Page 43 - Standard Indicators for the social appropriation of science
P. 43
diabetes at the time. Before then, insulin had to There is also a genetically modified salmon
be extracted from animals, was very expensive available that has genes that allows it to grow
and people with allergies had contraindications. and develop faster and with less food, while
In the future, GMOs might be used to produce being more resistant. Of course, this salmon
edible vaccines. There are already lines of is raised in closed only male tanks and made
research that use plants for vaccine production. sterile. Therefore, if there is a leak it is not
In fact, one of the vaccines for Ebola, tested in possible that their genes are passed onto wild
the last two outbreaks, was already produced salmons.
in plants. However, most edible vaccines are
not yet in use. This research was thought for Another interesting case is that of mosquitoes.
countries where it is difficult to vaccinate the There are studies on mosquitoes that transmit
population. The main idea would be to get a malaria and also zika virus. These modified
fruit tree that could produce a vaccine directly mosquitoes, unable to infect people, are used
in its fruits. This way the population would eat in geographical areas with zika problems, as in
it and not go through the discomfort of taking Brazil. When they are let go into the environment,
the injection and saving money in the process. they mate with the wild mosquitoes and their
In summary, the aims with which GMOs are descendants die. Therefore, their population
produced are diverse. decreases, stopping the spread of the disease.
Potential risks
What foods contain GMO?
Are there problems with pollinating insects?
Overall, not many different types of foods are
genetically modified. But of those foods that Regarding BT corn, a study was published some
are, the GM percentage is high. For example, years ago connecting the death of monarch
about 90% of corn, canola, soy and cotton butterfly larvae and BT corn. However, studies
grown in the US is genetically modified. Other published later on PNAS, indicate that there
GM crops in the US include alfalfa, canola, was no correlation between the production of
cotton, papaya, potatoes, eggplant, squash this particular corn and these butterflies and
and sugar beets. A few other GM crops have other insects.
been approved by the FDA, such as the Arctic
Apple, which resists browning, and the Innate What care should be taken with GMO cultures?
Potato, which also resists rotting. GMO plants cannot escape and destroy other
plants. However, there is a good chance
While it’s unlikely that the product you are that their genes may escape via pollen and
buying on a regular basis is genetically pollinate other plants. For this possibility to
modified, it’s hard to find any processed foods be reduced, crops are cultured several meters
without a single GM ingredient, because corn, apart from other similar cultures. Besides, in the
canola and soy are so widely used in processed case of corn, it is known that corn pollen cannot
products, like cookies, juice, granola bars, pollinate other crops, only corn. Therefore,
cereal and frozen meals. avoiding proximity with conventional corn fields
may be enough.
Are there genetically modified animals?
Is there an interest in making GMOs sterile?
Yes, genetically modified animals exist,
particularly for research purposes, especially Connecting with the previous question,
mouses. GMOs sterility is a requisite in order to avoid
43
Persist_EU
