
In short, the GM canola plant contains a gene which will cause it  to be resistant to a specific herbicide from a bacteria. And this gene (cp4 epsps )will allow the plant to produce a protein (enzyme) and become resistant to a specific herbicide.

figure 1

How is the gene inserted into the plant? by DNA recombination where a restriction enzyme cuts out a desirable DNA fragment from the bacterias DNA (where the desirable gene is located in this case) and the same restriction is used to cut open a plasmid (as seen in figure 1), to ensure that the complementary sticky ends exist on the plasmid and DNA fragment. In GM canola, the gene for herbicide resistance is known as a transgene since its a gene that's been transferred from one organism (bacteria) to another organism (the canola plant). similarly to figure 1 the gene from the bacteria chromosome is inserted into a plasmid. the new gene is then transferred to a canola plant cells by the plasmid. Plasmids are used as they are able to pass through cell membranes. Promoters are DNA sequences that are required in order to allow RNA polymerase to bind and initiate correct transcription. The expression of cp4 epsps (the gene for herbicide tolerance)  in the GM canola line is under the control of a chimeric constitutive promoter. And once the gene is inserted the plant is able to produce the enzyme which will allow it to be resistant to herbicides

Bibliography:
http://www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/Content/dir105rarmp-toc~dir105rarmp-ch1~dir105rarmp-ch1-s5
 http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/innovation-and-research/biotechnology/genetically-modified-crops/gm-canola
http://www.afaa.com.au/resource_guides/Resource_Canola.pdf