DANGER: GMO and GE Products

“One thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” (Aldo Leopold)

A specter is haunting humanity—the specter of inequality. This ghost has been chasing humanity through out the history. At this point of time, it is very much evident in the world of politics, religion, economics, and even on the issue of food production. Famine, hunger, and unequal distribution of goods are everywhere. Many are crying and battling for food. What is its root cause? What should humanity do?

The world of biotechnology corporations is offering humanity an alternative. They are presently promoting an easy and convenient way of feeding the world and banishing hunger—i.e. through the promotion of genetically modified organisms (GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) products in the realm of livestock and agriculture. Genetic engineering, i.e. injecting or adding of a single cell into an organism for a single desired effect, according to biotech corporation, can guarantee greater production and thus more food supply. For example, in the case of Bt corn and GM rice in the Philippines, by injecting a particular gene to corn or rice—Bacillus thuriengensis (Bt) on the case of corn—they will be protected form parasites. As an effect, it will lead to better and higher production. Biotech even argues that GE crops require fewer herbicides and pesticides than conventional crops and that it will benefit health and environment.

But are GMO and GE products really the answer for global hunger? Is it healthy? Is it also environment friendly?

Sean McDonagh, a Columbian missionary priest, stated that GE is not the answer for food shortage for there is no such thing as food shortage. What really haunts humanity is the specter of greed. But even though, there is still no need to pursue genetic engineering for the fact that it is not safe. According to McDonagh, adding a single gene into an organism may unintentionally cause other harmful reactions within that organism which are not detectable. GE products could cause allergies, toxicity, and even cancer. Genetic engineering also diminishes the nutritional content of a product.

As they are harmful to health, McDonagh also points out that genetic engineering is harmful to environment. It impinges biodiversity. On the case of Gt corn for example, impact on wild life would be one of the major impacts. Because corn is the main and only source of food of some parasites, injecting Bt on corn genes will underlie lost of their food source. In the long run, genetic engineering will just create a sick planet. This would be a new threat for humanity for, as Thomas Berry points it, “we cannot have healthy humans on a sick planet.”

As consumers, it is a challenge for us not to support GMO and GE products. Even the church is one with McDonagh on saying that it is still advisable to support the conventional product because aside from the fact that it will help the third world countries who stick with conventional product, it is also a sign of love and care for our environment and for humanity as well. As Pope John Paul II points it, we must “resist the temptation of high productivity and profit that work to the detriment of the respect of nature.”