There are other factors when it comes to farms, such as the environmental effects industrial agriculture has, and the problem of soil erosion, which is becoming very detrimental. Genetic diversity is just another factor that adds to the case of sustainable agriculture. If companies like McDonalds have such a great impact on the choices of farmers, they should make the incentive of ordering many different types of potatoes. And if we want to do something, we need to make our point through our purchases. BUY SUSTAINABLY GROWN FOODS!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Genetic Diversity in the Food We Eat
Before I begin to talk about genetic diversity, I would like to talk about the difference between sustainable agriculture and industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture is the way most of our food is produced. It is the most profitable method of farming. It involves something called monoculture, which I will get into in a bit. Sustainable agriculture is a more ecological approach to farming. It applies knowledge that we now know to the idea of industrial agriculture for everyone's benefit. Now with that in mind let's talk about industrial agriculture. One problem that most people are unaware of is the genetic diversity of the foods we eat and crops we grow. Because of the dominance of fast food, and other factors, most foods are grown from almost one species. For example, all the way back in the 1990s, only two types of peas made up 96% of all pea crops in North America. Something even crazier is that only because of Mcdonald's preference, more than half of all of the potato crops in the world are of one breed, Russet Burbank. Farmers get pressure from all types of companies to grow certain crops, mostly because of those certain species' convenience. Unfortunately, this is creating a huge decline in the genetic diversity of our crops. What adds even more to this problem is monoculture. Monoculture is basically where most farmers grow only one type of crop on a very large region. The low genetic diversity means that the species of crop that is being mass produced doesn't have a chance to evolve into a better survivor, and that they are all susceptible to the same diseases. Monoculture is basically making it easier for a certain disease or other to infect huge amounts of crops more rapidly. In fact, it's even happened before. In 1970, the Southern Corn Leaf Blight epidemic took out an incredible 60% of the US corn crop in only one summer. So there is precedent that genetic diversity is important for the prosperity of our crops. Sustainable agriculture looks to fix these problems and more. People who support sustainable agriculture plant a diversity of crops and species. This can actually serve as a buffer towards pests and other problems, since certain species have resistances others don't. Sustainable agriculturists also believe in the use of diverse cover crops, crops that are grown only for the resistances against pests, and their attraction of beneficial arthropods. Diversity in these crops increases their efficiency, and can reduce the use of pesticide.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Genetic Advancements: When is the Line Crossed?
Ever since I was a kid, I've seen movies and such that deal with genetically altered humans. It's an interesting idea, and it's one that we're going to have to deal with very soon, if not right now. Due to advancements in the understanding of the humangenome, genetically altering an embryo to become a more desirable baby is becoming a reality. In fact, in February of 2009, a fertility clinic in Los Angeles tried to offer the option to choose your baby's hair and eye color. They quickly stopped the service once they began to receive hate messages, because people did not agree with this idea. It can be a scary idea, but let's understand exactly how these procedures would work. 
Procedure 1 -
There are currently two ideal ways in which one can genetically alter a baby's outcome. The first would be exactly what you would think this process would be. It is called In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
This is basically modifying anembryos DNA before introducing it into the womb. We've discovered that certain genes result in certain traits. For example, in mice, the addition of an extra gene, NR2B, causes the mouse to learn faster and retain more knowledge. This same gene exists in humans, so it is possible that preforming the same surgery on a human embryo could result in a smarter child. However, there are quite a few problems with this. First of all, adding this extra gene could prove to have deadly affects by possibly interfering with the duties of other genes. It's also important to remember that genes can have more than one effect, so you may end up with some undesirable effects. In contrast to that, some genes only work in combination with others, so again, the effect may not be as wanted. Until a lot more research is done, this type of genetic modification will be very unstable. However this procedure can just as easily be used to cure genetic diseases by removing the deadly genes. The ethical and social problems come into play when we think about how this technology will work when perfected. We will be able to create perfect humans, a sort of super race, and what will happen to the regular people like you and me. Will we become inadequate?Procedure 2 -
This procedure is currently being used to prevent genetidiseases and other similar problems. It's called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). Basically what happens here is that, a collection of embryos from the parents are taken. These embryos are grown to the eight cell stage, at which point the cells are checked to see if the desirable genes are there. Only the embryos that contain the desirable genes or lack the objectionable genes are introduced to the womb. This is great for couples that have a deadly genetic sickness which could easily passed down to a son or daughter, however it can be used for some questionable purposes. It can be just as easily used to check for the desirable genes like previously mentioned, so that you select the embryo that you believe will give you the best offspring. Another controversy is the fact that the disagreeable embryos are terminated. Just like abortion, the problem starts when people argue about how early it is until an embryo is considered life, and killing it is considered murder. Some may believe that all of those embryos have a right to life, and it is hard to decide where the line is.
Ethics -
There are a ton of very controversial arguments on this entire subject. For one, the idea that this will be possible means that we will have an even bigger gap in society. These procedures will most likely only be available to those with more money. This will mean that the children of the rich and wealthy will become perfect and disease ridden, while those less fortunate will be left even further in the dust. Another issue is the line where treatment for diseases and enhancements is made. This is more of a personal opinion than fact necessarily. Some people will not like the idea of humans being created to be in a certain way. There should be something divine about that. At the same time, it's true in some ways that we're already designing our babies. Parents choose things like school, programs, friends and many other aspects of their child's life with the hope to affect their child in a certain way. Those who fear this genetic modification must realize that genetics does not trump environment. In fact, it can be said that, even though a child may be genetically engineered to do certain things, depending on how they're raise by their parents and other factors, they could end up being completely opposite. In this way we already do have designer babies. The scarier part of the idea that humans can modify genes is warfare, in my opinion. It should be obvious that governments will immediately try to take advantage of technologies like this. We will have soldiers modified to serve specific duties. Even more frightening is the idea that we will be able to possibly mix our human species with another species to create an entirely new one!
In my opinion, technological advances are what makes us human. However, when it comes to choosing every detail of our being, I think that there is something very inhumane about that. At the same time, it is true that the environment of the child is just as important, maybe more. I think we should do what ever we can to prevent sickness in society, but there are many scary aspects to this technology. If anything is clear, this is not a resource we can allow to fall into the wrong hands.
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