SoRo class

This map is the epitome of agricultural geography and the beginning of a series of questions such as why did all of Europe choose to be GMO-free? Or, does the proximity of European countries have to do with the fact that they share similar values (such as being GMO-free)? What does the EU have to do with this pattern? Because the EU chooses to be GMO-free, European countries are making a statement and consequently refining agricultural markets by refusing to import certain genetically modified foods. Agricultural geography thus shares some patterns across space- with all of Europe sharing simile agricultural policies. 

This is an interesting development that has major implications for the world and its food supply. The social and political buzz combined with corporate profits intersecting with morality about sums up this complex and diverse issue.

One platform is the compliance of companies using GMO's without placing it on the ingredient label. People clearly have a right to know what's going in their bodies, and to choose whether or not they want to.

Another is that GMO's are nearly everywhere in the food system, with some estimates that 70% of the corn produced is of this variety. For folks who want to feed the world and prevent hunger more efficiently this is a huge win. Think of the lives disease resistant grains alone could save.

But is it safe?

Other issues include, how crops that are non-GMO can be inadvertently cross-pollinated with those that are naturally grown. How is that being monitored, and who is doing it? Is it self-policed or are governments watching over this?

My personal worry is that we create a crop that causes digestive or nutrient issues that "infects" the food supply, or worse, we take the technology to humans with dire consequences. This will be one of the hot topics that will be debated for decades to come. Corporate greed versus what's right for the people of the world. Call me a romantic, but I hope we as society do the right thing and feed our planet first. Perhaps money can be genetically modified to have less of an importance in society.

Would you like to map out the GMO-free regions of Europe?  Looking for resources discussing the impacts of GMOs on society?  This is a partisan site with some nice resources for a student project. Additionally, in this NPR podcast they discuss how some American companies are trying to be GMO free in a GMO world.  

I thought this NPR broadcast was a great out of class referece to listen too.  As it explaine all the work and research that was being done with GMOs, it also exposed them for there flaws and what the real motives behind them are. While this ex source of rice with extra vitman A will deffenitly provid more nutitonal value then regular rice, it also provides higher profit margins for the bioengneer compaines that make it. So its almost hard to say weather GMOs are a bad or good thing beacuse they do have benifts, but one thing is clear there not just being made to help the poor, there being made for big profit possibilities.

Alright this is a reason GMF's can be used for good. Asian children do not get enough vitamin a. "When children are weaned, they're often weaned on a rice gruel. And if they don't get any beta-carotene or vitamin A during that period, they can be harmed for the rest of their lives,".

This is a great podcast that emphasizes various geographic themes including agriculture, development and economics.  This new genetically-modified rice was designed to provide vitamin A (something no natural rice provides) to impoverished diets.  Skeptics point out that the history of the industry shows that the goal is to enrich a select number of corporations while some are hailing this as a major advancement that will benefit the poor.  Where people side on this is often ideological, so those that are firmly against genetically modified foods find the flaw in the plan and vice versa.  What do you think?  How might this change food production and consumption worldwide and at a local scale?  

Tags: GMOs, development, NGOs, Food, agriculture, agribusiness, unit 5 agriculture.   

Once again, the term GMO has been used without regard for process.  We need to make sure our students have a clear understanding of what it means for a crop to be "genetically modified" now.  Although I get some eyerolls, this is why I continue to include an origin of agriculture segment in every introductory class I teach..

Yes, the title is somewhat misleading (isn't that almost expected these days?), since humanity has been selectively breeding crops since the first agricultural revolution and genetic alteration can occur independent of human intervention.  Humanity has always been using the best technologies available to improve agricultural practices.  The term GMO though, is usually reserved for scientific, technological modifications that were unimaginable 100 years ago.  

Tags: GMOs, technology, agriculture.

How is the concept of agribusiness changing the way we think about food?

My concern is how safe is bioengineered food?  How has its nutritional content been altered?  Until some of our questions about bioengineered food can be answered by the FDA and other government officials I remain leery about the potential side effects that might occur from eating it and wonder how nutritious it really is.

I mentioned this through an allusion in another article, but GMOs and the movements against them perplex me.  I don't think that fossil-fuel burning engines are natural, but many anti GMO people that claim they are bad for the environment leave me completely stunned as to their intolerance for what could possibly  benefit other people.  I feel very much an outsider when I examine many topics of controversy related to GMOs, and I am quite sure that I have consumed them before -- and loved them?  as for the FDA... I don't approve of the FDA.  They like more money coming into their pocket more than bettered well-being of citizens.  When I mentioned to my doctor that I wanted to apply for medical marijuana for a series of conditions that I have following a severe accident, I was told that they refused because it was not fully endorsed, approved, or even allowed by the FDA.  That really pissed me off because I suffer from excruciating pain every day and night of my life.  Could you imagine being a poor person in need of food, and the only viable way of getting food was through the production of GMOs...? and then some pseudo-hippie activists that didn't live through the 1960s trying to be all like, "We don't want anyone to have GMOs!"... I pose that abstractly, because I view most everything with a level of abstraction and distance from the situation, sampling perspectives with which I may empathize or consider.  I keep thinking that this world around us all came from a big bang, with other possible universes before that, and something  before that... and I really can't see Capitalism ever becoming as bad as it is, with such disregard for other people's wellbeing, until I look at today's world.

So many articles about organic or genetically engineered foods are written with someone with a very defined position on the subject (much like abortion, gun control or other controversial topics).  This article is an attempt to separate out the good the bad and the ugly regarding genetically engineered foods.