Month: July 2014

GMO-Free School Lunch Options

By Marjan Souayvixay, Biology major

According to Moms Across America, “31 million GMO meals are served to our children in American schools each day.. . . These meals contain pesticides, dyes, high fructose corn syrup and synthetic chemical which have been linked to Autism, Allergies, ADHD and Auto Immune Disorders.”

Wow! This blog caught my attention because I am a mother myself and I believe it is hype to scare mothers about GMO foods.

I am a student at OSU and a health professional pursuing education to advance my profession. I know that there are many factors that contribute to the above childhood illnesses, and GMO foods are not one of them.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) involve improvements done to a plant in order to make a better crop – for example, a drought resistant plant or pest resistant. Nothing is changed about the plant life form. What one should ask is, what kind of modification is being done?

Before food companies distribute their crops to the grocery stores, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provide regulation.  The foods contain minimal residue, and it is recommended to wash fresh fruits and vegetables under running water to minimize any residue (National Pesticide Information Center).

My priority is whether my child is getting the right amount of nutrients for a growing and developing brain and body, recommended by the American Pediatric Association.

My concern is if my child is getting the right amount of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Does his lunch provide healthy portions of each of these categories?

My advice to mothers is doing your own research, as I did. Resources are abundant. You will gain insightful knowledge and only with your findings you will know what goes into the bodies of the ones you love.

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This blog post was an assignment for  Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.

Conservation Aims to Preserve Bee Populations

By Adam Rine, Sustainable Plant Systems major

It is relatively easy to get so caught up in focusing on how a single process may impact the environment that we simply overlook how a combination of agricultural production practices can alter biological processes. One specific example is the drastic decline in honeybee populations across the nation. An article, written by John Schwartz, featured in The New York Times – Program Looks to Give Bees a Leg (or Six) Up – puts the current honeybee situation into perspective, highlighting the impacts production agriculturalists may face as a result.

Schwartz reports, “The cause of declining bee populations, both native and commercially raised bees, may be a result of a combination of factors including parasites, infections and insecticide use.”

In many cases, agriculturalists use insecticides to protect their crops from excess pest damage. These insecticide applications are not targeted to impact the bee populations but ultimately might. Schwartz includes information regarding the current actions that are being examined to compensate for negative effects of insecticide applications.

Schwartz reports that implementing ethical management practices such as including hedgerows rich in pollen to provide food sources and protective cover for bee populations may have a mutual benefit to bee populations and agriculturalists.

Many crops depend on bee pollination and bees depend on crops for pollen sources. Finding an acceptable balance between crop production and  the health of honeybee populations well-being will likely result in beneficial outcomes for both.

For more information refer to New York Times article (4/2/2012), which can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/science/program-looks-to-give-bees-a-leg-up-or-six.html?_r=0.

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This blog post was an assignment for  Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.

GMOs: Healthy or Not?

by Courtney Tarvin, Agricultural Communication major

In today’s fast paced, instant world everyone is looking for the most efficient way accomplish their goals, for many farmers that is producing genetically modified food, but are they really healthy?

I personally think that these Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) foods are healthy for consumption. Biology Fortified’s article, The 10 Minor Realizations That Flipped My Thinking About GMOs, has some interesting points. For example, GMOs only have a single gene that is being transferred out of the thousands of genes that they contain. Also, I think we need to realize that we share half of our DNA with a banana.

Many plants produce their own pesticides, and traditional selective breeding has had a negative unintended consequence on the world. We can’t prove that these foods are bad for human consumption and contemporary breeding has been proven to be very selective.

The public is afraid of the unknown as we do not know the correlation between health and GMO products, but it is only because of the messages that people against GMOs have sent out, convincing others that these are bad products. GMOs have helped to vastly improve production over the years and have helped with the agriculture industry; they are healthy and safe. But the biggest issue that the agriculture industry faces is convincing the public that these products are safe for them to consume.
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This blog post was an assignment for  Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.

Sharing Agriculture’s Message

by Christine Dubler, Community Leadership major

Today I’m going to take the time to talk about the use of social media in agriculture.  It’s no new news that social media is the center of our society; in some ways good and other ways bad. The benefits of using social media are endless: quick, up to date information, directed at specific target audiences.  Social media is also a great way to reach more than just the agriculture industry.  Social media opens the door for agriculturalists to connect and educate others about what agriculture is and how it is relevant to our daily lives.

I’ll use some of my own examples to explain the ideas above. I like to go about educating others about agriculture through pictures. I love Instagram. When I am at an agricultural related event, which is a lot, I take lots of pictures.  However, simply posting those pictures doesn’t do the deed.  Every picture needs an interesting and informative caption to go with it.  In the past few years hashtags have also become a vital part of social media.  Using a hashtag will group your post or photo with other similar hashtags (Example: #foodthanks).  Another reason I like to use Instagram is the ability it gives me to post my photo on other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.  Posting the photo to other media sites allows me to share the information with hundreds and thousands of other people.

Social media should be used to the best of its ability to promote and educate the greater population about the prominence and lasting effect agriculture has in our society.

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This blog post was an assignment for  Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.

What are Open Source Seeds?

by Jeffrey Schad, Art major

The University of Wisconsin – Madison is selling pre-orders for open-source seeds beginning April 22, 2014, or as the date might be more widely known, Earth Day.  These seeds are open for anyone to use, replant, or pass on to anyone.  They are unpatented seeds that can be used for breeding.

The main focus is to let farmers and breeders dictate how they use the seeds they purchase again.  These seeds are meant to be an outlet for farmers and researchers to not have to go through the lengthy and expensive process of having to buy seeds year after year from a company that has patents for the seeds.  All of the seeds sold are certified organic.

The University of Wisconsin – Madison has already released 29 different varieties of crops for breeders and famers to freely use:

> Read story

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This blog post was an assignment for  Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.