How Does GMO Affect the Insects Around Us? – iharare.com

GMO has been around for a while now, and it has continued to be the rave. Scientists have long learned to alter the genes of plants to favour the development of some traits in these plants.

When you hear about GMOs for the first time, it is possible that you have questions concerning them. What exactly is GMO? How does it affect the surrounding plants?

Are there plants that are resistant to its effects? Are there any negative effects of growing genetically modified crops? What are the short-term and long-term effects on insects, biodiversity, and the ecological environment?

The answers to these questions would become evident to you as you read on.

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms. GMOs are organisms whose genes and genetic behaviors have been altered with the help of genetic engineering.

In case you were wondering what genetic engineering is, it simply involves modifying the phenotype of an organism by reconstructing its genetic makeup. Most of the time, GMOs come about through mating or the recombination of genes.

Genetic engineering has since pervaded agriculture with crops being genetically modified. The aim of genetic modification of crops is to make the plants more resistant to diseases, pests, chemical treatments, or environmental conditions.

Some other crops are genetically modified to make them more nutritious. A common example of a crop that was genetically modified to increase its nutritional value is golden rice.

The need for genetically modified crops soared when pesticides were deemed incapable to adequately control yield-diminishing pests. Not all insects on a farm are villains.

Some actually have their advantages. The majority of them, however, never have good plans for crops. When you use pesticides on these crops, they kill all insects, including the good and bad ones. Usually, this is not what farmers want.

They want the good insects to remain and the bad ones to go. Also, spraying crops with pesticides could have negative effects on the crops themselves. With these major disadvantages of pesticides, the need for something better increased. Something that would kill the pests but not the good insects. That is how the need for genetically modified crops arose.

It used to be that the genetically modified crops had their protein manufacturing system modified so that a kind of protein that was previously absent in the crops were added. This protein is one that is harmful to select insects.

The genetic engineering of these plants is such that when pests eat crops that contain this harmful protein, it ruptures their stomach and kills them. And while these crops are terminal to pests, they dont affect insects and have some other advantages too.

However, this use of genetically modified crops came under a heavy debate when questions on the effects of these crops on humans popped up.

The solution to that came in the form of RNA modified crops. The genetic modification of crops is such that the crops can produce RNA fragments. These RNA fragments get into pests and target the genes responsible for reproduction or for life in them.

The result is that the pests are either killed or rendered incapable of reproducing. Ralph Bock, a director at a renowned institution in Germany, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, had something to say about this method.

He said, RNA interference-based pest control can provide protection at essentially no cost because once the variety is developed, the plant can just go on using it instead of needing additional applications of insecticide.

This way, controlling pest infestation becomes a lot more effective.

GMO have delivered the desired effects on both insects and critters. The ones we dont want feeding on our crops are either being killed or being rendered impotent by the genetically modified crops.

Also, genetically modified crops dont affect other insects, animals, and organisms whose presence on our farms is not detrimental. And when humans consume them, they do not exhibit negative developments because of them.

However, this is actively affecting biodiversity and in no time, some insects might go extinct. Given that the RNA fragments target the genes responsible for reproduction or life, before the insects that are responsible for affecting the crops die off, they are unable to reproduce and bring forth another generation.

This also affects the food chain. Some insects depend on feeding on a particular species of insects to survive. If these insects are no longer available or are very scarce, they would have to go some lengths to find food and in due time, they would begin to die off.

Most people might think that these effects are insignificant, however, it could have a huge impact on the ecological environment in general.

The onus is therefore on scientists to discover other ways of pest control that does not involve wiping out an entire species.

Also, rendering the insects impotent is a clear call for extinction. Instead, the spread of these insects can be controlled or the plants can be modified to not seem attractive to the insects anymore.

The effects of GMO can be pretty harsh and they bear long-term effects that most people havent considered and thought through. For instance, some of the good insects on farms are there to consume undesirable ones, and their effect may be two-fold. They prevent the undesirables from destroying the plants and they may aid pollination or some other essential process as well.

These are essential life processes that the use of GMOs may be altering, and the bottom line, maybe GMOs arent as great as most people think.

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How Does GMO Affect the Insects Around Us? - iharare.com