A pending problem of transgene

Introduction: Recently, scientists from Greenpeace Europe found that genetically modified soybeans contain unrecognizable DNA fragments, and the two sides of the debate held different opinions "We therefore demand that the French government immediately stop authorizing Monsanto to sell genetically modified soybeans on the market," Greenpeace said in a statement In fact, the debate on the issue of transgenic has a long history, but it is becoming more and more acute I origin of genetically modified crops Because of the concern of food shortage, human beings began to study on increasing the per unit yield of crops for a long time When the potential of water, sunlight and fertilizer to increase the yield of crops is exhausted, people try to improve the ability of drought resistance, water logging resistance and insect resistance of crops through hybridization and gene modification, and achieve the purpose of increasing the per unit yield greatly Among the transgenic crops, there are transgenic soybeans, corn, wheat, rice and cotton With its leading transgenic technology, the United States took the lead in the breeding of soybean, corn, cotton and other agricultural products, and began commercial cultivation around 1993 Since 1994, the soybean production of the United States has set a new record year by year, from 59.24 million tons of total soybean production at that time to 75.34 million tons in 2000, with an average annual growth rate of 27.2% At present, the annual production of genetically modified soybeans in the United States is more than 50 million tons, close to 70% of its total production After the commercial planting of genetically modified crops in the United States, the technology of genetically modified crops has been widely promoted in Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in North America According to relevant departments, in 2000, the total planting area of GM soybeans in the world reached over 44.2 million hectares, an increase of 11% over the previous year's 39.9 million hectares, while in 1996, the global planting area of GM soybeans was only 1.7 million hectares At present, there are more than 13 countries planting genetically modified soybeans in the world, among which the United States is the first, followed by Brazil and Argentina On July 5, 2001, a survey released by the U.S Department of agriculture showed that 33.3 million hectares of genetically modified soybeans were planted in the United States this year, an increase of 18% over the previous year, accounting for 68% of the planting area The previous June 29 also announced the planting area of transgenic cotton and corn, accounting for 69% and 26% respectively Second, the merits and demerits of genetically modified soybeans and their perniciousness have been debated for a long time With the increase of the world's population, the relative shortage of food has baffled governments and people of all countries The progress of human science and technology has undoubtedly enhanced the carrying capacity of the earth Since 1900, the world's population has more than tripled As of October 12, 1999, the world's total population has reached 6 billion Especially in the second half of the 20th century, the world's population grew faster than at any time in human history, and human science and technology were updated and knowledge exploded at a very fast historical stage In the 20th century, a series of epoch-making technologies, such as aircraft, computer technology, Internet, nuclear energy, genetic engineering, cloning and so on, appeared successively There is no doubt that the research and application of transgenic technology have epoch-making significance on the growth of crops This has a significant contribution to enriching human food sources, especially to solving the problem of hunger caused by the growing population It is predicted that in the next 25 years, the world's population will reach 8.5 billion According to the current cultivated land area and production capacity, the earth obviously cannot bear so many people, but this problem can be solved by doubling the growth of food crops through genetic engineering The biotechnology revolution is likely to have the most significant impact on human beings in the 21st century In the future, people may use genetically modified corn to replace petroleum to make plastics and industrial alcohol It is estimated that the planting area of genetically modified crops in the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil accounts for more than 95% of the total planting area of genetically modified crops in the world However, with the improvement of technology and productivity, people pay more and more attention to environmental protection, and see the potential crisis in the process of technology development Europe is the birthplace of the world industrial revolution, where steam engine, train, ship, chemical industry and other industries originate This is the first land to develop industry, and it is also the first to feel the environmental sequelae On December 4, 1952, a week long acid fog appeared in London, England, which directly led to the death of more than 4700 people Two months later, 8000 people died of respiratory diseases caused by the acid fog Dozens of kilometers of crops were destroyed and a large number of railway tracks were corroded This is caused by the excessive emission of industrial waste gas for a long time The European epidemic of BSE a few months ago was also caused by the artificial addition of animal bone meal to the feed of beef cattle for commercial purposes After the gene changes of crops, especially those used as food, will these genes cause human gene variation or induce human disease after entering the human body? The debate on genetically modified crops has also started Soybean, as a kind of crop, has been very active in international trade in recent years, and its market share has been increasing The debate on its transgenic problem is particularly striking Innocuous people think: transgenic is the outstanding achievement of human science and technology, transgenic soybean and other food is a kind of safe food, harmless to human beings They take the evidence that transgenic soybeans have appeared in the market for many years without any public hazards, to prove that transgenic soybeans are harmless to human beings The opposition believes that the safety of genetically modified soybeans is not reliable The reason why human beings have not found the direct harm caused by the consumption of genetically modified soybeans is due to the limitations of science and technology, and the lack of time The harm of genetically modified food is that it is gradual and slow Once it happens, it may be more terrible and irreversible than mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease The emergence of new and unknown diseases, or even the involvement of genetically modified food, is unknown Third, the escalation of the debate Both sides of the debate have world-famous biologists and famous genetic engineers It is reported that scientists from the Belgian Agricultural Research Center have recently made a new discovery that "genetically modified soybeans contain unrecognizable and abnormal DNA fragments, which have nothing to do with Soybean DNA sequence or soybean chromosome map "Other opponents said," there is no scientific data to support Greenpeace's claim, because we have tested the soybean gene sequences of different ages appearing on the market and found no difference, which means that this sequence is very stable In our opinion, all the data related to safety continue to be valid They didn't persuade anyone The first action to boycott genetically modified soybeans appeared in Europe In December 1999, the Italian Green Peace Organization publicly prevented 30000 tons of genetically modified soybeans from being transported to Venice At the end of 1999, transgenic products became a new focus in the world trade organization trade negotiations in Seattle, USA At the end of 1999, the U.S Congress put forward a strict program on genetic food improvement, which approved the labeling of all genetically modified foods European Union and Japan have respectively issued laws on the import and use of genetically modified products, and restricted the consumption of genetically modified soybean and its related products Genetically modified soybean and its similar products can only be used for non edible industrial purposes At this time, genetically modified soybeans have been planted in large areas in the United States, South America and other major soybean producing countries in the world, with the output increasing year by year In the early years, the European Union, Japan and other countries mainly imported soybeans to the United States and South America, while the proportion of genetically modified soybeans in these countries increased significantly, and a large number of them were used for export, which became their common problem This makes the contradiction between production and marketing worse and worse, from controversy to actual boycott China is the fourth largest soybean producer in the world, and India is the fifth China and India are the last pure land in the world's soybean production Japan and Europe all hope to import the native soybean produced by China and India However, the absolute population of these two countries is huge, and there is still a shortage of domestic soybean supply, which depends on imports Moreover, both countries belong to developing countries, and the consumption level is low, so there is almost no difference between genetically modified soybeans imported from foreign countries In particular, China's soybean import in 2000 doubled compared with that in 1999, and a large number of genetically modified soybeans poured into China On June 6 this year, the State Council promulgated the regulations on the safety management of agricultural genetically modified organisms, but the implementation rules have not yet been issued If China, like the European Union and Japan, takes the same measures to resist genetically modified soybeans, the international trade situation of genetically modified soybeans will further deteriorate, and a world trade war will not be ruled out 4 Is there an intermediate route? Despite the constant wave of consumer protests, facing the huge business opportunities of increasing the yield of genetically modified crops and the huge pressure of increasing the food gap of human beings, human beings may have to choose genetically modified crops as the basis for future survival Scientists predict that half of future technological innovation will depend on biotechnology If genetically modified food is really harmful to human beings, then it should be excluded from the human food chain, that is, people can neither directly eat it nor let livestock eat it, so as to avoid entering the human body due to residues in animals It is necessary to take a cautious attitude and strengthen the strict management of genetically modified products before fully confirming the safety of genetically modified products For example, the European Union and Japan only allow the proportion of genetically modified agricultural products containing unauthorized products in feed to be less than 1%, and the genetically modified products used for food should be labeled for sale The development of human production has proved that human beings are not only developing production, but also destroying the environment For example, the production of organic pesticides, on the one hand, reduces pests, on the other hand, also intensifies the extinction of species including pests And the harm of organic pesticide residues to human body is also a problem that can not be ignored At the same time, the abuse of pesticides has produced a new generation of drug-resistant pests, so that new pesticides need to be developed to deal with them Can human beings take a middle way? That is, to use harmless ordinary soybeans as food and harmful genetically modified soybeans for non edible industrial purposes? Other GM crops are treated in a similar way Even if it can be strictly used, there is something to worry about: in countries like the United States, where the proportion of genetically modified soybeans is as high as 70%, the seeds can be strictly separated when they are planted? Can crops pollinate each other at flowering? No cross infection during storage and transportation? Can we relax our moral standards when we sell and use? What's more, if all countries in the world can't adopt the same policies to genetically modified products, the problem of the harm of genetically modified food to human beings can't be solved completely It can be seen that it is also very difficult to take the middle route 5 The impact of the outbreak of trade war on prices If countries around the world boycott the large-scale implementation of gmea, soybean prices will go to two extremes