topic 6

Question 1

what is organic food? How is it different from natural food?

Answer 1

• Organic foods: foods grown without synthetic fertilizers or synthetic pesticides and relying on natural means to control insects. No genetically modified components.
• Natural foods: ambiguous term w many meanings

Question 2

why is it hard to grown organic in a large scale?

Answer 2

not enough manure to fertilize such large crops

Question 3

what nutrients are needed in manure to grow crops? who figured this out?

Answer 3

Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K)

Justus Von Liebig

Question 4

What did Fritz Haber discover?

Answer 4

found a way to combine N and H to make ammonia synthetically. N2 + 3H2 –> 2NH3

Question 5

ammonium nitrate

Answer 5

fertilizer as a good source of ammonia but can also be an explosive (Oklahoma City explosion). It decomposes into nitrous oxide (N2O) as greenhouse gas ☹ aka prevents heat loss and contributes to greenhouse effect (global warming).

Question 6

difference between synthetic and natural pesticides

Answer 6

natural pesticides are unmodified from naturally existing plants/materials

synthetic pesticides are derived from materials, it has been modified or created in a lab

Question 7

what are the only 4 genetically modified crops using recombinant DNA

Answer 7

corn, soy, canola, sugar beets

Question 8

T or F: All foods we eat are genetically modified by cross breeding

Answer 8

True

Question 9

T or F: organic = pesticide free

Answer 9

False, Organic agriculture uses registered, naturally-available pesticides ONLY. Eg. copper sulfate.

Question 10

T or F: organic foods are more nutritious than conventional food

Answer 10

False, there is no evidence of a nutrient quality difference between the two. Nutrients do not depend on the latter, but rather variety type, soil quality, fertilizers, crop rotations, maturity at harvest, transportation.

Question 11

health risks associated with natural and synthetic pesticides

Answer 11

no identified health risks for either, it is rather improper use (excess dosage) that causes risks

Question 12

what kind of pesticides do we ingest the most

Answer 12

99.99% of consumed pesticides are natural, we consume ~ 1.5g of them/day, which is 10000x more than synthetic pesticide residues

Question 13

Risks and benefits of DDT

Answer 13

Risks: Rachel Carson explained that DDT accumulated in the food chain which causes problems in the environment. Found to correlate with future breast cancer risk (but no prove of cause and effect), so no compelling evidence that influences cancer development

Benefits: reduced malaria in Africa

Question 14

Malathion

Answer 14

synthetic pesticide that can wipe out mosquitoes that transmit disease and interfere with important enzymes in body if dosage is too high (can kill)

Question 15

What is the Nocebo effect

Answer 15

Opposite of placebo effect, : if you believe something will do you harm, you can get physical symptoms.

Question 16

Down side of pesticides…

Answer 16

Occupational exposure to pesticides can cause consequences, but amount of exposure is huge!

• Farmers might not wear proper equipment, settles in their clothes, and bring pesticides into their homes which in turn affects their family/kids. Common occurrence in southern U.S. where a lot of farmers are migrants.
• Incidence of Parkinson’s is higher in agricultural areas and might be linked to pesticides (but association is not = to cause and effect)

-Conclusion: while there are such hormonal effects, many chemicals affect hormones so it is v difficult to know whether pesticides which we are exposed to are having an effect on hormones.

Question 17

why do people buy organic

Answer 17

1. For what it doesn’t contain (pesticide residues) –> not true though
2. For what it does contain (more nutrients) –> also no true
3. Environmental benefits

Question 18

Why do pesticides get a bad rap?

Answer 18

They have sometimes been associated with cancer and their improper use has caused deaths.

Question 19

Round up

Answer 19

glyphosate: a pesticide used to kill weeds, made by Monsanto, sometimes weeds become resistance to it, very effective, DOES NOT cause cancer in humans

Question 20

What is proposition 65?

Answer 20

California proposition 65: “Any substance that in any dose in any animal can cause cancer should be subject of a warning to the public”.

Question 21

Are natural pesticides better for the environment than conventional (synthetic) pesticides?

Answer 21

It depends, it is a case by case issue. Eg. for soybeans, organic mineral oil had a worse record than synthetic

Question 22

Why is synthetic pesticide use beneficial?

Answer 22

Allows for more specific killing use, less tillage, less energy intensive and less herbicide –> higher yield

Question 23

What is the second most used technology in gmo foods?

Answer 23

insertion of gene into crop that codes for toxin that kills insects. eg. bt corn has gene from bacillus thuringiensis that allows for protection from corn borers. It therefore prevents the development of fumonisins, a fungus which is an established carcinogen.

Question 24

Common GMO foods

Answer 24

canola, bt corn, gmo potatoes (survived colorado beetle), papayas, etc.

Question 25

Benefits of GMO foods

Answer 25

• helps increase nutrients (eg. golden rice = + vit.A)
• helps crops grow (insert gene that enables plants to grow with less water)
• reducing trans fats (using low linoleic soybeans)
• allow for higher yields as crop are less affected by predators
  -allows for better looking produce and produce with less toxins

Question 26

what is the precautionary principle and why cant science meet this demand?

Answer 26

must have proof of no harm before you introduce product w novel technology, BUT it is a demand that science cannot meet because you cannot test it on everyone. You must make educated guesses based on information at a given time.
With zero risk mentality, we would have to reject all grain crops because they’re commonly contaminated with fungi, rodent droppings, and insect parts.

Question 27

why do they think gmo foods should not be labelled any differently than organic foods

Answer 27

requirements should be based on content of food and not how it is produced. Labeling already requires GM food that is nutritionally or compositionally different from its traditional counterparts to be identified.

Question 28

True or False: Seralini’s research that states that rats develop tumors after consumption of GMO corn is true.

Answer 28

False! Data was not reproducible so Eur. opean food safety agency gave a look at it, but Seralini refused to give his data. Paper was withdrawn from Nature years later…Seralini study had not shown what it claimed (few rats, and animals were prone to tumors even in placebo group). Seralini enraged, but he teamed up with a company that makes homeopathic products to create a product (Digeodren) that supposedly counters effect of “glyphosate poisoning”.

Question 29

what is risk

Answer 29

measure of whether or not damage is done under realistic conditions
Risk = hazard * exposure
(eg. Sunlight is a hazard, but exposure can be decreased and so risk can also be decreased)

Question 30

T or F: bacon is good for you

Answer 30

F: bacon is an established carcinogen, especially for bowel cancer

Question 31

What substance has been put in group 4 (probably not a carcinogen) in the IARC classification

Answer 31

Caprolactam: chemical used to make a type of nylon

Question 32

Why is the case of activists against roundup flawed? They claim that if it isn’t safe to breathe (farmers wear masks when applying it on crops), it isn’t safe to eat.

Answer 32

because the amount of food is only a trace amount compared to if you were to breathe it in during application.

Question 33

What is the Acceptable daily intake (ADI) of glyphosate (roundup)?

Answer 33

0.5mg/kg body weight, this amount every day would mean no issues to be expected, this would result in glyphosate: 4mg/L urine

Question 34

T or F: there is GMO wheat on the market

Answer 34

F

Question 35

T or F: GMO is bad for celiacs

Answer 35

F: might be beneficial, gm wheat that is low in gluten might be + celiac friendly

Question 36

Why is GMO corn + nutritious

Answer 36

Genetically modified corn which will be enhanced w methionine, an amino acid typically low in conventionally corn, so maybe more nutritious. Typically, it is an additive in animal feed, but if can be input in food directly, it is even better.

Question 37

T or F: all tomatoes are GMO free

Answer 37

true

Question 38

T or F:GMO free cereal makes cereal less nutritious

Answer 38

T: causes it to no longer have added vit. A, D, B12 or riboflavin.

Question 39

Meta analysis concludes that GM technology is pretty good, why?

Answer 39

On average, GM technology adoption has reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, and increased farmers’ profits by 68%. Yield gains and pesticide reductions are larger for insect-resistant crops than for herbicide-tolerant crops. Yield can profit gains are higher in developing countries than in developed countries.