In the ongoing public debate over the safety of genetically-modified foods, including livestock and the foods they feed upon, few stop to think how genetically-modified foods might actually save humans. Oh sure, plenty of people, including just about all farmers, think about how genetically-modified organisms can better withstand a lot of things ranging from drought to disease and thereby save humans from widespread famine and tainted foods. But, as it turns out, that’s only part of the story.
Granted, saving us from widespread famine is in itself a solid reason for pursuing genetic modifications of organisms in our food chain.
After all, avoiding famine and disease is a big part of the reasoning behind other farming efforts such as widespread antibiotic use in livestock. Keeping more animals healthy and alive means more meat for more tables…unfortunately those tables got over-turned when germs decided to do a little self-gene-manipulation.
The silent war – germs that can modify their genes in real-time
Far too few people realize that all organisms are, and always have been, in the genetic modification game. At the moment, the biggest threat from naturally occurring gene modifications comes from bacteria that are evolving in order to conquer environmental threats – namely antibiotics. Viruses, micro-sized fungi and parasites are evolving too and becoming increasingly treatment resistant as well.
Some people blame the ag industry for the rise of antibiotic-resistant infectious agents. But it is the widespread overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals – as well as too few people actually finishing their antibiotics – that sped up the evolution of antibiotic-resistant nasties.
Making matters worse is the scary fact that germ evolution is not contained to reproduction and changes made over generations. Not that that is any less scary considering very little time elapses between germ generations.
But scarier still are the many ways germs have to transfer and modify their genes on the fly, so to speak. And here some of you thought human scientists doing gene modifications over the course of many years of research was a little scary. Nope, we have nothing on Mother Nature.
To understand better how regular germs do their own genetic manipulations to become supergerms, check out this short, animated Ted Ed video.