Let's protect ourselves from Frankenstein's food!

Shock: invasion of killer tomatoes!

Viktor Polevanov, "New Siberia"

Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the cultivation and breeding of genetically engineered plants and animals in Russia. The law came into force on July 4. The exception in it is made only for scientists, they are allowed to grow GMOs for scientific purposes. Most Russians will clearly like the president's decision. According to VTsIOM polls, 83 percent of the population supported a complete ban on GMOs. Most people are sure that genetically modified food is harmful to health and leads to cancer, well, at best – to infertility. 59 percent of respondents from these 83 percent are still very afraid of mutations.

The Second Green Revolution

What is GMO and what is it eaten with? As there are industrial revolutions, so there are "green" ones. The first "green" refers to the 40-70-ies of the last century. It included the breeding of more productive plant varieties, irrigation, extensive use of fertilizers, pesticides and more productive agricultural machinery. Thanks to the green revolution, it was possible to avoid the predicted large–scale world famine, grain yields increased by 65 percent, and tuber and root crops - by 28 percent.

There were also costs. Intensification of agriculture disrupted the water regime of soils, which led to their salinization and desertification. The use of fertilizers and pesticides has hit the environment. According to the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, from 30 to 50 percent of all diseases of Russian citizens are associated with chemical fertilizers, plant protection products, antibiotics and hormones contained in food.

The population continues to grow and demands to eat. It soon became clear that, given the dynamics of climate change, the world could not be fed with old technologies. The time has come for the second wave of the green revolution, and it has become genetic engineering.

At first, everything looked like a fantasy. The scorpion gene was added to the potato gene series, and the Colorado potato beetle stopped eating it. The polar flounder gene was introduced into tomatoes and strawberries, and the crops became frost-resistant. After manipulating the genes of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice, they became resistant to weeds and no longer needed herbicides and other chemicals. Also, the cost of their production has fallen significantly.

Currently, 80 percent of the world's land uses technologies of the first stage of the green revolution. 10 percent is occupied by genetic engineering technologies, and this segment is growing rapidly. The remaining 10 percent is so–called organic farming with natural fertilizers and manual labor. Pleasure is not cheap, ecological farmers demand subsidies, and not every country can afford them.

In total, GM plants are industrially grown by 28 states. As for Russia, we did not have commercial cultivation of GM organisms even before the current "anti-GMO" law.

Let's protect ourselves from Frankenstein's food!

Who else, besides the people, is against GMOs? Social activists. First of all, it is necessary to mention the Russian National Association for Genetic Safety and the international Greenpeace. On behalf of Greenpeace, "black lists" of "deadly" GM products and the enterprises that produce them are distributed on the Internet. (Greenpeace itself, which has already lost many courts for its careless statements, disowns these lists.) These lists include almost all Western companies and a number of domestic ones, such as Baltimore-Neva, Mikoyan Meat Processing Plant, Lianozovsky Dairy Plant, Cherkizovsky MPZ, Bolshevik factory and even Novosibirsk MK Gourmet.

Social activists from time to time still publish notes in the media with frightening headlines: "Infertility, degradation and mutation", "Scientists have proved: GMOs are a terrible poison."

And, by the way, what do the scientists themselves think? In the world, the most high-profile story of the fight against GMOs was the story of French professor of molecular biology Gilles-Eric Seralini. He conducted research on rats and came to the conclusion that transgenic corn increases the risk of cancer. Among Russian scientists in the forefront of the fighters against GMOs, Doctor of Biological Sciences Irina Ermakova. After the release of the "anti-GMO" law, almost all the central media interviewed her. Here's what she told the AIF journalist: "Americans proved at one time that where there were a lot of GMOs, obesity (the so-called "American obesity"), diabetes appeared, and I would also add such consequences of using GMOs as infertility and oncology... I myself have tested these facts on rats... I've never seen such a nightmare."

On Seralini and Ermakova, the anti-GMO scientists actually ended. Most scientists treat their experiments with great skepticism. The French scientific community harshly criticized Seralini for the technical and methodological errors of the research and even accused him of forgery of documents and the use of falsifications. The same claims were made against Ermakova by the Russian scientific community.

Eventually, Ermakova's research was closed at state expense, and she engaged in public activities. Now she claims that the Americans invented GMOs to destroy the population of Russia. Here, however, there is a discrepancy – before exterminating us, the evil Americans started with themselves, sowing their fields with terrible plants and eating them for decades. Irina Vladimirovna also claims that the technology of creating GMOs was given to humanity by aliens so that we would die out and free up living space. That's how it is! The Americans are destroying us, the aliens are destroying all earthlings. How terrible to live, how terrible to live!

Let's say aliens are among us. However, we can discuss further. Much more convincing, for example, is the hypothesis of Viktor Pelevin, outlined by him in the book "Love for the Three Zuckerbrins". The author believes that the alien invaders are a kind of flint parasitic civilization that has slipped humanity a transistor, a computer and the Internet. Well, since a third of the Internet traffic is porn, the aliens just feed on the energy of the earthlings masturbating in front of the monitors. Where are the patriot scientists of the Earth looking, what are they doing?

Hires of the global GM-behind the scenes

And that's what they do. 110 of the 296 living Nobel laureates signed an appeal to Greenpeace to stop the fight against GMOs. Among the signatories is our Zhores Alferov. (Besides him, we have no one.)

Can the laureates be trusted? Have there been special studies that GMOs are really safe? In May of this year in Novosibirsk, in his lecture during the City Days of Science, PhD researcher at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS (ICIG) Nariman Battulin said that such studies were, and they proved that GMOs are safe.

And it is. The American Academies of Sciences, Technology and Medicine conducted the largest study to date. A committee of 50 scientists and agricultural specialists has studied almost 900 scientific articles over 30 years on the impact of GM crops on the human body and the environment. According to the results of the study, scientists found that the use of GM crops does not correlate with cancer, obesity, diabetes, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, kidney diseases, autism and allergies. Moreover, evidence of a positive effect of GMOs on human health has been found. The position of the Russian Academy of Sciences, RAMS, RASKHN until recently also fully corresponded to the scientific world.

All G...

The most common myth about GMOs is the possibility of horizontal gene transfer from them to the consumer. Like: I'll eat a tomato with a cod gene, and I'll grow gills. About five years ago, a meeting with the director of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the SB RAS, Academician Valentin Vlasov, took place in the press center of GTRK Novosibirsk. He then said that all fears of the possibility of other people's genes being embedded in human DNA are a delusion. Over millions of years of evolution, the cell has learned to protect itself from such transfers. Hydrochloric acid in our stomachs digests the alien genome of plants and animals, regardless of whether they are natural or GMO.

One of the commentators already recalled the old chief Bashti from Jack London's story "Jerry the Islander", who made such a significant speech: "I lived a long time and ate a lot of pigs. Who dares to say that these pigs entered into me and made me a pig? I've eaten a lot of fish," Bashti continued, "but not a single fish scale has grown on my skin. And the gills didn't appear on my neck."

And what does "natural", "unnatural" mean? There are always some mutations in any fruit. And this is not the work of insidious Americans or aliens. Gene mutation is a natural process, without it biological evolution is impossible. 99 out of 100 foods that we eat did not originally exist in nature. They have changed either under the influence of solar radiation, or as a result of selection. Real carrots are far from orange, their natural color is purple. It became orange in the VII century, and it was done by breeders. Michurin was doing the same thing. That is, the gene structure changes both with the breeding method and with genetic engineering.

How do breeders work? They conduct dozens, hundreds, thousands of experiments. They ensure that the plant mutates and acquires useful properties at the same time. In the XX century, mutagenesis was developed when genetic material began to be affected by mutagens – ultraviolet, radiation, chemistry. But selection and mutagenesis are crude processes with not very predictable results. Genetic engineers carry out genomic editing at a fundamental level with "nail scissors", therefore, their results are more accurate.

Tomato blood of killed transgenic tomatoes

The fact that we eat only mutants can still be believed. But it's harder to believe that GMO mutants are healthier and safer than breeding mutants that Soviet collective farms have grown since childhood. Although it is true.

In Canada and the UK, for example, purple GMO tomatoes appeared, in which the production of substances-anthocyanins - was started with the help of the snapdragon gene. Anthocyanins are found in blueberries and black currants, these substances reduce the risk of cancer and diabetes. In the USA, a method is being developed to "turn off" the genes responsible for the production of allergen proteins in peanuts, due to which a large number of people suffer from intolerance. Another useful GMO is golden rice, rich in vitamin A, which was bred specifically to make up for the deficiency of this vitamin in residents of developing countries. etc.

A separate direction is biopharmaceutics. The plant can be used as a biofactory, where medical proteins are produced. All insulin is GMO. As Dr. Elena Deineko (ICIG) told the newspaper "Science in Siberia", "already four companies, in the USA, Canada, France and Luxembourg, produce aprotinin, an important fibrinolysis inhibitor in surgery that prevents the formation of keloid tissues. It is obtained from genetically modified plants... Drugs used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis, pancreatitis, Gaucher's disease and other pathologies are already available." Nariman Battulin on the Days of Science talked about the work on the creation of a transgenic goat, from whose milk scientists are already ready to isolate protein and create medicines.

And, by the way, what about the famous "American obesity"? Is it really not from GMOs? The beautiful Maya Plisetskaya was probably right here – you need to eat less. Obesity is a scourge of countries with a high standard of living. And if the economic conditions do not allow you to starve, you need to force yourself somehow. This also applies to some deputies of our "anti-GMO" Duma.

We didn't plant

If there is no scientific sense in the law against GMOs, then what is the point? Academician Vlasov believes that "the issue of GMOs is more political than scientific." Like the people asked to ban GMOs, and we banned it. As Stalin said at Fazil Iskander, we did not plant, the people planted. (He meant tangerines.)

Yes, we have good people, but the people are... GaMeO. The Higher School of Economics conducted a survey of Russian residents on the simplest points of the school curriculum. Only 87 percent of Russians know that the Earth revolves around the Sun, 77 percent – that the center of the planet is very hot, 71 – that the continents are moving and will move. 33 percent – that there are genes in all plants, not only in genetically modified ones.

In a society where the authority of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the ROC has already equaled, there is nothing to be surprised at. That there are genes, now respectable people are seriously discussing the seemingly long-forgotten telegony and raising Trofim Denisovich Lysenko to the shield. Moreover, the rehabilitation of Lysenko is mainly carried out by communist websites. (Zhores Alferov is not on them.)

The Duma, of course, is not the people, it is worse than the people. These are the best people in the country. But there is also something wrong with education there. Deputies have not liked GMOs for a long time. The first law against them was prepared by Evgeny Fedorov, the coordinator of the NOD. (Well, the one who first guessed that the CIA wrote all the songs to Viktor Tsoi.) His initiative was wrapped up by the people's deputies themselves. It is worth listening to what arguments they are giving now, explaining why they still voted for exactly the same law.

Sergey Lisovsky (SF): "If we follow the logic of the defenders of GMOs, then, of course, no one has proved the harmfulness of the products that Americans eat. Nevertheless, this nation is now actually degenerating."

Elena Afanasyeva (SF): "There is no way to cross, sorry, a fish and a plant and get a good product… Breeding is another matter. The criticism that has been voiced against the recently adopted law is all the verbiage of the scientific community so far."

Our native Nikolay Kharitonov (DG): "Let them not shout that the adoption of the law banning GMOs allegedly leads us to the Middle Ages. Our task is to produce environmentally friendly food in our country, as it was under Soviet rule."

Lysenkov rake

Nikolai Mikhailovich leads, leads, and it is in the Middle Ages.

Okay, Duma, but there is also the government and presidential structures. However, they also lead us there. The President, speaking at one of the meetings of the Security Council, unexpectedly hinted: "Russia must protect its citizens from eating food derived from genetically modified organisms." Then it started.

The adopted bill was developed and submitted by the Ministry of Education and Science on behalf of the President. Professor of Moscow State University, member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science Mikhail Gelfand recalls: "When this story was just beginning, an open letter was submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science, the summary of which is best described by the words "What the hell?" – it was signed by 150 biologists and doctors with degrees and another 150 without degrees. And there was a return letter, an official response from the Ministry of Education and Science that biotechnology is our everything, and if some stupid deputies introduce some stupid bills, we invariably give negative feedback on them." The professor also recalled that just last year, the same ministry, a loud fighter against GMOs, the National Association for Genetic Safety (we mentioned it), was nominated for an anti-award for the most harmful pseudoscientific project with the following motivation: "An organization whose activities are aimed at promoting the harm of GMOs, as a result of which the state policy of supporting genetic engineering technologies it was suspended – which leads to the lag of our country in the field of creation and application of modern biotechnologies." Such is the irony of history. The ministry that established the "anti-award" itself developed a law banning GMOs and, apparently, now this award will be awarded to itself.

We will try not to think badly about the country's leadership. Maybe the current turnaround is based on serious economic reasons. A month ago, Candidate of Biological Sciences Yuri Sidorchuk (ICIG), giving a lecture at the Atomic Energy Information Center of Novosibirsk, said so: "The war against GMOs has rather economic roots."

It is claimed that the adoption of the law is explained by food security issues. They say that the market for GMO seeds is tightly captured by multinational corporations such as Monsanto and Bayer. Therefore, those who defend GMOs are pursuing not Russian, but Western interests. "The main owner of the rights to GM seeds is the United States, their companies," that's how Vladimir Putin scared our senators.

Well, we have banned the import and sowing of imported GM seeds. We have banned the cultivation of GM plants bred by domestic scientists. But at the same time... It is still possible to import GM products to Russia. Agree, the logic is strange.

First of all, banning GMOs in no way solves the problem of food security. According to the Ministry of Agriculture itself, we also take most of the most common, and not GM, seeds abroad. Almost 100 percent of sugar beet seeds, 80 percent of sunflower and corn seeds, 70 percent of seed potatoes.

GMOs seem to be allowed to grow for scientific research. But, as Alexander Panchin, a biologist and a well-known fighter against pseudoscience, rightly noted, now if Russian genetic engineers produce a promising development in the field of GMO technologies, they will not be able to legally introduce it on domestic soil. We will have to sell the idea abroad. And then Russia will have to buy ready-made products made using their technologies. Alas, those who do not want to feed their own science will feed someone else's.

Fifth column

Genetic engineering today is one of the fastest growing areas of science and economics. It is necessary to protect the domestic market, including seed producers. But Russian biotechnologies (which lag far behind the world level) also need to be protected. If you don't want to get hooked on foreign transgenic seeds, create your own. The ban on the cultivation of all GM crops puts an end to Russian biotechnology. The consequences of the ban on genetic engineering activities may well be similar to the consequences of the ban on genetics and cybernetics, when entire scientific schools were destroyed, which led to the technological backwardness of the country. All that the new law will give is the leakage of scientific personnel, ideas, technologies, patents and even greater technological backwardness of the Russian Federation.

Deputy Sergey Lisovsky convinces that "among those who protect GMOs in our country, you can find mainly recipients of Western grants. They go to various foreign seminars, where they eat delicious food and live expensively... This is a standard American technology for buying lobbyists who are ready to defend their interests in their home country. A banal purchase of people with a lack of conscience."

Or maybe Yuri Sidorchuk is more likely right, who believes that the law was lobbied by foreign manufacturers of chemicals, herbicides? (This junk has to be sold somewhere.) Or maybe Western GMO corporations lobbied to remove possible competitors from the market? "New Siberia" does not like conspiracy theories, but everything is going well. The "Fifth Column" is not at all those who receive grants in the West and bring money here, it is those who receive money here and take it to the West. If Russian deputies and senior officials teach children abroad, buy real estate there, keep money in Western banks, adopt laws such as "anti-GMOs" and "Spring law", that is, laws that destroy the country's economy and deprive it of its future, then, based on formal logic, this is just "the fifth column" is.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  18.07.2016