(Photo credit: Nubites)
GM food, otherwise known as genetically modified food, some say it's safe, some say it's hazardous. Mysterious to many and a staple to others. Supposedly highly sought after by farmers. So what really is GM food? Does GM food harm or help people?
Well let us speak about what GM food is and how it's made. GM foods are food products genetically modified to have certain traits. An example of such a food is seedless grapes, for the convenience of people who do not wish to deal with the numerous seeds from the grapes. So as we can tell, these traits differ from what is the norm of these food products when found in nature. Most people think that only food products from plant sources can be genetically modified, however this is very incorrect. Meats are most likely genetically modified. Such as in salmon that are modified to be larger and stronger than usual in the wild to increase yield of salmon products in aquaculture. It sounds extremely profitable to farmers to have a improved version of everything right? Well GM food does have its drawbacks to farmers as well. Notice how GM food, especially plant products, are significantly more pricey than normal products? Well this is because companies selling seeds of GM food tend to disallow reproduction of the plant. This is for the need of farmers to constantly buy seeds so that the company earns more profit. So what good has GM food brought to humans? Well there is a famous example that testifies the power of GM food and that is the Golden Rice Project ran by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board. Golden rice is a genetically modified version of rice that, as the name suggests, is gold in colour and is packed full of Vitamin-A. The Golden Rice Project was originally started to combat night-blindness, a Vitamin-A deficiency, commonly occurring amongst less developed countries where access to fresh and nutritious food is scarce. With golden rice, this staple food satisfies the necessary Vitamin-A daily intake and has been a phenomenal innovation by the biotech industry and prevents about a third of all under-five deaths, which amounts to up to 2.7 million children that could be saved from dying unnecessarily. Now time to answer the question that everyone wants to know, is GM food harmful or not? Well the answer is yes and no. Towards us humans, GM food is generally safe and is approved by the FDA ( Food and Drug Administration). In some rare cases, some people may develop certain allergies. Towards the environment however, GM Food is extremely harmful. Genetically modified plants such as pest resistant vegetables can cause the decline of certain pests in an area. This doesn't sound so bad, heck it even sounds great. However, this is extremely bad to the environment. Some predators may rely heavily on this pest and killing it off may destroy the balance in the ecosystem. A simple example of this can be represented in a simple food chain as represented below. Maize/Corn -> Corn Borer (Maize-eating worm) -> Birds Now to put it simply, the bird populations will dwindle down. Why? Well the birds rely on the corn borers for food but when GM Corn is introduced, the corn will contain Bt proteins, a toxin to the corn borer, hence killing the corn borer, reducing the amount of food sources for the birds. Another problem is the possibility of the corn borers gaining a resistance against Bt, hence giving rise to a generation of unstoppable corn borers. Now let us look at the same food chain that is slightly different. Maize/Corn (Nectar) -> Monarch Butterfly Now this is where it gets interesting. Some of ya'll may think so what? This isn't affecting humans. Well it does here. With the nectar of the maize now being toxic to the butterfly, the maize will not be able to be pollinate. You see, as the butterfly goes on the flower of the maize to drink nectar, the pollen falls on the butterfly. As the butterfly travels to other maize flowers, the pollen from the butterfly falls onto the new flower. This is known as cross-pollination. Without pollination, the flowers will never be able to turn into corns which are the crops we humans want. Maize being a staple to most countries of the US, GM crops may destroy the US food export economy and food supply of maize. This is just one of the many examples of GM crops and its impact on the environment, many more examples are out there. From this all, we can conclude that GM food has no harm onto humans, in fact it has brought us alot of good. GM food however, harms the environment and can cause a lack of biodiversity. Now it's up to you to decide if you support GM food or not.
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(Photo credits: BBC.com) When we think of clean energy we think of solar and wind. When we think of fuel we think of oil and gas. But what about clean fuel? Perhaps some of you can name me biofuel. Biofuel is fuel derived from plant matter such as palm and sugar cane. But what if I tell you, the unwanted algae you try so hard to scrub off every week in your fish tank is a blooming industry in the biofuel department and is gaining popularity.
(Photo credits: theconfluencecast.com) Coffee is not just an addiction, it's a way of life to most. Coffee is a staple to the mornings of the people who enjoy it and nothing does better than coffee to wake up anyone. Coffee farming has been a multi-billionaire business and it's fueled by the millions of coffee drinkers in the world. Cafes like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts run close to solely on coffee and has made large success with their coffee chains, testifying the significance of the presence of coffee in our global economy. Yet, the economy for coffee is dropping and the profits from the agricultural business for coffee is dropping steadily. This begs the question of why? Why would such a stable and profitable business suddenly be failing in the pass few years?
Well the root of the issue is back into the soil; agriculture of coffee plants has become more and more difficult for the many farmers looking for a profit from this business. Scientists say half of the world's coffee would be wiped out by 2050 by an infectious fungus spreading spreading in tropical countries. This fungus is the coffee leaf rust. This fungal infection was so bad in the past it forced many to switch and grow tea. Another reason for the difficulty of growing coffee now is climate change and global warming. As the precipitation increases in tropical climate, the rate of fungal spreading increases. Coffee plants grow well in about a temperature of 64°–70°F /18°C–21°C. However average temperatures in Brazil, the largest exporter of coffee, has average temperatures of 73°F to 81 °F /23°C to 27 °C in coastal areas and a highest of 100°F /38°C in mainland areas. This is way above the optimal range for coffee, bringing coffee growing to its decline. All of these issues forced the farmers to change the species of coffee plants they grow. There are 2 main coffee plants grown; Robusta and Arabica. Arabica is more susceptible to disease but yields high quality sweet coffee fruits sold at about $1.60/lb while the Robusta variant is more hardy but yields a lower quality bitter coffee, sold at about $0.85/lb. Farmers are now all switching to Robusta, lowering total profit to ensure a sustainable yield. Soon. no farmers would want to grow Arabica, leaving the world with low quality coffee and, maybe, even switch to tea, reducing the total coffee output in the world. As coffee becomes harder to grow, it becomes more expensive for anyone to have a cup of coffee every morning. For the coffee farmers, life becomes harder and a crop that had once helped them may not be a loss in profit. Very soon, a coffee a morning may be a thing of the past and cafes may be forced to shut down. The way of life of almost half of all Americans and many more in the world may just come to a complete halt due to climate change and if we do not do our best to combat global warming, it'll be gone in a blink of an eye. If this doesn't motivate you to help conserve the environment, the drink motivating you every morning will no longer be around. Total annual waste of Silo Cafe, Melbourne, Australia (Photo credits: BBC.com) There has been a recent rising popularity about stories of people who live a Zero-Trash life, covered by media outlets like Buzzfeed and seeker stories. In most cases we see houses with very "Asian" family stereotypes and the super amazing "one jam jar = the total amount of trash in a year". Perhaps at some point you have thought to try a Zero-Trash life. So what are the benefits of and how to live a Zero-Trash life? One of the biggest ways to live a Zero-Trash life is staring right at your face; follow the 3 Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Reusing is basically the most essential to reduce the total amount of trash produced. Perhaps you've been to the home of an Asian family and see the numerous collections of plastic bags and reused ice cream containers to store other food products and etc, etc. Well this, as stupid as it feels, is the biggest ways to live a Zero-Trash life. It saves cash too! No more need to buy trash bags when u have the bags given to you when u shop at Walmart. The milk jugs u had just emptied could be the cheapest water bottle u can buy for a road trip. The list goes on and on, the more creative you are with your trash, the cheaper life becomes. Now recycling is easy but most people just throw their ''recyclable" trash into the recycle bins and thats it. However there is alot more to recycling than there seems to it. Lets talk about plastics. Plastics are not all the same, the plastic used to make a lego brick is not exactly the same as the plastic used to make bags. And you would think so too, one being sturdy and one being flexible. Well plastics are labelled differently. If you look around on your plastic products, you should see a triangle with a number in it, like in the picture below. Now plastics labelled numbers 1-6 are recyclable whereas 7 is not recyclable. Each number represents a different type of plastic so of 1-6 which are most easily recycled. Well let us talk about 6, polystyrene, also known as styrofoam. Easily identifiable by look and the one you should avoid the most. 1 would be the most common plastic, a plastic that ends with -pete like polyethylene terephthalate, usually used to make soda bottles. 3 is PVC, polyvinyl chloride, used to makes pipes etc. 4 is a flexible plastic, low-density polyethylene, usually used to make plastic bags. Plastics that are not in 1-6 like nylon is in 7 which is not recyclable. Now let us talk about composting. This is to get rid of non-recyclable organic materials such as banana peels or remains of vegetables after cutting and washing. I'm sure you'all have heard of composting before but probably thoughts its hard to setup or start. Well today i shall debunk that and make your life a heck load easier with composting. First let us define organic material. Anything that you know comes from the earth, except metals, are considered organic. This includes fruits, vegetables and weeds. Now here's the thing, after the food is cooked like leftover fried chicken, we usually don't wanna compost it. This is as the oil from foods like these can cause issues with the compost's consistency and the decomposers doing the job. Meats are some thing you might want to avoid as well; proteins give off ammonia and urea when undergoing decomposition, the chemical that makes urine smell, so you might not want to use meats. Now let us start with how to establish a compost. First you should look for a location in your backyard or if you're comfortable with it like me, you can do it indoors. Then again its recommended to do this outdoors around the soil. You can start your compost in a hole in your backyard or in a bin, preferbly not made of wood. You can technically do it just on the soil itself but that's unsightly. Decomposition happens naturally by bacteria, that's why your food can rot, but it happens very slowly. So now we need decomposers such as earthworms and millipedes. Earthworms should easily be found when digging into your backyard or front lawn. Millipedes can be found in parks under leaf litter and tall grass. Be careful as millipedes can spray a foul smelling gas around its body as u pick it up so try to use gloves. Put these little critters into the compost bin along with a bit of soil and dampen it with water. From now on you can place whatever organic material you want to get rid off in here. If you are interested in bringing the bin up to the next level, you can consider introducing woodlouse, commonly found under rotting logs. The compost formed can be used on plants in your yard or mixed with soil for potted plants. It's basically natural fertiliser. Now the benefits of living a Zero-Trash life is clear, less money is spent and life becomes easier when disposing your trash, no hassle over large heavy trash bags and foul smelling rotting food. It kinda forces you to eat cheaper and healthier too, spending less on meats that usually come in plastic packaging and more on fresh vegetables. This is all at the same time of helping the environment, remember that we have just one Earth, and its is our precious Earth that we live on, if we don't protect it, it'll be gone before we know it. |
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