Part 1: Genetic Engineering: Today’s Green Revolution

“Will Frankenfood feed the World?” 

Dr Abe V Rotor

A general impression about seminars and conferences on Genetic Engineering is to find out if one agrees with the issue or not. One may be asked, “Are you in favor of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and genetically modified food (GMF)? Outside of the hall one may be asked casually of the same question.

Photo Acknowledgement: Time Magazine

It is hard to expect clear yes or no answers. Here is the story to make us understand why – and to help us take side intelligibly on the issue.

We in the older generation have witnessed three revolutions in food production. The first green revolution was the opening of new frontiers, such as the development of Mindanao, the land of promise. The second green revolution was brought about by the so-called miracle varieties, or the introduction and breeding of high yielding crops. In both cases production tremendously increased – horizontally with new lands placed under cultivation, and vertically with higher productivity obtained. The third, which we are experiencing today, is biotechnology, which highlights the radical approach of genetic engineering.

The first Green Revolution pushed production frontiers up to the mountains and down to the sea. Slope agriculture and aquaculture were born. When agronomy succeeded in pushing plants and animals to yield to maximum, we began tinkering with their genes through conventional breeding and atomic radiation. The world proved Malthus to be wrong up to this point.

Today with more than 7 billion people populating the earth and with their geometric increase unabated, the biggest challenge of mankind is how to meet the tremendous increasing demand for food. By year 2050, the world’s population will be 9 billion. Proponents of genetic engineering believe that only by applying the vast potentials of this scientific breakthrough can the world’s burgeoning population be saved from the Malthusian apocalypse.

By-Products of Green Revolution

The main drawback of the Green Revolution I - that of pushing the frontiers of production - has been the irreversible loss of natural environments and species. For GR II, we spoiled our lands, lakes, rivers and seas with pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals exacerbated by industrial wastes. For GR III – biotechnology – what is causing a lot of fear is Frankenstein-like, a kind of Genie released from the confines of super intellect.

Some even branded GMF as Frankenfood named after Frankenstein, title of a novel written in 1818 by Mary Shelly. It is a story about a brilliant medical student, Victor Frankenstein, who created a monster that terrified the world and at the end turned against his own creator. It is not difficult to associate the concept of genetically altering organisms to Frankenstein syndrome. The story is perhaps the first serious warning on the use of high technology in man’s ambition to play God. GMO is the most controversial issue today that touches all aspects of our life - environmental, health, safety and ethical questions. It is claimed to be anti-God and anti-nature.

The Promise of GMO
“Will Frankenfood feed the World?” is an article written by Bill Gates for Time, Visions of our 21st Century Technology. The multi-billionaire stirs the world on two fronts: GMF has met fierce opposition among the well-fed, but it is the poor and the hungry who need it most.

He admits that even before the warning came – in spite of the information highway – the world was not well informed before hand. There was no global consultation. But GMF is already a part of life of Americans and Europeans. Here are some proofs.

1. A third of the corn and more than half of the soybeans and cotton grown in the US is the product of biotechnology.

2. Since 1992, a total of 70 genetically modified crop plants have been released commercially worldwide. This means that many people have been eating genetically modified food without their knowledge.

3. Only one country in Asia – Malaysia that has not introduced GMO. On the other hand Singapore imports food in bulk from the US and Europe and therefore Singaporeans are likely eating GMF.

4. In the Philippines the most likely GMF we are eating without knowing or being informed about it are those served at fast food stores and PX goods coming from Europe and the US.

But the debate about biotech is tempered by the fact that there is apparent desperate need to feed fast-growing and underfed populations. According to the UN 800 million people around the world are undernourished.

While we cannot rely on conventional agriculture, ironically too, arable land has declined steadily since 1960 and will decrease by half over the next 50 years, according to the International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

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One area of heated debate is in the aspect of ecology. Because the products of Genetic Engineering are new and untested, their effects as they pass through the food chain must be thoroughly investigated. Admittedly very little study has been done on this aspect.
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Continued...

Part 2: Genetic Engineering - Tinkering with the Book of Life

Dr Abe V Rotor

Conventional agriculture can improve crops to this extent - giant balimbing (Averrhoa carambola) - basically by means of selection and hybridization. Should we resort to genetic engineering to produce more and bigger crops? Should we tinker with the genes, transferring them from one species to another, and creating new "life forms" in effect?

After we have perfected the model of the DNA which is the code of heredity, we have succeeded in cracking the code itself, which is the code of life.

This feat was preceded by the cracking the atom which brought out the first genie, the atomic bomb.

What would this second genie look like?

Let us create scenarios based on scientific papers in the light of many inquiries.

1. Does GMO cause cancer and other diseases? Evidences do not point out directly that it does. But cancer is too complex for us to have full understanding. Something – and that something that triggers the disease - may not be determined immediately, not until we can accurately read it in the human genome map. It is as puzzling as such questions like, Where did prion (infective principle of mad cow disease) come from? How does it cause Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy (BSE), and the human Crueztfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) with which the mad cow disease is associated? Other than cancer why are there more and more young people contacting diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s? We do not know. We can not blame these to GMO either. It is too early to say.

2. GMO and the Terminator. Here the genie is a multinational that placed in its hands the fate of the farmer. This is worst than the hybrid corn seeds which farmers must renew their seed stock every time they plant their fields. The Terminator is a GM corn that carries genes that automatically kill the embryo after the crop is harvested so that farmers have to buy new seeds from the company. The creator, Monsanto, got the ire of many people. It projected a bad image of biotechnology.

3. Processed Food from GMO. Seemingly you do not see this kind of genie. We do not know but we are eating GMF how much we are trying to avoid it. There was no referendum conducted or public consultation before GMF was put to market. Today GM soybean is processed into cooking oil, soy sauce, TVP, taho, tokwa, etc. GM potato finds its way through fast food chains. GM cows in steaks, burgers, corned beef and milk. Whose accountability can we seek refuge?

4. GMO touches the fiber of culture, beliefs and religion. People are generally sensitive to many things, cultural, religious, personal. Protest may be felt even in their silence. It could be that their silence is in the lack of food and absence of other alternatives. Beggars are no chooser, so goes a saying.

5. The Capitalist Syndrome. Who’s afraid of the big, big wolf? Ask not George Orwell. Remember his book, “1984”? He has another definition of big brother. I also refer to the book of Susan George, “How the Other Half Dies”. The world is without sufficient food, it is because the other half has simply too much. Well, capitalism is not perfect; it has also excesses as well as weaknesses. But what guarantee then has GMO not to fall into the control of the capitalist? Monsanto gave the early signals. Who control (owns) the gene banks of CIMMYT and IRRI?

Perhaps we have to look also at the humanitarian angle of capitalism in the absence of a better alternative.

a. GMO, medicine and health. Remember that a genie can be obliging, too. Genetic engineering is as young as dawn. As light breaks we take a glimpse before the sun is up.

b. Genetic engineering is perhaps the key to the pest and disease control, such as malaria and dengue. Entomologists have isolated parasite-suppressing genes in mosquitoes.

c. GE in medicine as stated in Dr. Saturnina Halos’s paper, such as insulin production, has expanded into the production of more potent antibiotics, hormones, etc. The incorporation of vitamins in food could reduce infant mortality, blindness, and other associated defects.

Frankenstein

It is inevitable that a time will come – and soon - when genetic engineering will be applied in human cloning. Today, we have so far applied human biotechnology mostly to helping childless couples bear children. But with results in animal cloning, a technique is being developed to clone the human being without encountering the problems encountered in Dolly the sheep – premature aging. This could be the biggest monster science will ever make. But it could be another Tower of Babel in the making. ~

Optimism - the future is much better than the past and present.

Optimism - the future is much better than the past and present. 

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”– Winston Churchill

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

   Future scientist - setting a dream come true.

How optimistic are you? Here is a self-examination. Use the Likert scale: 1 low, 2 fair, 3 high, 4 very high, 5 outstanding.  Please see rating at the end of the article.  Share your experience in this lesson with your family and friends.   
  
1. When in your loneliness see dark clouds hovering, their edges glistening with silver lining, you wish rain to fall and turn the brown hills and parched fields into verdant green.

2. When tired, you take a deep breath of sigh and relief, and up in the sky you see migrating birds in V-formation, a collective strategy in long travel to the South.

3. When walking aimlessly, you take time out to watch the flowers of Nymphaea and Lotus emerging from a nearby pond as they open gracefully with the morning sun.

4. When you worry about global warming, its growing menace, you take measures in your capacity in curving its effect for the protection of the present and future generations.    

5. When feeling stressed and worn out because of too much work and very little time for rest, you stop, look and listen to an inner voice longing to be heard and to be loved.

6. When you think you have poor memory, you must admit the fact that memory paves the way for renewal and preparation for the future with a clean slate, so to speak.          

7. When you see little chance for the economy to grow, you still go into business, small as it may be, with the belief in the "bottom-up" approach to economic  growth.  

8. When you lack pep and interest in your work, and you have a family to support, aiming at a comfortable retirement and bright future of your children, take heart, enliven the spirit.       

9. When going out of the house and see a black cat, a crow perched on a tree, and the first person you meet is an old woman, don't let superstition bar your way and spoil your day.    

10. When saddened by the destruction of the environment, you plant trees even at an old age, even if you will not reap the reward yourself - it is your humble contribution to the world. 

11. When you are in grief because a loved one has passed away, you accept the inevitability of such loss and find comfort and strength in facing life from the memory of the departed.   

12. When you are disheartened by news about conflicts, graft and corruption, disaster, etc., you consider these as challenge for reform and test of values to which you are a part. 

13. When the things you longed for in life have not been realized, and you are aware that time is running out, and no one but you can help, believe that life begins at forty - or sixty.  

14. When you contemplate defeat and heartache, you rise above pain and regret, and focus rather on how these can be avoided, and more than that - to become victorious.

15. When you are in the lowest ebb of life literally holding a piece of rope, you remember sometime you were asked if you wish to live you life all over again, and you said, yes.    

"Optimists work longer hours and tend to earn more.  They even save more." Time

"Without a neural mechanism that generates unrealistic optimism, all humans would be mildly depressed." Time 

"Awareness of mortality on its own would have led evolution to a dead end. The despair would have have interfered with our daily function, bringing the activities needed for survival to a stop... Knowledge of death had to emerge side by side with the persistent ability to picture a bright future." Ajit Varkl, University of California (Time, June 2011)            

 Thomas Edison, great American inventor, he is best known for inventing the incandescent lamp which lighted homes and cities and forever changed the night landscape.

 Charles Darwin, proponent of the most controversial issue on evolution through natural selection;  Mao Tse Tung, China's greatest leader; below, Alexander the Great, first proponent of a "United Nations" concept of world peace. 

                               

Rating: 61 - 75 You are a model of Optimism.  Share it. Teach others.  
             45 - 60  You are happy and hopeful, you see a bright future.  
             44 and below - Read about the saga of great men and women. 

Visual and Auditory Art (Painting and Music) - A Magnificent Duo

Visual and Auditory Art (Painting and Music) - A Magnificent Duo

Hush! Look and listen. 

Where words fail, music and paintings speak. avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.  Plato

Vivaldi brought the four seasons altogether in one sitting;

Beethoven composed unspoiled Nature to heal life's scars;

Mozart brought therapy to the forlorn, the sick and dying; 

Abelardo gave life to a river, and brought down the stars. avr

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures. Vincent Van Gogh

I saw dark clouds like curtain parting into view

a landscape so beautiful, so pristine;

I wondered where heaven is - isn’t it on earth? 

this scene in my whole life I hadn’t seen. 

Only when the inner you sees beyond the wall;

“What’s essential is invisible to the eye,” 

Exupery’ wrote in The Little Prince, the pilot 

lost in the desert and about to die. avr

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, 
which means never losing your enthusiasm. Aldous Huxley

Rise up from your hammock, the hearth can wait;

and don't face a blank sky or wall;

Growing old is living in the golden rays of sunset, 

where art grows mellow and beautiful. avr

A visit to the author's home (LIVING WITH NATURE CENTER) San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, Feb 11, 2019. Ms Noemi Garcia, Ms Librada Garcia, Ms Magdalena Garcia, Miss Jonah T Garcia and Mr Blandino Tipon.

A Child Builds a City

A Child Builds a City .
Dr Abe V Rotor

Mackie 6, builds a city - power of imagination and organization. 

What a child can make out of building blocks -

a prototype of a city;

What innocence brings forth to our world today  

rebirth from human frailty. ~

The Child and the Sea

The Child and the Sea 

"Hemingway must have missed this hour, this child;
he saw an old man and the sea instead."

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Mackie 6, author's granddaughter at Bacnotan, La Union 2018

She is all alone, by her shadow it's early morning; 

the sea is calm, its edge idle;

it's a kingdom where no masters and subjects live,

where peace and innocence reign,.

where a child can claim her own just for an hour. 

while we grownups search in vain.

Hemingway must have missed this hour, this child;
he saw an old man and the sea instead;
the world has grown too big and too old to be true;
 the scars of life haven't truly healed;
Yes, the throng in search of a hero agrees with pity,
such a life in the battlefield.

No, the great author saw the old man once a child
many years ago playing by the sea,
building sandcastles, leaving footprints behind,
never to return, but one day he sought
to find and catch the biggest fish ever in his life;
    it was neither fish nor dream he caught. ~

 

Thoughts Before a Mural of Nature

A visit to the author’s home in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur (LIVING WITH NATURE CENTER) February 8, 2019.

Santiago Ranches. Anchenar Inigo, and Justina Ranches Inigo;
Janette 6, and Lolo Delfin Inigo

Mural and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

 “When the sun is in its zenith, half the day is gone, half of the work done, half of life's stirrings over, yet the joy of living, its challenges and rewards are whole,  you are blessed.” avr

“It's collective memory that I'm a part
to write my life's story when I depart.” avr

 

  “In abstract art you lose reality,
but how then can I paint truth and beauty? - avr

  

 

 “Convenience is like wings gliding on the wind’s will;

It is also not taking off until the wind is still.”

  

 “Walk, don't run, to see better and to know

the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou.”

“Only good wine becomes mellow with age.” avr

(18^th Century Basi Wine Cellar) ~

Janette and Lolo  Delfin Inigo

"Bring home the birds and stream
to make my home cool and green,
and grow trees, ferns and flowers
        on the wall like living screen." avr

Author (left) with guests

Lend beauty to the arts,
in painting, verse and song,
in solace and meditation
from the maddening throng. ~