You’ve spent a few months working on your commitment to reduce energy or water usage. Now it’s time to see how you and your family have fared. The results are in! Please share your results (from calculations on graphic organizer) and mana‘o about your Malama ‘Aina project by responding to this blog post. Give thought to your responses and be specific with comments rather than general.

Did you increase or decrease usage?

By how much?

Did you meet your goal to reduce water or electricity usage by 12%?

By how much did you exceed, meet, or fall short of your goal?

What are factors that may have contributed to the increase or decrease for your family?

How do you feel about the results you received? Explain.

How are you and your family impacting the environment?

GMO Information K-W-L Papa ‘Apuwai

Plants that have been genetically modified: canola (90%), corn, papaya, soy beans (94%), tomato, tangerine, clementines, seedless grapes, potato, maize, rapeseed, rice, sugarcane, flax, squash, chicory, tobacco, peas, plums, alfalfa, granola, cotton (90%), sugar beets (90%), zucchini, sugar (59%)

Use GMO if they think the plant/animals could be better by mixing the genes

Process of GMO: isolate gene (mapping); copy gene (PCR); transfer gene to other plant using plant tissue, gene cannon, protoplast, or soil bacteria; create new plant tissue that has been genetically modified; test new plant to see if it functions properly; involves mutation insertion of chemicals into genes and the genes from a different species (horizontal gene transfer); soma clonal variation and selective breeding

Can GMO affect health of humans or animals? Animals: Can lead to altered metabolism, kidney and liver problems, reduced fertility; rat poop had lots of poison; underdeveloped and sterile offspring

People: unpredictable consequences, but there are pesticides and fungicides in it so it is like eating poison; can affect pregnant women by affecting baby (ex: ADD and cancer); poison to a person’s body could lead to death; DNA transferred from one organism to another; can also cause deletion of genes; organ damage, immune system disorders, accelerated aging, infertility

Environment: ripples in ecosystem; threaten other crops bc use herbicides and pesticides; can cause plants to become extinct; when remove GMO plant, another grows and can become invasive; become a weed and spread wildly; create insect-resistant pests; chemical pollution spreads to other plants causing unwanted genes (GMO tomato eats lots of O2 so it affects people; HT and BT crops have shorter life span and have virus strains and are too overused; BT sunflowers affect envir bc a wild weed); affects biotech products in the environment

Using GMO to change animals’ DNA (ex: glowfish, featherless chickens, glow-in-the-dark pigs); to enhance animals performance and make them resistant to disease; changes transmitted to next generation

Alter color and smell of plants

FDA does not require GMO products to be labeled and they don’t have to have a safety study; FDA allows GMO companies to sell food freely without checks

Lack of Label: consumer could be harmed if he/she doesn’t know something is in a product

Cows injected to produce more milk are at risk for higher infection so given more antibiotics and people drink the milk with high antibiotic content

Religious people need label to know if they are eating something that they shouldn’t eat

Nutritional value of plant is decreased with GMO use

GMO breeding ground for viruses and bacteria

Studies: GMO contaminated seeds pass on trace to other plants creating another race that was unintended; genetically engineered crops do not show increase in yield and conventional farming often more effective

Montaso (Monsanto) is forefront leader in GMO use; 80% in US; there is debate on GMO use: some like and some don’t

What is used to genetically modify? Bacterial carriers that infect plants and carry new DNA to organisms; biolistic selects DNA and attaches to particles and shot into target using pressurized gas; electroporation target cells immersed in solution and electric shock put into solution causing tears in the cell wall allowing gene to enter; gene splicing

Three components to GMO:

• Gene to transfer from selected species
• Target species to receive gene
• Vector to carry the gene to target species cell

Pros and cons of GMO:

CON

• Can cause allergic reactions
• Could add proteins that aren’t original to the plant or animal that morph in the organism causing allergic reaction

PRO

• Some plants have been modified to be more pest-resistant
• Toxic bacteria (safe to humans) could be added to plant to make it insect repellant
• Transfer of new genes gives plant more nutrients
• Helps prevent disease
• Creates less expensive foods
• Can grow on land that can’t crop bc of floods and droughts

GMO Information K-W-L Papa Mana

How does GMO work? Enhance flavors of veggies and fruits; allow DNA from a plant to enter an animal; enhance vitamins in foods

PROS

• Help improve taste of fruits and veggies and stay fresh longer
• Animals eating GMO can become immune to diseases
• Farmers can skip steps in process so faster to grow crops
• Plants can be modified to have more vitamins
• Get to try different types of GMO foods
• Could make plants resistant to pests, weather
• Some plants can be grown to help people fight disease

CONS

• Introduces plants and animals not normal in the ecosystem and affects entire ecosystem
• Makes bacteria strains stronger and harder to kill
• New to us and no long-term testing of effects
• Can cause allergic reactions, health problems (liver and immune system problems)
• Some animals have died after eating GMO plant
• It might endanger Hawaiian plants and animals
• Having plants resistant to herbicides could lead to weeds resistant too
• Use Hawai‘i as a testing place for GMO plants
• Eating too much can affect system and develop diseases
• GMO stays in your body and weakens body; DNA gets into your blood and could do the same thing it was doing in the plant
• Not good for keiki because can cause child blindness, cancer
• Companies don’t label if GMO product
• Can hurt environment bc chemicals used could be harmful to envir
• Eating GMO product can harm baby in pregnant women
• Animals’ immune system is compromised
• Uses chemical pesticides

Product labeling? Some are labeled; can sell for more $$ if labeled bc enhances flavor and vitamin content of product; Japan has started labeling products

Why gov’t lets GMO in food? When companies get money, gov’t gets money too

What is GMO? Genetically modified organism; contains genes from one species transferred to another (ex: plant to animal)

How do they make GMO? “gun” that shoots bacteria into plant; be gene splicing

To create GMO:

• Gene to transfer
• Organism you want to put it into
• Vector to carry the gene to new target species cell

Who created GMO? Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973; full force in 1980

What do GMO look like? Super tiny can’t see without microscope; look like germs (“squiggles”)

Is there a better alternative to GMO? If use GMO just to keep pests away, could use natural methods like planting species that repel pests next to plants that have pests

Different perspectives on GMO?

• Farmer: split bc some want it bc plants grow faster and easier for them; some don’t bc even though easier, they want the land to be pure
• Consumer: they want to know what goes into their bodies so they want companies to label
• Environmentalist: pushing for organic farming bc less harmful to land
• Government: letting it go bc when companies make money, they make money
• Companies: focus on money, so they want it to keep going bc it makes money

GMO Information K-W-L Papa Moi

How do GMOs work? Use cloning and manipulate proteins; native gene + non-native gene = GMO; genes need to adapt; bacterial genes added to cash crops; develop resistance to bugs; GMO animals tend to die quicker and get sick easier; tampering with DNA of differing species; “biotechnology” science category and can only been done with plants, animals, and bacteria; put into plants to make them grow faster and better; can affect plant by making it immune to chemicals, bug-resistant, and makes it glow, resistant to cold weather; trying to create “better” product with appealing characteristic(s) of another species

How can GMO hurt people? Bring down health; toxify health; cancer, heart, kidney, liver malfunction or damage; high chance of diseases; used to make different viruses that can be injected into people and harm them; GMO field workers can diseases from inhaling chemicals; can cause allergies; can get antibiotic-resistant diseases; BT (bacillus thuringiensis) toxins in GMO food used to kill pests affects pregnant women; turn bacteria in intestines into pesticide factories; wind carries GMO chemicals from GMO farm to people/non-GMO and they get poisoned; (example of boy=skin turned black, paralyzed, death); increase in soy allergy after GMO introduction; high risk for children bc susceptible to allergies; indirect toxins in soil other plants; cows eating GMO food produce milk that affects children drinking the milk (faster growth, spine abnormalities)

What foods/crops contain GMO? Cereals, sugar, corn, wheat, oat, blueberry, cocoa, banana, soybean, maize, rapeseed, cotton, rice, alfalfa, apple, apricot, aubergine, avocado, barley, broccoli, cabbage, carro

Why does gov’t allow GMO? No one talks about the negative effects; people that use GMO pay the gov’t (Monsanto); GMO products are sometimes labeled “natural”; they want to do things the fast and easy way; if GMO company makes $$, gov’t gets $$; gives plants a way to defend themselves and they last longer, so gov’t likes it

Gov’t says we should be healthy, but GMO doesn’t help us; GMO banned in 60 countries; 21% of US sees GMO as serious health hazard

Genetically modify animals to find cures; studies on muscle decay, protein that stops blood-clotting, body parts; try to make sterile animals able to reproduce; effects pass down through generation

Side effect of genetically modified animals is small size; featherless chicken

Why do so many people use GMO? Insect-resistant; 80-90% of crops use GMO

GMO products labeled

JEM Club Members are working to help our environment, both here at KES and globally. Great job, Recycling Crew!!!