Genetically Modified Organisms

Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/035238_natural_foods_GMOs_organic.html

“Know the difference: 'Natural' foods are not organic, often contain GMOs and other toxins” by Jonathan Benson

                This article details of how food considered to be “natural” or “organic” are increasingly starting to contain toxic chemicals, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and other additives that many health-conscious individuals try to avoid as a result of the continued growth of the certified-organic products sector. Companies are selling products that are supposedly “natural” to unsuspecting customers at higher prices, claiming them to be GMO and toxin and pesticide free. Many food companies refuse to voluntarily label many GMO-contaminated products in order to attract customers that would normally refrain from such contaminated food products otherwise. Although organisms in the novel pertain more to living tissues rather than foods, this relates to Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake because the issue of genetically modified organisms is highly satirized and warned about throughout the novel; in just the beginning, the speaker details of how genetically modified pigs called “pigoons” were created as organ farms for people. What originally sounds like a good idea is actually mocked to display the notion of cannibalism and immorality within society. The workers were described to eat the pigoons regularly, which is considered to be consuming tissues that are genetically similar with human flesh.

Annotated Bibliography:

Somerville, Chris. “The Genetically Modified Organism Conflict.” Plant Physiology 123.4 (2000): 1201-1202. American Society of Plant Biologists. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.

In this article, European governments have restricted the import and release of GMOs in response to the demands of activists, and these activists in Europe and abroad have taken to destroying field plots, and in one case firebombing a laboratory. Uproars all across the world on the legitimacy and ethicality of GMOs have appeared on the internet, in journals, in protests, and other forms of media and communication, and this is actually scaring companies into claiming their products to be “GMO free” just to protect these products and consequently, their sales.

                It is evident that debates concerning GMOs are occurring across the globe. However, in Oryx and Crake, the debate seems to be nonexistent; people are inherently acceptant of pigs grown to be “organ farms” for people, wolf-like dogs to control populations of smaller invasive animals, and artificially grown skin that would replace old and sagging skin. At the time when human populations were present, no one seemed to care what such genetically modified organisms would do to the environment and their own population. Atwood seems to accurately capture the ignorance of people in present-day society, but with one exception; Jimmy’s mother, although viewed to be borderline psychotic by her husband, was the only person in the novel thus far who seemed to oppose what the genetically modified organisms had to offer. When Jimmy’s father came home announcing that the neuro-regeneration of human brains inside pigs was successful, Jimmy’s mother claimed that this research was “interfering with the building blocks of life” and that it was “immoral” and “sacrilegious” (57).  Of course, the father dismissed her as a depressed cynic.

Watkinson, AR. “Predictions of biodiversity response to genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops.” Science (New York, NY) 289.5484 (2000): 1554-1557. EBSCOhost. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

This article was concerned with the predictions of biodiversity in response to genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops. A team of scientists simulated the effects of the introduction of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) crops on weed populations and documented the consequences of such plants on seed-eating birds. The predictions were that the weed populations would reach all time lows, or that they might possibly be demolished all together, depending on the degree of management. Naturally, populations of the bird that fed on this weed were depleted. Therfore the intensification of agriculture has proven to have an enormous impact on the distribution and survival of various forms of biodiversity. Thus, genetically modified organisms, although originally intended for specific purposes, may cause a decline in certain species, and in turn entire populations, causing unnatural balances within the environment’s biodiversity.

In Oryx and Crake, a child is bitten by a “bobkitten”, an animal originally genetically engineered to decrease the populations of the fast-growing iridescent rabbit. Even though these animals were supposedly harmless to humans, Jimmy notes that after the bobkitten was introduced, the population “soon got out of control” (164), and they began to deplete the population of other various animals that were not initially targeted. I very much agree with what the article was saying in that modified organisms can upset the balance of nature, and I feel that what Atwood presents in her novel is a clear and concise warning (or depiction, moreover) of what could potentially happen in the world’s future if genetic engineering of organisms is continued to be used and inevitably taken to the extreme.