Jimmy Martin

GM tomatoes

GM Foods TOMATOES

By: Jimmy Martin

Jimmy Martin

GM tomatoes

A genetically modified tomato (GM tomato) is a tomato that has been altered by genetic engineering, in other words its genes have been modified. The first genetically modified food available in the market was a tomato engineered to have a longer shelf life, which could resist cold weather and could survive rough weathers. Now there are no commercially available genetically modified tomatoes, but scientists are working on tomatoes with new traits, like tomatoes with increased resistance to environmental stresses or to pests. Scientist have also been working on other projects which aim to enrich tomatoes with substances which will make the tomatoes more nutritious or add substances that may offer health benefits to people that eat them. As well as trying to produce better crops, some scientists are producing genetically modified tomatoes to comprehend the function on genes that are naturally present in tomatoes. (site: Oak Ridge National Laboratory) In October 11, 2010 it was stimated that the number of hungry people in the world was over 1 billion people, about a seventh of todays world's total population. Over six million children die of starvation every year. So approximately one kid dies of hunger every 6 seconds. (site: BBC News. BBC) The idea to create GM foods came because scientists had an idea to make crops more resilient to external factors. So lets say that theres a farmer that grows tomatoes and at night, it gets so cold that by morning half of his tomatoes are frozen and now he cant sell them any more. This is what scientists were trying to change through genetic modification. They figured out a way to extract DNA from one organism and put it inside a completely different organism to create a desired specific outcome. For example lets go back to the tomato scenario. Scientist recognized that artic flounder (a type of fish), could withstand extremely cold temperatures. They thought what if we set DNA trait that allows the flounder to withstand the cold and put it inside the tomato DNA so that the tomato could withstand the same temperatures. Now the farmer has narrowed the chances of his tomatoes becoming frozen. This idea that you can get a hundred percent crop yield was original guiding principal for genetic modification. (site: Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Now the question is How do scientists put a gene inside a tomato? The only way you can do this is invading the cell of the tomato and deposit the flounder gene. Sometimes they use bacteria and viruses to invade it. (Site: Sigma Pharma) After 12 years of searching Monsanto found a slow bacteria that is naturally immune to random herbicides. Their goal was to genetically engineer DNA from these bacteria into various plants. They cut out a sequence of DNA that is resistant to round up. But if this sequence of DNA by itself is inserted into a corn plant it would have no effect. So the next step involves e coli bacteria. Gaps are created in the e coli DNA, and when the two test tubes are mixed together, some of the e coli DNA recombines with the roundup resistant bacteria. Then the technicians smuggled the engineered DNA into the cells of the corn plant they want to modify. Cells will naturally reject foreign DNA, so they developed a method using soil bacteria that causes tumors in plants. They used these bacteria to ferry

Jimmy Martin

GM tomatoes

the engineered DNA into the plants nucleus. There are also two other methods to get the engineered DNA through the cell wall. One uses a stream of electricity to create tiny holes in the plant cells so that they become vulnerable to infiltration by foreign DNA. Another is the gene gun which blasts particles of gold coated with engineered DNA into the plant cells. Each of these three methods needs a promoter gene that turns on the desired characteristics the promoter gene is often extracted from the Cauliflower Mosaic virus. (Site: Sigma Pharma) This capacity of bacteria and viruses to invade mammals in different ways is what really has a lot of people edgy about biotechnology because thats really what the tools are all about. In order to move genetic material from one organism to another that dont normally cross youve got to behave like bacteria and viruses and invade into the cells and become established just like the virus must become established. (Site: Sigma Pharma) The American heritage medical dictionary defines genetically modified organisms as those whose genetic characteristics have been altered by the insertion of a modified gene or a gene from another organism using the techniques of genetic engineering. (site: TheFreeDictionary.com) The hope was that this biotechnology would end world hunger by creating higher crop yields. Ironically, scientists have found studies that indicate just the opposite reports have shown that genetically modified crops actually produce fewer yields. In fact in some countries where starvation rates are very high thereve been many cases of citizens burning genetically modified crops in protests as there are concerns about the associated risks. So they decided to stop producing GM tomatoes. (site: HubPages) Some advantages of genetically modifying tomatoes are: farmers will use less pesticide because it wont be needed, it will grow way faster, decrease in costs of growing and farming because of reduced use of pesticides and higher crop yields, farmers become more rich, and they could expend that extra money on the education of their kids for example, less hunger in the world due to decreased food prizes, foods become more nutritious. (site: HubPages) Some disadvantages of genetically modifying tomatoes are: the GM tomatoes are not as tasty or as natural, allergies may become even more intense, and new allergies may develop, some critics say it can damage the environment and that it can cause health problems although they dont have any evidence. (site: CSA. Deborah B. Whitman) An unpredictable consequence could be that there are side effects linked to the evolution and impact of genetically modifying foods. It is very possible that there are side effects on GM foods but scientist havent found a lot of evidence (site: CSA. Deborah B. Whitman) Overall GM foods could potentially be, good and they should still make GM tomatoes if appropriate procedures are allowed. Although there are some disadvantages, ending world hunger is the main problem humanity needs solve.

Jimmy Martin

GM tomatoes

GM foods may be beneficial for the world, and if farmers dont genetically modify the food with the aim of producing more nutritious and less expensive then another 6 million children will die from starvation this year. There are reasons to accept GM foods and start producing it as soon as possible because GM foods can save millions of lives each year. (site: Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Bibliography

"Genetically Modified Foods and Organisms --HGP Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmf ood.shtml>. "Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?" CSA. Deborah B. Whitman. Web. 23 Apr. 2000. <http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php>. "Advantages and Disadvantages of Genetically Modified Crops (GMOS)." HubPages. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://csanad.hubpages.com/hub/GMO-advantages-anddisadvantages>. "HEALTHY LIVING & LIFE STYLE, NATURAL CANCER HEALING & CANCER REMEDY." Sigma Pharma. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.sigmapharma.net/HG_HealCancer/index.htm>. Lichtarowicz, Ania. "Hunger Index Shows One Billion without Enough Food." BBC News. BBC, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment11503845>. "Genetically Modified Organism (redirected from GMO Foods)." TheFreeDictionary.com. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/GMO foods>.