On Food
Last night I attended a Richard Dawkins lecture.
For those of you who are unaware of his work he has written greatly on the theory of evolution and is a well renowned athiest. There were a few things that he brought up in his lecture that kind of baffled and worried me a bit. In one of his examples on evolution he used roses. He spoke of how humans have bred roses and through centuries of picking and choosing traits we have come up with hundreds of varieties. Some are specifically bred for longetivity and some for smell. (Incidently many varieties of roses that are bred for longetivity will have no smell)
What's intriguing is we've done the exact opposite with our food. We have narrowed down much of our food selection to a small varieties each containing traits which will provide for longetivity, hardiness and consistency in flavor. But Steph, don't you want our food products to be delicious and long lasting? Yes I do but here is where the problem lies. The issue with breeding out varieties of our food sources and narrowing it down to a few species is risky. Is anyone reading this of Irish heritage? If you are and are reading this, your ancestors more than likely came over on a boat because of something called a potato famine. So what happens when a major food source is wiped out from a disease and there is nothing else to replace it? Well, people starve to death and die. In the case of the potato famine, a third of Irelands population's main food source was, you guessed it potatoes. And when a horrible blight killed off the crop, well... about 20 to 25% of the population were killed off with it.
Steph, our country is rich and food sources and shouldn't have to worry about this happening to us. Really? Tell me, how many of you look forward to eating turkey for Thanksgiving dinner? Turkey sandwich anyone? The turkeys that many of us consume is of the farmraised large breasted varietys. The birds are so huge that many of them are unable to fly. So what? That means they can't get away, MORE TURKEY FOR US YEAH!!! Right, it also means that they also have trouble mating. Many are unable to breed the natural way and have to reproduce through artificial insemination. Am I getting through to you yet?
Let's look at the banana. There are still over 300 varieties of bananas. This applies to the main one we eat which is known as the Cavendish. The Cavendish has been breed to the point that it no longer bears any kind of seed. It cannot reproduce itself. It is continually grown by taking cuttings of existing ones. Without the ability to reproduce itself, it lacks the ability to evolve and create a resistance to diseases. In fact a good chunk of the crop was destroyed in the 1960s. Great care now has to be taken with the growth of this popular produce. Soil and plants must be tested for the fungus and diseases. Scientists are now speculating that this species of banana only has about 10 years left. Better start enjoying the other varieties.
Genetically Engineered food. The answer to world hunger Right? Well crop uniformity which is good for consistency in flavor and longetivity for shelf life is nice. But crop uniformity as we have seen with the Cavendish banana means a reduction in genetic diversity and a reduction in the ability to ward off disease and insects.
Here's where it gets really scary. Is anyone familiar with the term "Terminator Technology". Hint: it has nothing to do with a movie. Terminator technology is a seed designed to grow into the crop. The crop's seeds however, are completely useless. the plants are sterile. What it is designed to do is to keep farmers from profiting off of the future seed the crop produces. There are two varieties of the seed.
V-Gurt is the variety which makes the plant completely sterile.
T-Gurt is similar but the seeds produced from the crop can be reactivated with a special chemical. Aka zombie seeds
Why is this bad? Well to that we look at how plants have sex. The plant, sends out its pollen through a variety of means. With luck it lands on another plant and the pollen makes it way down to the ovary creating a seed. Btw all of those tomatoes you eat, it's a ripened ovary. Delicious is it not? So what happens when the pollen from a plant genetically modified to produce sterile seeds makes it's way to a neighboring farm? I don't know. Thankfully the release of the technology has been put on hold. But with all the talk of passing on traits I bet you could guess one possibility.
So what are we doing to stop this? Well in the case of the Cavendish Banana, I would suggest that you enjoy it while you can. In other cases, there is a possibility that we are fucking ourselves over. Soylent Green anyone?
Sources
On Turkeys
http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7958630
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/546506/
On Bananas
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-06/can-fruit-be-saved?page=4
On GE technology
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/188/genetically-engineered-food
On Terminator Technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_seeds
http://www.globalissues.org/article/194/terminator-technology
On plant reproduction
http://www.essortment.com/all/seedsplantsr_rmjc.htm
For those of you who are unaware of his work he has written greatly on the theory of evolution and is a well renowned athiest. There were a few things that he brought up in his lecture that kind of baffled and worried me a bit. In one of his examples on evolution he used roses. He spoke of how humans have bred roses and through centuries of picking and choosing traits we have come up with hundreds of varieties. Some are specifically bred for longetivity and some for smell. (Incidently many varieties of roses that are bred for longetivity will have no smell)
What's intriguing is we've done the exact opposite with our food. We have narrowed down much of our food selection to a small varieties each containing traits which will provide for longetivity, hardiness and consistency in flavor. But Steph, don't you want our food products to be delicious and long lasting? Yes I do but here is where the problem lies. The issue with breeding out varieties of our food sources and narrowing it down to a few species is risky. Is anyone reading this of Irish heritage? If you are and are reading this, your ancestors more than likely came over on a boat because of something called a potato famine. So what happens when a major food source is wiped out from a disease and there is nothing else to replace it? Well, people starve to death and die. In the case of the potato famine, a third of Irelands population's main food source was, you guessed it potatoes. And when a horrible blight killed off the crop, well... about 20 to 25% of the population were killed off with it.
Steph, our country is rich and food sources and shouldn't have to worry about this happening to us. Really? Tell me, how many of you look forward to eating turkey for Thanksgiving dinner? Turkey sandwich anyone? The turkeys that many of us consume is of the farmraised large breasted varietys. The birds are so huge that many of them are unable to fly. So what? That means they can't get away, MORE TURKEY FOR US YEAH!!! Right, it also means that they also have trouble mating. Many are unable to breed the natural way and have to reproduce through artificial insemination. Am I getting through to you yet?
Let's look at the banana. There are still over 300 varieties of bananas. This applies to the main one we eat which is known as the Cavendish. The Cavendish has been breed to the point that it no longer bears any kind of seed. It cannot reproduce itself. It is continually grown by taking cuttings of existing ones. Without the ability to reproduce itself, it lacks the ability to evolve and create a resistance to diseases. In fact a good chunk of the crop was destroyed in the 1960s. Great care now has to be taken with the growth of this popular produce. Soil and plants must be tested for the fungus and diseases. Scientists are now speculating that this species of banana only has about 10 years left. Better start enjoying the other varieties.
Genetically Engineered food. The answer to world hunger Right? Well crop uniformity which is good for consistency in flavor and longetivity for shelf life is nice. But crop uniformity as we have seen with the Cavendish banana means a reduction in genetic diversity and a reduction in the ability to ward off disease and insects.
Here's where it gets really scary. Is anyone familiar with the term "Terminator Technology". Hint: it has nothing to do with a movie. Terminator technology is a seed designed to grow into the crop. The crop's seeds however, are completely useless. the plants are sterile. What it is designed to do is to keep farmers from profiting off of the future seed the crop produces. There are two varieties of the seed.
V-Gurt is the variety which makes the plant completely sterile.
T-Gurt is similar but the seeds produced from the crop can be reactivated with a special chemical. Aka zombie seeds
Why is this bad? Well to that we look at how plants have sex. The plant, sends out its pollen through a variety of means. With luck it lands on another plant and the pollen makes it way down to the ovary creating a seed. Btw all of those tomatoes you eat, it's a ripened ovary. Delicious is it not? So what happens when the pollen from a plant genetically modified to produce sterile seeds makes it's way to a neighboring farm? I don't know. Thankfully the release of the technology has been put on hold. But with all the talk of passing on traits I bet you could guess one possibility.
So what are we doing to stop this? Well in the case of the Cavendish Banana, I would suggest that you enjoy it while you can. In other cases, there is a possibility that we are fucking ourselves over. Soylent Green anyone?
Sources
On Turkeys
http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7958630
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/546506/
On Bananas
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-06/can-fruit-be-saved?page=4
On GE technology
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/188/genetically-engineered-food
On Terminator Technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_seeds
http://www.globalissues.org/article/194/terminator-technology
On plant reproduction
http://www.essortment.com/all/seedsplantsr_rmjc.htm