Biol 1301 - Organic food and GMOs

How do you define Organic food?

are farmed without the use of

• Artificial fertilizers

• Sewage sludge as fertilizer

• Most synthetic pesticides

• Radiation

• Antibiotics or growth hormones for farm animals

• Genetic engineering (a GMO cannot be labeled organic)

most chemical pesticides and biochemical pesticides

What foods should you buy Organic?

Known as the Dirty Dozen - grown with cancer causing pesticides and are generally onsumed in their entirety

• apple, bell pepper, blueberries, cherries, grapes, green beans, kale, nectarine, peach, pear, spinach, and strawberry

What are the benefits and limitations to washing fruits and veggies?

Always wash your fruit and veggies well! it may not eliminate pesticides, but will reduce the content

• Chemicals can penetrate the skin and pulp of produce

• Do not use soap, which can also penetrate the food

What is Genetic Engineering?

special set of technologies that alter the genetic makeup of living organisms to produce a desirable trait

What is Selective Breeding and Hybridization?

Humans have been manipulating plants and animals for many thousands of years through selective breeding and hybridization

• This does alter the genetics of those species since it produces variations of traits that are new

• Not considered GMOs for food labeling purposes

What are the benefits of GMOs?

Golden rice

• gene for the vitamin A precursor was inserted into rice DNA which then can be converted into Vitamin A in the human body

can be modified to be resistant to pests, pesticide application may be reduced and yields improved

What are the benefits and risks of growing and consuming GMOs?

no scientific evidence that shows that consuming GMOs has adverse health effects

How do you distinguish “bioengineered foods” from GMOs?

USDA has recently developed the “bioengineered” terminology to indicate that a food or food ingredient has been manipulated via a laboratory procedure

• to produce changes to a genome that could not occur in nature or by selective breeding or hybridization.

What is meant by the term “transgenic” and how are transgenic organisms produced?

a gene from one organism is transferred to another

• Gene for frost resistance in a plant from Alaska is transferred to oranges to

  reduce crop damage during a particularly cold period

• Gene for Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a bacterium that produces its own

  insecticides, is inserted into corn, cotton, potatoes, making them resistant to insects and reducing the need for chemical insecticides

What is GMO corn?

92% is a GMO

• Bt corn: Reduction of pesticides – good for consumers

• Corn with herbicide resistance gene modification: more herbicides can

  be used – Not good for consumers

What is GMO soy?

Most in the US are GMOs (94%)

Example genes modified:

• P34- eliminates a common soy allergen

• Kunitz Trypsin inhibitor (Ti)- improves digestion of soybean

• Lectins (Le) - affects the uptake of nutrients from other sources of food

• Herbicide resistance (e.g., “RoundUp Ready”)

What are GMO potatoes?

Blight (caused by a fungus) resistant potatoes

• Less browning

• Pest resistance