Dear editor,
MY NAME is Chitaba Nsunge, a fourth-year agricultural student at the University of Zambia studying crop science.
I am writing to share my views on genetic modification in crops and their misconceptions and benefits.
Genetic modification has been around since the first domestication of crops and animals.
When a characteristic of an organism is seen as valuable early, farmers would selectively breed the organism so as the characteristics are more prominent in the population of the organism.
For example, high-yielding crops were selectively bred so as the population of these crops were increased. Wolves that were more sensitive and friendly to humans were continuously selectively bred, making what we call man’s best friend today.
All these are examples of human intervention in genetics, also known as gentic modification.
Modern-day science allows us to manually place genes from one organism to another in order to get desired characteristics into our crops. Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterium that produces a protein that destroys insect pests in digestive systems, such as aphids.
This protein-producing gene is taken out of the Bacillus thuringiensis and put into tomato, which is called BT tomato, which then produces the digestive tract destroying protein which kills insect pests and reduces the need for chemical insecticides.
This is very beneficial to our environment as insecticides can also kill beneficial insects like bees, which are important pollinators. The protein produced by Bacillus thuringiensis is completely harmless to humans.This is where the debate begins as people say this “protein would harm humans”.
This is completely false as it is harmless to humans. An example is chocolate, which is harmful to dogs but not to humans.
The biggest concern from the international community is the gene flow from genetically modified plants to normal plants in the wild, which decreases natural plant populations. This has been curved in two ways, which are in the form of terminator seeds and self-pollinating crops.
When a genetically modified plant produces and releases seeds, they are not able to germinate, forcing farmers to buy new seed every season. They self-pollinate so that they do not cross-pollinate with normal plants and spread the gene, which causes the international community a backlash.
In conclusion, I believe we live in a mordern world backed by new cutting-edge technology which should be embraced for the better as this can help fight food shortages and help our ecosystems by decreasing pollutants like herbicides and pesticides, making farming less costly and beneficial. Miscommunication of these new technologies should be taken down as this reduces our progress and development as modern people.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
CHITABA NSUNGE.
