By Anna Lappe
August 20, 2011
Grist
Summary:
GMOs, genetically modified organisms, are starting to become less favorited because of the lack of benefits it provides compared to regular, old farming style. These GMOs, if anything, cause issues because it threatens biodiversity in areas and has not even proven its worth. Regular farming however can improve the environment, one of those benefits being protecting watersheds, which in turn reduces crops water needs by thirty percent! Though the efforts in Kenya to create a "genetically engineered pesticide resistant sweet potato" failed miserably, some researchers in Uganda were able to complete the task without manipulating the sweet potatoes; rather they simply bred the different potatoes until they reached their goal through regular farming. It has also been found to help the production of agriculture and decrease the use of pesticide tremendously in countries of West Africa. Farmers also seem to be able to create communities amongst themselves and increased their wealth.
Picture:
Shown below is a picture of a watershed. You can see how with watersheds, much more water gets access into the soil, thus reducing the amount of water requirements for plants as said before.
Opinion/Reflection:
Hm... look at us humans. Forcing things to work the way we want them to through means of unnatural ways. It seems pretty clear that GMOs are not a very good idea in the agriculture industry and it should be removed and replaced with normal farming. I remember back in elementary school at Simmons, there were a couple of visits down to the Jarret Nature Center and there was the shed (which is still there) and we were taught what watersheds were (Though at the time I honestly did not know what it was still and I actually thought it had something to do with the shed. The tributary just happened to be next to it (small though).) and now, after reading this article, I have been enlightened on their impact of plant growth and the importance of their conservation. The fact that watersheds help reduce the water needs of plants (as in, compared to manuel labor to water them) by thirty percent makes it even more incredible and important.
Question(s):
1) What is your opinion of GMOs? (Would you rather keep them or try and result to regular farming considering the benefits?)
2) Why do you think we use GMOs rather than figuring things out conventionally?
3) What are other things we can do to try and preserve watersheds?
4) After considering the benefits of conventional farming, what are the negatives to doing so?
This article stunned me!! I had no idea that GMO's existed let alone what they were. The fact that we have GMO's is just sad I would say. I believe that it would be better to just get rid of these odd mutated organisms and just go back to regular farming.
ReplyDeleteTo preserve watersheds I think we, as humans, should be more respectful of Earth and our water. I don't think people realize how little water we have on Earth that we are actually able to use (I know I didn't). If we try to reduce how much water we use, be careful with what we are just throwing in the streets/oceans, and think about the ecosystem and how it ties into our own lives, then we may be able to somewhat save our watersheds.
Wow! I just need to say, this really shows how stupid humans can be. I mean clearly they created GMO's to help out in that they can make things more productive and efficient, but they're really back-firing on us. They're less eco-friendly than just regular farming and they don't even work as well. The choice is clear that wee need to get rid of them because now we can see that they're doing no good at all and it's just so pointless for the reasons I already mentioned. I think again we may have tried using these GMO's in the first place was to help, but it may also be because we're just so lazy. Humans are prone to be incredibly lazy and always looking for new things to make our lives "easier" but it's just a nice way of saying to do nothing for yourself. How easy is it for people to say oh lest just use the easy way out and use a GMO, I mean sure it might not be as good or conventional as just regular farming, but at least we don't have to work. I think putting in the effort for a good thing (regular farming) is worth it is in the end.
ReplyDeleteI for one thinkl this is totally pointless. I agree with you victoria, we need to bring vback farming. We don't need to spend all this money on research for unnatural products when we can just use the natural products we can easily make.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that maybe we need them to make things more efficient and productive but why can't we just research ways to make natural farming more productive?
This remainds me of hot dogs for some reason. I don't really know what's in them and neither do most people. No one really knows if their products are natural or not but they would eat them anyways. Just like hot dogs.
This article also reminds me of a video game my brother played once, when the plot of the game was to help bring back the conventional planting. All the life on Earth started dying and you had to bring back the original ways of farming and plant-life. It's sad but we need to do just that.
ReplyDeleteI agree that GMO's can be useless and in some cases, harmful. GMO's prove to be harmful to an area's biodiversity. If the biodiversity of an area is low, then there is a lack of environmental stability. This reminds me of the biodiversity unit we learned in class. A low biodiversity can also mean that disease can spread quickly. We should not use GMO's because it can hurt an area's biodiversity and it is proven to be worthless. Regular farming improves the environment by protecting our watersheds.
ReplyDelete