Caroline Lepczyk
Monday May 20th
Today was a very exciting day! In the morning we visited the seed company, Dupont Pioneer in Johnston before going to Iowa Corn Growers Association in the afternoon, and then later after dinner we watched a film called The World According to Monsanto. The day was very corn focused.
The tour of Dupont Pioneer in the morning was absolutely wonderful. We learned about the origins of genetic engineering and the process of hybridization. We may also have heard about feeding the world maybe once or twice. On the tour, we got to talk to one of the genetic engineers, see the labs where they tested genetically engineered and hybrid varieties of corn, soybeans and other crop seeds and the greenhouses and fields where they grew them out.
Through the tour, we were able to learn more about genetically modified seeds than we had previously known. Despite the many opponents of GMOs who believe that they are not properly tested before they reach the market, and that they may be dangerous for consumption, genetically engineered crops actually go through very strenuous testing for quite a while before they are ever sold to the public, including testing by the EPA, USDA and FDA. According to Robert Paarlberg, author of “Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know,” “The FDA is the agency that reviews genetically engineered crops for food safety, and it views genetically engineered varieties of familiar foods as no less safe than conventional varieties of the same foods unless the engineering process has introduced a new or unfamiliar toxicant, nutrient or allergenic protein into the food.”
Our tour guide explained that the testing process worked like a funnel; originally, there are hundreds and thousands of genetically engineered seed ideas but after going over the lot under intense scrutiny any ideas that could have negative health effects, would not grow well, would produce unintended side effects in the crops, or fail a plethora of other tests are immediately scrapped and sent back to the drawing board. Clearly, seed companies do not wish to harm their customers, after all, dead or vengeful consumers do not buy products, no matter how good they may seem.