Transcript The Organic Food Debate

Issues in Biotechnology:
The Way We Work With Life
Dr. Albert P. Kausch
life edu.us
Agricultural Biotechnology
Lecture 17
Part IIIc. Issues, Controversies and Concerns:
The Organic Food Debate
© life_edu
Issues in Biotechnology:
The Way We Work With Life
Dr. Albert P. Kausch
Kimberly Nelson
OnCampus Live
BCH 190, MIC 190, AFS 190, NRS 190, PLS 190
OnLine BCH 190
A Sweeping General Survey on Life and Biotechnology
A Public Access College Course
The University of Rhode Island
Issues in Biotechnology:
Biotechnology, Our Society and Our Future
life
edu.us
Issues in Biotechnology:
The Way We Work With Life
Dr. Albert P. Kausch
life edu.us
BCH 190
Section II.
The Applications of
Biotechnology
A Sweeping General Survey on Life and Biotechnology
© life_edu
The University
of Rhode Island
Crop Plants
Conventional farming
Organic farming
Organic farming
No Synthetic Pesticides
No Synthetic Fertilizers
No GMOs
Is Organic Food
Better for You?
© life_edu
Is Organic Food
Better for the
Environment?
© life_edu
Is Organic Food
Safer?
© life_edu
Is Organic Food
Better for You?
© life_edu
Conventional Foods
Processed Foods
Organic Foods
Natural Foods
Whole Foods
Are Organic Foods Really Better For You?
What Consumers really want is good, clean, safe food
Is that too much too ask?
Organic Foods promise safety from pesticides
No synthetic fertilizer
No GMO
Natural Foods
Organic farming
No Synthetic Pesticides
No Synthetic Fertilizers
No GMOs
“Our goal of no-GMO ingredients
in our Whole Foods market brand
and 365 products is focused on
accessing ingredients derived from
non-genetically modified seeds.
Unfortunately, absolute “GMOfree” guarantees cannot be made on
any manufacturer’s product. Not
only is it impossible to test every
container of product, but currently
there is no system in the United
States to guard against drift from
farmers using GMO seed that could
potentially contaminate non-GMO
crops.”
Is Organic more nutritious?
Sixty-eight percent of the respondents in a recent US poll said
a product labeled “USDA Certified Organic” would indicate the
food was safer than non-organic foods
Sixty-seven percent believe the label would indicate food of
higher quality than non-organic foods
Sixty-two percent believe the label would mean the food is
more healthful for consumers than non-organic food
© life_edu
Are organic foods more nutritious?
The head of the U.S. Organic Trade Association recently had
to admit organic food was no more nutritious than any other
food and that organic food standards had nothing to do with
food safety
© life_edu
Is Organic Food
Better for the
Environment?
© life_edu
Is the Organic solution viable for
sustainable world agriculture?
Organic Advocates Argue: Wiser Land Use.
Less Pesticides. More Biodiversity.
Sustainable Agriculturists Argue….
© life_edu
Is the Organic solution viable for
sustainable world agriculture?
Critics argue:
Feeding Humanity From Organic Fields
Would Mean Cropping Twice As Much
Land As We Currently
Plant
© life_edu
• Gene transfer to other crops or wild plants
• Change in herbicide use patterns
• Squandering of valuable pest resistance genes
• Poisoning of wildlife
• Creation of new or worse viruses
• Un-assessable long term risks
Are There Unknown Risks
to the Environment?
Pesticides
Kill
Insects
Indiscriminately
“A butterfly beats it’s wings
in the Amazon…
and changes the weather
in Chicago.”
© life_edu
In 1962, Carson wrote: “A truly extraordinary variety of
alternatives to the chemical control of insects is available.
Some are already in use and have achieved brilliant
success. Others are in the stage of laboratory testing.
Still others are little more than ideas in the minds of
imaginative scientists, waiting for the opportunity to put
them to the test. All have this in common: they are
biological solutions, based on understanding of the living
organisms they seek to control, and of the whole fabric
of life to which these organisms belong. Specialists
representing various areas of the vast field of biology are
contributing—entomologists, pathologists, geneticists,
physiologists, biochemists and ecologists—all pouring
their knowledge and their creative inspirations into the
formation of a new science of biotic controls”
Is Organic Food
Safer?
© life_edu
Organic vs. Transgenic
Wild-type
corn variety
with secondary
fungal infection
Bt corn resistant to
corn borer damage,
resulting in less
secondary fungal
infections
© life_edu
What the public wants
is safe food that is good
So while the organic standards may attempt to
ensure freedom from pesticide residues, the freedom
of organic foods from vermin, mycotoxins and other
contamination may be less certain
Mycotoxins
Organic farmers are more likely to let their crops suffer rodent and
insect damage, which leads to more fungal infections and more
natural toxins in the food
© life_edu
Perhaps New Organic
Food Standards Could Use
Warning Labels
Organic Products Are Not
Necessarily Tastier,
Healthier Or Pesticide-Free
© life_edu
Organic agriculture is not a
food safety claim (FDA)
Organic means only that the farmers use organic fertilizer instead
of chemical fertilizer and “natural” pesticides such as copper sulfate
(broadly toxic) and sulfur (a soil contaminant)
© life_edu
Price Comparison
Conventional vs. Organic
Price Comparison
Conventional vs. Organic
Price Comparison
Conventional vs. Organic
Why is Organic Food So Expensive?
Sustainable
Agriculture
Is Organic Production Viable on a Large Scale?
Are GM crops a Threat to Biodiversity?
Does Local Food Production Really lower the
Carbon Footprint?
Does Organic Food really lower your exposure
to pesticides?
© life_edu
Issues in Biotechnology:
The Way We Work With Life
Dr. Albert P. Kausch
life edu.us
Agricultural Biotechnology
Part III. Issues, Controversies and Concerns
© life_edu
22. Genetic constructs can be made using DNA fragments
from different sources through the methods of gene cloning
and used to introduce new traits in plants important for
agricultural purposes. Gel electrophoresis is used to separate
DNA fragments. What feature(s) of a DNA fragment causes it
to move through a gel during electrophoresis?
(A) the molecular weight (size) of the fragment electrical
charges of its phosphate groups
(B) its nucleotide sequence alone
(C) the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs in DNA
(D) its double helix structure
(E) none of these answers are correct
23. Enzymes can be used to “cut” and “paste” DNA
fragments to make transgenes that can confer new traits in
genetically modified plants. It is possible to isolate a promoter
region from one plant and fuse it to a gene from a bacteria and
a termination signal from another plant to construct a
transgene that can be put into plants that will confer
expression of the bacterial gene. When DNA is cut it can be
analyzed using gel electrophoresis. After a gel electrophoresis
procedure is run, the pattern of bands in the gel show:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
the order of bases in a particular transgene
the presence of various-sized fragments of DNA
the order of genes along a particular chromosome
the exact location of a gene in a genomic library
none of these answers are correct
24. In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote: “A truly extraordinary
variety of alternatives to the chemical control of insects is
available. Some are already in use and have achieved brilliant
success. Others are in the stage of laboratory testing. Still
others are little more than ideas in the minds of imaginative
scientists, waiting for the opportunity to put them to the test.
All have this in common: they are biological solutions, based
on understanding of the living organisms they seek to control,
and of the whole fabric of life to which these organisms
belong.” GMO plants offer solutions to agricultural problems:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
that rely only on synthetic chemicals
kill insects indiscriminately
result in plants shown to be harmful to human health
based on biological solutions
none of these answers are correct
25. Organic Foods are know to be better for you since:
(A) they have been shown to have quantitatively higher levels
of proteins compared with their conventional counterparts
(B) they have been shown to have quantitatively higher levels
of vitamins compared with their conventional counterparts
(C) they have no GMOs which have been demonstrated to
have negative effects on human health
(D) they are only grown from heirloom varieties that have not
been robbed of their inherent nutritional value the way
conventional crops have been
(E) they are safer than their conventional counterparts
regarding food borne diseases like E coli