GMO: Pro or Opposed?

 

 

 



 Genetically engineered crops, also known as genetically modified organisms (GMO) have come into global debate since their introduction aproximately 25 years ago. In lamens terms, the idea behind genetically altering plants is to provide them with certain desired characteristics or traits (genes) that would be to the plants', as well as a society's benefit to possess; traits such as salination/drought resistance, insects/pest resistance, herbicide resistance and flood resistance.

That's a good thing, right!? Less destruction from pests, weed invasions and natural disasters means more food.

Unfortunately, along with resistance to specific insects or herbicides a growing immunity can be built up within secondary insects and weeds. Unknown health side-effects could also be a possibility when it comes to genetically altering plants.  And herein lies the dilema: At what expense, both environmentally and economically do GMO's benefit society as a whole?

To solve this dilema is the million dollar question.

Recently, National Geographic published an article on world populations. They projected that by the end of 2011 there will be 7 billion people living on this planet. 7,000,000,000 people. Another researcher projected that in 2050 alone, we will need all of the food that has been produced since man began cultivating crops just to feed the population for that year alone. That's an overwhelming thought. So, too is the thought that this production will have to be done using significantly less farmland. As populations grow, farmland will be used for developing urban areas.

This brings us full circle to whether or not GM crops are environmentally and economically beneficial.

In my opinion, genetic engineering is a technological advancement that has its place in crop breeding (http://goldenrice.org/).  But, along with many great inventions should be held to a standard. Scientist should not be allowed to tamper with genetics if the end result is environmentally damaging to specific niches around the world. In my opinion, while there is negative drawback towards GM crops, convential methods of breeding cannot suffice in supporting rapidly growing population. Therefore, it is imperative that new, innovative ways of breeding crops are at least given a chance.

Gotta' Love Them Orangutans….I mean, Mandarines. Tangerines. Whatever.

It's likely not too convincing to say that my favorite fruit is a Tangerine, when I often respond by calling them "Orangutans". Clearly, primates and citrus fruit differ drastically in appearance; and you might think one could differentiate the two. But, never the less if I had to choose a favorite fruit, Tangerine would hold the title.
World-wide, China produces more tangerines than any other country. And the majority of tangerines produced within the U.S. come from California and Florida (way to rep, FL!)

Eucalyptus rainbow tree

This weeks blog isn't exactly related to vegetables or fruit directly. It comes more from a discussion that was brought up in class last week.
This specific tree is known as the Rainbow Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta) tree, and is the only species of Eucalyptus that grows in the northern hemisphere.  It may look as though someone (very tall) has painted this guy, but in fact the coloration is due to the growth and shedding of new bark in irregular time intervals. Unlike other trees, like oak, the rainbow tree doesn't have a thick layer of bark on the trunk; instead it is smooth and vibrantly alive. As it grows, it exfoliates new layers of thin layers of tissue. Once the layers come off, they reveal new and fresh green bark. As the newly exposed bark slowly ages, it changes from bright green to dark green then blue to purple, and finally pink to orange.

The trees can grow between five to eight feet/year; reaching heights of up to 70 m (230ft). 

Ironically enough, these trees are often cut down and used for paper, white paper. 

Hay, that's nice!

Here are just a few photos of what my plot looks like after applying some hay to prevent weed invasions. I also put newspaper down so as to prevent weeds from photosynthesizing.

In the background two rows of Sweet corn are coming in.
On the right, a row of banana peppers.
Middle-left, a lonely brussels sprout. 

Yellow zucchini squash. If you look closely, you can see
they are beginning to flower. Unfortunately, no signs of a
female flower; only males 

The only downside of hay and newspaper that I have come across so far is in the application of fertilizer; it requires a bit more time to adjust the hay and fold back the newspaper. But, give a little get a little. You can either spend time weeding, or fertilizing… 

Vegetable Grafting: What is it, Why do it ?

When I first heard of 'grafting' as it relates to agriculture, my initial reaction was the very antithesis of joy and excitement. A conglomerate of trig functions, standard deviation and x-y graphs drowned out all joy and pleasure of my newly discovered agriculture-companion. Thankfully, and to my own personal delight grafting is far from number crunching (no offense to any accounting or mechanical/electrical engineer majors).
Grafting is a horticultural technique that dates back as far as the 5th century A.D. and is now used commercially world-wide.  In short, the objective is to avoid soil-borne diseases such as Fusarium wilt in cucurbitaceae and bacterial wilt in solanaceae (http://fftc.imita.org). Other benefits include acquired tolerance to abiotic stresses such as chilling or salt stresses, higher vigor and higher yield.
There are many ways to go about grafting a plant (of which we'll not delve into in this blog, as I myself am only just scathing the surface). Basically to graft a plant, take and cut the rootstock of one plant variety and mend it to the scion of a preferred variety.

Last week in class we had the opportunity to try our luck grafting a few tomato transplants. To borrow a trite expression, "I'm batting 500". Out of the two transplants I attempted to graft, one successfully took and the other, well he will be a great addition to naturally composted fertilizer…

Insect Evolution: The Importance of IPM and Biological Control

"The complex adaptive nature of ecosystems means that evolutionary forces are strongest at lower levels of organization; we have learned that the hard way in our continual battles with the evolution of resistance to pesticides and antibiotics, and the unwillingness of [insects and] microorganisms to take a reasonable approach to making things easy for us  (Levin 2001, p. 17) "

Whether you believe in conventional "evolution"  theories or not is, in this case, arbitrary. The fact is, insects are, and have been since the insecticide glory days of the 1940-1950's continually adapting and evolving to become more resistant to pesticides and insecticides. How does this happen? Every time a chemical substance is sprayed in a effort to kill weeds or insects, a few naturally resistant members survive. As these surviving members reproduce, their off-spring subsequently carry the chemical-resistant genes. Because insects have the ability to reproduce very rapidly (within a single year multiple generations can come in to existence) the genetics that allow for that specific chemical resistance become the majority within the population. Eventually, even high doses of such chemicals will be rendered useless.

Why is this important? Because these same insects are the ones ravaging vegetable fields and causing detrimental yield loss for farmers. Beginning in the 1940's, farmers in the U.S lost about 7% of their crops to pests. That number climbed steadily in the 1980's to about 13%. Today, in parts of the U.S up to 60% of crops have been lost due to insecticide-resistant pests.

For this reason, IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and biological control are crucial practices in horticulture and vegetable crop production. These practices focus on more "creative"  green ways of approaching insect management. Take Diatomaceous Earth as an example. Diatomaceous Earth (when purchased appears as a powder substance)  is fossilized silica; a micro-organism marine algae. On a microscopic level, diatoms appear as fragmented, shattered glass particles. When insects like ants and beetles which possess an exoskeleton to aid in, among other functions, water retention walk or crawl over diatomaceous earth they soon find themselves spliced and splintered. The effect would be similar to a tire running over police road-spikes. Yea….
Grits, yes the edible kind, are another 'green' way of approaching pest infestation. When dry, grits can be consumed by small insects (everyone likes grits, right!). But once in the stomach, the grits begin to expand and eventually…POP!

Biological control is the use of a specifically chosen living organism to control a particular pest. This chosen organism might be a predator, parasite, parasitoid, herbivore or a disease that attacks the harmful insect. For example, parasitoid wasps and flies lay their eggs within a host insect. Eventually the immature development will kill the host. Unlike many insecticides, most biological controls are insect-specific which result in less environmental hazards.  And unlike insecticides, a tolerance or immunity cannot be established, as the effects target the physical state of insects, not the genetic make-up.

It is important to note that biological control agents do not completely eradicate an infected area of the pest, as that would lead to starvation; but rather the agents reduce the population of insects to such that they are no longer a threat to the crops.

Nutsedge

If you have ever dabbled in the realm of gardens, be it vegetable or ornamental, chances are you have likely encountered the highly opportunistic, invasive lawn weed known as Nutsedge. In Florida, two varieties in particular, Purple Nutsedge (Cyperus rotundas) and Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) can grow and reproduce under virtually any condition with the exception of shady areas 1 .

Nutsedges are perennial weeds that grow from underground nut-like tubers. While herbicides can be applied to spot treat areas that have been invaded, one common mistake in the hand-riddance of nutsedge is merely plucking or pulling out the leafy, above ground portion of the weed. In order to ensure that the weed does not reproduce, the underground nut-like tuber must be removed and properly disposed of.

1. The genus name Cyperus is from Cypeirus which was the ancient Greek name for the genus. The Latin name esculentus means edible and refers to the tubers (cf. Hall, Vandiver & Ferrell. May 1991."Yellow Nutsedge, Cyperus esculentus L.1." In: SP 37. Full document here http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FW/FW01400.pdf).