Vienes caminando
y no sabes tu destino
coquistando suenos
suenas llegar a ser deidad
Sigues caminando
sobre viejos territorios
invocando fuerzas
que jamas entenderas
Y vienes desde alla
donde no sale el sol
donde no hay calor
donde la sangre
nunca se sacrifico por un amor
pero aqua no es asi
Vienes caminandp
ignorando sagrados ritos
pisoteando sabios templos
de amor espiritual
Largas vidas siguen
velando el sueno de un volcan
para un alma eternal
cada piedra es un altar
Y vienes desde alla
donde no sale el sol donde no hay calor
donde la sangre
nunca se sacrifico por un amor
pero aqua no es asi
- Saul Hernandez, Caifanes
The vulture was perched on the highest branch of a ceiba tree, the eagle spotted him and flew toward the branch landing besides the vulture. They began to talk about things past and present. Then the eagle asked, “Why do you like eating dead animals, and things that are decomposing?,” The vulture replied, “Well, why do you like to kill your prey?”
-Central America folk tale.
Genetically Modified Organism: Rice and Future Implications on Culture
Introduction
Rice is one of the most important staple grains we have on this world, and almost every country consumes rice. Science is a leading source of answers to the problems people have in our modern times. We rely on science to improve our lives. It was not until recently though that science drastically altered the evolutionary process of rice. For centuries, people depended on this grain so much so that in some parts of Asia ideas and folk beliefs evolved from the harvesting and production of rice.
Rice is grown in hot places where shallow marshes are located, and where water is abundant. There is an estimated one hundred twenty thousand rice seeds in the world. There are many categories from which to study rice production, ranging from the methods of cultivation, the use of fertilizers, ways of storing rice, milling and controlling the economic value of harvested rice.
There are four simple steps involved in the process of harvesting rice, and these are “(1) planting the seeds, (2) the flooding of rice, (3) the maintenance required during growth stage, and (4) the reaping of the harvest” (Grist). In between these important steps are many other steps that involve the production of a plentiful rice harvest, such as the use of fertilizers, insecticides, and the amount of water used in rice fields.
Scientifically improving the quality of rice for better harvest yields and increasing its nutritional value affected traditional ways of harvesting. For centuries, farmers used rudimentary methods to inter breed rice with other types of rice, slowly creating a better quality rice. However, a few decades back, with the increasing dependence of petroleum products and the rapidly growing population scientist replaced simple age old ways of harvesting rice by developing insecticides to kill off pests that lived off rice and apparently helping farmers have greater yields.
Rice is mostly grown in Southeast Asia, mainly to support its own population. The US is a big exporter of rice and has had a significant scientific impact on the quality of rice strains. In the past, growers saved their seeds from their harvests and used them to replant the seeds the following year. However, we have become so involved in the process of rice production that new super-seeds are being made, but these seeds and other scientific advancements do more harm than good. In addition to the ecological impact, these super seeds make farmers dependant on the producers of these genetically modified seeds. The farmer no longer depends on nature for the seeds, but on companies that manufacture the seeds. Companies such as Monsanto, sell agricultural products that are useful to farmers but dangerous to the environment.
The obstacle for some companies is not the use of insecticides to control pests, but how to get the greatest output from the little land available, and a preoccupation on monopolizing their newest discovery. This is the reason why “genetically enhanced” seeds appear to be the solution to this increasing problem. Currently, the entire production of rice in the world is six hundred seventy eight million tons, but it must increase to eight hundred eighty million tons of rice by 2025 in order to feed the earth’s population.
A Bit of Historical Background
Rice seeds native to certain geographical areas of the world have evolved natural defenses unique to their environment. For example, in West Africa rice grows with very little water and through time, have evolved natural defenses that protect it from heat and periodic drought. With the evolution of human cultures and further development of agricultural techniques people began to crossbreed seeds from different regions. Crossbreeding is a simple form of modifying seeds genetically that man used in the past to create new seeds for climates where other seeds would never grow. This continued for many centuries until we reached the twentieth century.
Thirty years ago, Asia had to double its rice production because of overpopulation. Different kinds of tests were done, like altering water levels to see optimal growing conditions. Soon it was discovered that it was better to keep water levels low for rice to grow and become strong, thus producing considerably more yields than high water levels. Cross breeding became more refined and quicker, which produced a new seed strain which was strong and could “generate a greater harvest”(Ecos).
Today, most rice is harvested with the use of chemicals. According to manufacturers insecticides aids rice by killing “natural predators,” such as “beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, snails and worms” (Grist 290). The Monsanto company claims:
“Integrated pest management, conservation tillage, chemistry and biology applied in concert can increase yields, improve the quality of our food and save our soil, Monsato’s contributions to food production can and will meet the requirements of sustainable agriculture to provide for basic human food and fiber needs, enrich the quality of our lives, preserve natural resources, enhance environmental quality and ensure the economic viability of farming,” (Monsanto).
Some tests reveal that where insecticides are used, “larvae were significantly more abundant in the no-insecticide plots, but numbers were not related to a yield difference”(U.S. 52). Genetically engineered seeds, like insecticides, fight against disease and insects offering resistance to pollution and water levels, but both alter the ecosystems and most of the time the genetically modified seeds that are harvested are sterile, only good for one harvest and nothing else.
Organic harvesting disregards insecticides or any other chemicals and allows insects to live. Masajo, interviewed by Ecos magazine, believes that “ insects control insects” that would otherwise kill or destroy the rice plant. He also states, “All animals must be preserved, no matter how harmful a ‘pest’ might be perceived, because any reduction in biodiversity ultimately will damage the quality of human life”(Ecos). Organic harvesting not only promotes a diversified ecological cycle but also creates a healthy food cycle. Masajo also said, “Yes, there are insects in my crops. Yes, there is some visible damage to foliage. But this doesn’t translate automatically to an economic cost, to a detrimental impact on yield” (Reinventing).
Using genetically modified rice benefit us in many ways, but nature’s equilibrium is drastically altered with these seeds. Scientific intervention in rice harvesting and other areas of agriculture has had a great impact. Livestock used to till the land, and animals raised for human consumption have not been immune to science and the industrial companies that promote their antibiotics and steroids. So far these advancements although good, have created scenarios where serious ramifications might arise for not properly understanding how some companies are drastically altering the earth’s ecology for the worse.
One approach to this problem is the development of an improved seed which doesn’t need the aid of insecticides or chemical agents to grow and produce large numbers of seeds. These seeds have a defense mechanism, so that they can be “drought resistant and pest resistant” (Reinventing). Seeds that were going to Bangladesh probably can be made to be flood tolerant. These new seeds can be made to produce in virtually any kind of environment, but instead big companies have decided to take it a step further by creating seeds that are genetically altered, and their seeds end up producing a sterile harvest making farmers dependant on their product.
Scientist have created new seeds using “more than 100,000 samples of rice” that are stored in large inventories (Reinventing). From these seeds, companies such as the International Rice Research Institute construct super seeds by using genes gathered from rice already growing under harsh conditions like West African seeds.
The Monsanto Company is one of the first to create similar type of seeds, and have filed “patent applications in several countries” (Kluger). Patents are important to a company like Monsanto because it prevents other countries and companies from copying their seeds or even replanting them. These patents make a company richer because they have a monopoly over seeds. Monsanto seeds can produce so much that the harvester would gain enough money to buy seeds the following year since these new seeds are sterile after one harvest season.
The way Monsanto produces “sterile seeds” is: (1) taking a seed-killing toxin from another plant and then inserting it in the genome of rice, (2) they add a blocker in order to keep the toxin dormant until exposed to an enzyme that removes the blocker, (3) the seed is planted and begins to grow. Finally, the toxin is produced and sterilizes the seeds. These new seeds cannot be combined with other seeds, making the farmers dependent on this type of rice. These seeds still harm the environment where buyers grow their new rice, as Kluger states in his article, “the company has also developed plants with a built-in toxin that is harmless to humans but lethal to insects”(Kluger).
For the past several years, the population of the world has been growing rapidly, through industrialization and other technological advancements drastically altering age old ceremonies that revolved around the planting and harvesting of rice. In addition, to the concerns that this paper is focused on, animals are also being injected with antibiotics and steroids to apparently immunize animals from potential diseases, and to extend the use of particular animals used for tilling the land, further degrading the natural cycle.
Genetic engineering is leading us into a new era of agricultural and social change where, in order to survive, we have to compromise with what is available and what nature allows us to create. Humanity is reaching a point where it is no longer in balance with nature. We are exhausting the land of its resources, trying to get as much out of it as we can, and in the process seeds that have been used for thousands of years are now quickly disappearing from the face of the earth. Human intervention in nature will not magically solve population and harvest yield problems. There will certainly be ramifications, one example of these problems is that some countries can not compete against countries that use genetically modified seeds, while at the same time the pollen of these super seeds kill off the naturally occurring seeds of staple grains. We have developed super-seeds that can kill insects and still produce “high volumes” of rice in very limited areas of land, and in some cases, we use insecticides to kill insects that are vital to the food cycle in order to reap a greater harvest. We are continually destroying nature’s balance to meet our needs, and still expect more from the land.
It seems perfectly logical to follow this course of living, but in reality, this is not healthy. Nature has already placed its boundaries and we have reached them. Instead of accepting reality as some ancient people seem to have done, we become arrogant and refuse to accept the destruction and dangerous cycle that is being made. Mother earth is the source of all creation and almost everything here is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. There is always an imbalance of things but this imbalance is always fluctuating from one extreme to the other. Currently, humans are on one side of the extreme that’s heavily exploiting and demanding much from nature, and eventually, nature will restore that balance, whether through our own destructiveness or ignorance. We are now living in a period of time where aside genetically modified seeds being used for agriculture, antibiotics and steroids are being given to animals we use for agriculture and consume on a daily basis. Now, when there are outbreaks of e coli or foot and mouth disease the viruses are also stronger and tougher to eliminate precisely because what we have thought was good for some few businesses has turned out detrimental to more people.
Older cultures on this earth had an understanding of the balance that needs to exist, and it is seen through the ceremonies they performed before and after planting rice and other staple foods. They wanted approval from their ancestors and their gods in order to have a good harvest. Whether their beliefs about their ancestors and gods were true or not they knew they could only do so much to ensure a good harvest. Constraining nature will only make it harder to grow healthy crops, because we need to submit to nature’s boundaries and keep the balance that is necessary for insects and humans to live. We will be eating unnatural food that has anti-pollutant, anti-insect, and anti-disease genes. Cases have already been found where cows injected with antibiotics and steroids, after dying severely affect the cycle and kill other animals, like the vultures which are sacred in some cultures. In his article Brittenden states, “Ancient rites of farmers to save their plants may soon become a thing of the past. Science is threatening a farming practice as old as agriculture itself” (Brittenden). The technological advancements in rice production is making us forget that we once depended on nature to stay alive. Farmers planted and waited for nature to do its work. We can’t have control of rice yields and its surrounding environments, therefore we cannot intervene with a process that has existed for many years. Some maize strains have been genetically altered, and now in the US only two types of maize are grown, sweet corn and industrial corn. We went from growing several types of corn ranging from small cobs, multi-colored corn, small and big kernels to two types of corn, eighty five percent of which is genetically modified.
Memory and ceremony cannot be linked to giant industrial companies, they should not be allowed to have control over basic things that humans have practiced through out time. A collective memory of harvesting and raising animals is being shattered to pieces. In ancient times cultures had various types of gods that had their origins in agricultural production, god of wine and excess, the god maize, the god of rain, and currently we have this concept of mother earth which is being quickly replaced with father scientist and mother chemical factory.
A Bit of Historical Background
Rice seeds native to certain geographical areas of the world have evolved natural defenses unique to their environment. For example, in West Africa rice grows with very little water and through time, have evolved natural defenses that protect it from heat and periodic drought. With the evolution of human cultures and further development of agricultural techniques people began to crossbreed seeds from different regions. Crossbreeding is a simple form of modifying seeds genetically that man used in the past to create new seeds for climates where other seeds would never grow. This continued for many centuries until we reached the twentieth century.
Thirty years ago, Asia had to double its rice production because of overpopulation. Different kinds of tests were done, like altering water levels to see optimal growing conditions. Soon it was discovered that it was better to keep water levels low for rice to grow and become strong, thus producing considerably more yields than high water levels. Cross breeding became more refined and quicker, which produced a new seed strain which was strong and could “generate a greater harvest”(Ecos).
Today, most rice is harvested with the use of chemicals. According to manufacturers insecticides aids rice by killing “natural predators,” such as “beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, snails and worms” (Grist 290). The Monsanto company claims:
“Integrated pest management, conservation tillage, chemistry and biology applied in concert can increase yields, improve the quality of our food and save our soil, Monsato’s contributions to food production can and will meet the requirements of sustainable agriculture to provide for basic human food and fiber needs, enrich the quality of our lives, preserve natural resources, enhance environmental quality and ensure the economic viability of farming,” (Monsanto).
Some tests reveal that where insecticides are used, “larvae were significantly more abundant in the no-insecticide plots, but numbers were not related to a yield difference”(U.S. 52). Genetically engineered seeds, like insecticides, fight against disease and insects offering resistance to pollution and water levels, but both alter the ecosystems and most of the time the genetically modified seeds that are harvested are sterile, only good for one harvest and nothing else.
Organic harvesting disregards insecticides or any other chemicals and allows insects to live. Masajo, interviewed by Ecos magazine, believes that “ insects control insects” that would otherwise kill or destroy the rice plant. He also states, “All animals must be preserved, no matter how harmful a ‘pest’ might be perceived, because any reduction in biodiversity ultimately will damage the quality of human life”(Ecos). Organic harvesting not only promotes a diversified ecological cycle but also creates a healthy food cycle. Masajo also said, “Yes, there are insects in my crops. Yes, there is some visible damage to foliage. But this doesn’t translate automatically to an economic cost, to a detrimental impact on yield” (Reinventing).
Using genetically modified rice benefit us in many ways, but nature’s equilibrium is drastically altered with these seeds. Scientific intervention in rice harvesting and other areas of agriculture has had a great impact. Livestock used to till the land, and animals raised for human consumption have not been immune to science and the industrial companies that promote their antibiotics and steroids. So far these advancements although good, have created scenarios where serious ramifications might arise for not properly understanding how some companies are drastically altering the earth’s ecology for the worse.
Effects on Nature and Humans
Chemicals in the insecticides kill insects affecting the ecology of nature at the micro level, which is a vital source of food for other creatures. The natural ecological cycle serves as a symbiotic defense mechanism for rice and other harvested grains. Birds eat bugs that live in the rice fields, which have eaten other insects that destroy the rice. However, when insecticides such as “DDT, carbon bisulphide, BHC, chloropicrin” and other products are introduced into the harvesting process, this delicate cycle is broken, causing insects to disappear (Grist 291) . As one insect disappears so do other kinds until they have all disappeared, forcing birds to migrate to other areas where there is food. In addition to birds, predators begin to leave their surrounding areas, and move to habitats where they don’t belong.
One approach to this problem is the development of an improved seed which doesn’t need the aid of insecticides or chemical agents to grow and produce large numbers of seeds. These seeds have a defense mechanism, so that they can be “drought resistant and pest resistant” (Reinventing). Seeds that were going to Bangladesh probably can be made to be flood tolerant. These new seeds can be made to produce in virtually any kind of environment, but instead big companies have decided to take it a step further by creating seeds that are genetically altered, and their seeds end up producing a sterile harvest making farmers dependant on their product.
Scientist have created new seeds using “more than 100,000 samples of rice” that are stored in large inventories (Reinventing). From these seeds, companies such as the International Rice Research Institute construct super seeds by using genes gathered from rice already growing under harsh conditions like West African seeds.
The Monsanto Company is one of the first to create similar type of seeds, and have filed “patent applications in several countries” (Kluger). Patents are important to a company like Monsanto because it prevents other countries and companies from copying their seeds or even replanting them. These patents make a company richer because they have a monopoly over seeds. Monsanto seeds can produce so much that the harvester would gain enough money to buy seeds the following year since these new seeds are sterile after one harvest season.
The way Monsanto produces “sterile seeds” is: (1) taking a seed-killing toxin from another plant and then inserting it in the genome of rice, (2) they add a blocker in order to keep the toxin dormant until exposed to an enzyme that removes the blocker, (3) the seed is planted and begins to grow. Finally, the toxin is produced and sterilizes the seeds. These new seeds cannot be combined with other seeds, making the farmers dependent on this type of rice. These seeds still harm the environment where buyers grow their new rice, as Kluger states in his article, “the company has also developed plants with a built-in toxin that is harmless to humans but lethal to insects”(Kluger).
For the past several years, the population of the world has been growing rapidly, through industrialization and other technological advancements drastically altering age old ceremonies that revolved around the planting and harvesting of rice. In addition, to the concerns that this paper is focused on, animals are also being injected with antibiotics and steroids to apparently immunize animals from potential diseases, and to extend the use of particular animals used for tilling the land, further degrading the natural cycle.
Culture of Rice and Harvesting
For centuries, Chinese planted and harvested rice that fed lots of people, and the process of harvesting deeply affected their culture. Aijmer, author of the Dragon Boat Festival says, “The concern of the whole community and the participation of the officials in the ceremony should be connected with this communal interest” (112). For Chinese, the Dragon Boat Festival was a ceremony closely linked with planting and harvesting that was “concerned mainly with the cultivation of rice”(Aijmer 13). They did not have control over the harvest but something greater was in control. It was thought that ancestors lived in the spiritual realms and their ceremonies guided the “rain-producing lung dragon” to the rice fields via the help of ancestors (Aijmer 112). The symbiotic relationship between the divine and mundane realities was acknowledged through the ceremony. A connection with “the transplantation of rice” and the dead existed and was recognized in the Dragon Boat Festival (Aijmer 108). In the past, there weren’t as many people living on the earth as there are today making it possible to reap plentiful harvests. There was always a balance between nature and man or at least there existed an attempt to keep a balance with nature.
Genetic engineering is leading us into a new era of agricultural and social change where, in order to survive, we have to compromise with what is available and what nature allows us to create. Humanity is reaching a point where it is no longer in balance with nature. We are exhausting the land of its resources, trying to get as much out of it as we can, and in the process seeds that have been used for thousands of years are now quickly disappearing from the face of the earth. Human intervention in nature will not magically solve population and harvest yield problems. There will certainly be ramifications, one example of these problems is that some countries can not compete against countries that use genetically modified seeds, while at the same time the pollen of these super seeds kill off the naturally occurring seeds of staple grains. We have developed super-seeds that can kill insects and still produce “high volumes” of rice in very limited areas of land, and in some cases, we use insecticides to kill insects that are vital to the food cycle in order to reap a greater harvest. We are continually destroying nature’s balance to meet our needs, and still expect more from the land.
It seems perfectly logical to follow this course of living, but in reality, this is not healthy. Nature has already placed its boundaries and we have reached them. Instead of accepting reality as some ancient people seem to have done, we become arrogant and refuse to accept the destruction and dangerous cycle that is being made. Mother earth is the source of all creation and almost everything here is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. There is always an imbalance of things but this imbalance is always fluctuating from one extreme to the other. Currently, humans are on one side of the extreme that’s heavily exploiting and demanding much from nature, and eventually, nature will restore that balance, whether through our own destructiveness or ignorance. We are now living in a period of time where aside genetically modified seeds being used for agriculture, antibiotics and steroids are being given to animals we use for agriculture and consume on a daily basis. Now, when there are outbreaks of e coli or foot and mouth disease the viruses are also stronger and tougher to eliminate precisely because what we have thought was good for some few businesses has turned out detrimental to more people.
Older cultures on this earth had an understanding of the balance that needs to exist, and it is seen through the ceremonies they performed before and after planting rice and other staple foods. They wanted approval from their ancestors and their gods in order to have a good harvest. Whether their beliefs about their ancestors and gods were true or not they knew they could only do so much to ensure a good harvest. Constraining nature will only make it harder to grow healthy crops, because we need to submit to nature’s boundaries and keep the balance that is necessary for insects and humans to live. We will be eating unnatural food that has anti-pollutant, anti-insect, and anti-disease genes. Cases have already been found where cows injected with antibiotics and steroids, after dying severely affect the cycle and kill other animals, like the vultures which are sacred in some cultures. In his article Brittenden states, “Ancient rites of farmers to save their plants may soon become a thing of the past. Science is threatening a farming practice as old as agriculture itself” (Brittenden). The technological advancements in rice production is making us forget that we once depended on nature to stay alive. Farmers planted and waited for nature to do its work. We can’t have control of rice yields and its surrounding environments, therefore we cannot intervene with a process that has existed for many years. Some maize strains have been genetically altered, and now in the US only two types of maize are grown, sweet corn and industrial corn. We went from growing several types of corn ranging from small cobs, multi-colored corn, small and big kernels to two types of corn, eighty five percent of which is genetically modified.
Memory and ceremony cannot be linked to giant industrial companies, they should not be allowed to have control over basic things that humans have practiced through out time. A collective memory of harvesting and raising animals is being shattered to pieces. In ancient times cultures had various types of gods that had their origins in agricultural production, god of wine and excess, the god maize, the god of rain, and currently we have this concept of mother earth which is being quickly replaced with father scientist and mother chemical factory.
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