Vidic, 2:00
R18
EFFECTS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED
PLANTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
Genetically modified plants are a viable solution to many of the food and nutritional requirements of the world, and more time and funding should be put towards advancing our abilities to modify the genetic composition of plants. My cousin is an aid worker in Kenya and her stories of the hunger and poverty there have hit me hard as well as become a driving force behind my views on science to stop hunger. In the world today there are over 985 million hungry people, 1 in 6 infants has a low birth weight, and
22,000 children die every day from hunger and poverty related causes. Genetically modified plants are already in vast use throughout the world and have much untapped potential in lessening or eliminating many of the problems which may be encountered through a food shortage due to overpopulation and in-arable land and developing countries. As Engineers, we must take advantage of a field which will allow us to better the lives of people in the world [1]. The field of genetic modification is capable of increasing crop yield, crop nutrition and the overall ability to provide food to a larger proportion of the population.
Genetically modified foods should continue to receive funding and remains a viable option to curb world hunger by increasing crop yields and nutrition.
A genetically modified plant is a plant where several of the genes have been changed in order to form more favorable phenotypes. Many times the traits acquired are not far different than those obtained through selective breeding, but these same genes are obtained with far greater ease. The advantages of genetic modification over traditional forms of selective breeding are that with genetic modification, one can select specific traits which are transferred into the plants genetics
Kevin Woeppel (kmw103@pitt.edu) to allow only the wanted genes without the risk of unwanted ones, as well as the ability to import genes from species which are less closely related or even completely different. Genetic modification began in the 1980’s and has been commercially available since the 1990’s. Genetically modified plants are broken into 3 groups; first generation focuses on survival of the plant, mainly through drought, flood, disease and pest resistance, second generation plants focus on quantity and quality of food produced by increasing yield and nutrition profiles of the food they create, and third generation plants are grown with the interest of pharmaceuticals and industries [4].
Since the 1990’s, the GM plant trade as exploded in both developed and developing countries. The dominant traits of these plants are herbicide tolerance (50%) and insect resistance
(30%). GM plants account for 86% of the United
States maize production in 2010 [9]. GM corn is resistant to many pests including corn borers, rootworm and many stem borers. In developing countries, cotton and canola are extremely prevalent, with India growing 7.6 million hectares of cotton and China with 3.8 Million. On hold at this time are BT rice, cauliflower, eggplant and wheat. BT stands for bacillus thuringiensis, bacteria which are the source of the genes. Also in development are fungal, viral and bacterial resistant strains of crops as well as plant that have increased resistance to abiotic stress such as drought and flooding [6]. Second generation plants have possibilities which include greatly improved fatty acid profile in seeds, creating maize with an improved protein content, and improving the nutrition profiles of many staple foods such as wheat and corn. An excellent example of an improvement in second generation
GM plants in the production of Golden Rice, rice which is fortified with Beta-Carotene, the
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering
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Kevin Woeppel precursor to vitamin A. Useful third generation plants possibilities include the production of biodegradable plastics from organic plant matter, vaccines, antibodies and antibiotics [6].
GM Plants in China
GM plants have, perhaps, one of their largest successes in China. China is the world’s largest producer or rice, a staple food for over 1 billion people inside of China and 2 billion in the world.
Unfortunately, rice lost to pests such as borers were calculated to be about 1.69 billion dollars.
By 2030, China needs to produce enough rice to feed and expected population of 1.6 billion people.
The estimated rice yield will need to be 7.85kg/ha and will need 2 billion kg of rice a year. In order to manage such a huge production, China needs to manage the limiting factors of production and improve both total crop yield as well as the crop yield per acre. In response, the Chinese government invested billions of Yuan (Chinese currency) into the production of insect resistant genetically modified rice. Using an insecticidal protein found in the BT bacterium, the Chinese government was successful in creating an insect resistant strain of BT rice which has gotten approval for public use and is available to the market for planting [2]. The production of this strain of rice eliminated a huge amount of the pesticides required in production. Originally, rice used about 15% of the insecticide market, and farmers who would use insecticides would over spray their fields and eliminate both the pests and the helpful insects, effectively harming the crop instead of helping. Also, extra insecticides would cause damage to the local environment. The developed strain of BT rice has increased the average yield of rice as well as decreasing the damage to the environment from pesticides which was common in the production of rice [2].
GM Wheat in America and the World
Another recent entry into the GM market is
GM wheat. By 2004, the Monsanto Company, a leader in GM seeds, had been in the process of developing several forms of GM wheat; this project was scrapped however due to opposition from American farmers. Now though, it appears that there has been a change in the views of
Americans. In 2006, a United States Coalition decided to advance work on genetically modified wheat with enhanced traits. According to a survey from 2009, over ¾ of American farmers would be in favor of genetically modified plants with traits including; drought resistance, freeze resistance, pest resistance, and disease resistance [3]. Such traits would limit the damage done by factors such as leaf rust, the world’s largest wheat killing disease, which is capable of wiping out over 20% of the world’s wheat supply. American growers were deprived of access to new and innovative varieties of wheat because they were caught between the anti-technology feelings of some of the largest buyers and the innovation which could have been offered by the Monsanto Company.
This left the door open for other countries to take advantage of GM wheat and increase their output while leaving America behind. As a result,
America, which was supplying 50% of the world’s wheat in the mid 1970’s, fell to 20% in 2009, and lowered its position as one of the worlds “Food
Superpowers” [3].
Recent Progress in the Field
In recent years there has been a large amount of progress in the field of Genetic engineering.
Previous methods of inserting genes involved the use of agrobacterium. Agrobacterium are natural gene splicers and proved very successful in inserting genes into the plant’s chromosomes.
Originally this method was not available for many grains, and a biolistic method was used instead.
The biolistic method involved using an elemental particle coated with plasmid DNA that was “shot” into the cell’s nucleus. Recently, however, it has become possible to use the agrobacterium to insert genes directly into plant chromosomes. Still though, both biolistic and agrobacteria methods
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Kevin Woeppel proved ineffective in several ways; they cannot transfer single genes, they may insert genes into random areas of the chromosome and they tend to have a large amount of difficulty in inserting several genes which must be transferred together and simultaneously [4]. In response to this, new research is being conducted in the field of artificial chromosomes, which would allow scientists complete control over which and where genes were placed. Other perceived advantages in this field are increase plant stability and the ability to transfer the same chromosome to different plants to create unique hybrids [4].
Health and Environmental Concerns
While genetic engineering of plants has the ability to increase yield and nutrition profiles of many plants, there are still concerns about the health effects of the plants and the impact on the environment. Engineering ethics demands that engineers take the highest level of concern over health and the environment [6]. In response to criticism over the health and environmental effects of GM plants, studies are carried out in order to test the effects of the newly modified proteins on animals and the environment. Nearly all of the genes and proteins created through genetic modification are similar to or identical to proteins which are already consumed and have been previously found to be completely safe. The genetically modified genes also take up a tiny part of the total proteins of a plant; it is almost always less than .2% of a GM plant that is modified. To be sure of the safety, each plant undergoes 8-12 years of testing, including 4 of environmental testing to ensure that they are both safe for human consumption and will not have a great impact on the environment. This testing includes hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment and risk characterization to focus on the potential toxicity of proteins and metabolites in GM plants [5].
ETHICS
According to the Engineering code of ethics, engineers should devote their time to creations, developments and improvement to that will contribute to society [1]. The field of Genetic engineering follows these guidelines as it is designed to improve the production and nutrition of food. GM plants have shown that they are capable of greatly increasing yield by being resistant to a large amount of plant killing diseases, as is the case in bt rice in china. It also has shown the ability to improve the protein content and vitamin content of many common cereals such as maize, wheat and rice. Improving the nutrition and quantity of food has the potential to save countless lives throughout the world.
Upholding honesty should always be held in the highest regard [6], which is true as all proposed genetically engineered plants are subject to the highest levels of scrutiny and testing before they are released to the public.
Engineers should take the highest level of concern and caution when it comes to the health and safety of the public, the employer and the clients [6]. The vigorous testing required is entirely designed to insure the safety of all.
Genetic engineering is careful to implant only genes that will create proteins that are naturally found in the human diet or are extremely similar to existing ones. Extreme caution is taken when it comes to the health of the environment, and any possible contamination is immediately addressed.
This is very evident in the case of third generation
GM plants, where the plant genome is rearranged in order to be more beneficial to industry and pharmaceuticals. Any 3 rd
generation plant is grown in a way which there is near zero chance of it invading wildlife or becoming part of the human food network. In accordance to the code of ethics from the National Society of Professional
Engineers [6], no genetically modified plant will be released that has any significant chance of causing harm to the public or the environment.
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Kevin Woeppel
CONCLUTIONS
Genetically modified plants are a great resource and have an incredible amount of potential in improving productions, minimizing waste and loss to pests and disease, and creating plants with far superior nutritional profiles to curb under- and malnutrition. In China, the government invested money into the creation of BT-rice, and the results were spectacular, with rice being resistant to many pests, the loss is minimized and the production can improve. In America, the
Americans fell behind the world in the field of
Genetically Modified wheat and thus fell from its dominance in the grain market when it refused to incorporate GM wheat into its agriculture. The field is constantly advancing even now, with one of the newest advancements including the creation of artificial chromosomes. This seemingly impossible feat has given promise to the field of complete control over the genes which are inserted into the genes of the plants. Finally, GM plants are relatively safe and cause little to no damage to humans who consume them or the environment around them. Further funding should be placed towards the advancement of such a crucial field which has proven ability in increasing crop yields and nutrition. GM plants have the potential to stop world hunger.
REFLECTIONS
I feel that researching and analyzing genetic engineering has furthered my knowledge in the engineering field. Writing a persuasive and ethical analysis paper such as this is extremely valuable and should be a part of many if not all of engineering undergraduate work. In the field of engineering, there are many time when one must be able to present their own opinions and be able to argue that they are important [8]. When applying for funding, grants, or the materials necessary to preform experiments, engineers must be able to reassure their clients that the money they are spending is going to good use. Writing an opinion or persuasive paper has the ability to further explain the final goals of the project, the possible helpful effects and detriments, the reason funding or equipment is needed and the overall purpose of the project[8]. Furthermore, funding is never unlimited and must be used in the most effective ways possible. Not only must an engineer argue that their project is worth funding, they must argue that the funding, research, labor and equipment would be better used towards their project than anyone else’s.
When working on a project/experiment, ethics are one of the few binding forces as to what can be done. Ethics in engineering stop engineers from causing harm to the environment, the health of the public as well as encouraging honesty, integrity, and giving motivation for engineers to apply their skills to the causes which will best serve humanity as a whole. Creating a paper that includes a section on ethics not only has us integrate this into our work but also forces us to analyze the ethics ourselves. We can then take these ethics and our new understandings and opinions and use them later in our own projects.
Although I truly hate to admit it, writing is still a necessary part of my chosen career part. I am very happy that this project was assigned as it allowed me to consider how to write a paper on a topic I felt strongly about as well as consider why ethics exist in the field of engineering as a whole.
Other schools should consider adding assignments similar to this in order to give students a taste of how they must be able to defend the legitimacy of their topic or field and explain why funding, time or resources should be devoted to the advancement of their field. This assignment gave me some real would application of writing which will be relevant to me later on in life.
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Kevin Woeppel
REFERENCES
[1]ASCE. (2012) Code of Ethics . Retrieved from
American Society of Civil Engineers website: http://www.asce.org/Leadership-and-
Management/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/
[2] A. Shelton, M. Chen, & Ye, G. (2010).
“Insect-resistant genetically modified rice in china: From research to commercialization.”
(online article). http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.114
6/annurev-ento-120709-144810.
[3]Miller, & C. Carter. (2010). “Genetically engineered wheat, redux.”
Trends in biotechnology , 28 (1), 1-2. (Online article). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S
01677 79909001838.
[4] J. Kour, M. Dhar, & S. Kaul. (2011). “Towards the development of better crops by genetic transformation using engineered plant chromosomes.”
Plant Cell Reports , (30), 799-806.
(Online article). http://www.springerlink.com/ content/f44175gj22mt383m/.
[5] M. Quaim. (2009, June 26). “The Economics of Genetically Modified Crops.”
Annual reviews . (Online article). http://www. annualreviews.org/eprint/Ec5XmuiH3JwHVFxg7
42s/full/10.1146/annurev.resource. 050 708.
[6] NSPE (2012.) Code of Ethics for Engineers .
Retrieved from National Society of Professional
Engineers website: http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/
CodeofEthics/index.html
[7] R. Goodman, & A. Tettah. (2011). “Suggested improvements for the allergenicity assessment of genetically modified plants used in foods.”
Current Allergy And Asthma Reports , 1 (4), 317-
324. (Online article). http://www.springerlink.com/content/m7471044m
8087241/?MUD=MP.
[8]S. Shepard, & R. Jenison. (1996). “Freshman
Engineering Design Experiences: an
Organizational Framework.” International Journal of Engineering Education . Retrieved from website: http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/images/D issection/freshdes.pdf
[9] U.S. department of agriculture, Agriculture statistics board. (2010). Acreage . Retrieved from
National agriculture statics service website: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/nass/Acre/20
10s/2010/Acre-06-30-2010.pdf
ACKNOLEDGEMENTS
My roommate Sam Proctor, who was very helpful in allowing me to schedule my time more effectively, Marilyn Ngo, who assisted me in the planning and writing of this paper, and the entire
University of Pittsburgh and its staff including
Beth Bateman Newborg, which granted me access to many of the recourses used in this paper and offered advice and guidance through the project.
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