BIOCHEMISTRY: WEEK 13






"The human species is living as if it had more than one planet to occupy."

Humans are living beyond their means.  We use more ecological resources than nature can regenerate through unsustainable practices of overfishing, misuse of land and overconsumption.  Our destruction of nature is detrimental to the future of not only the planet, but also the future of generations to come.  We are eroding the world's capacity to provide food, water and environmental resources to billions of people.

The loss of biodiversity is one of the most tragic outcomes to the destruction of the human species on the natural environment.  Thousands of species of plants and animals are on the brink extinction due to the damage we have imposed on Nature.   For example, more than 95% of high grass prairies have been transformed into farms in the North America and the Amazon rainforest is rapidly diminishing due to deforestation practices in South America.

Humans are demanding more from the earth than it can produce.  We are not thinking about the sustainability of the planet and its inhabitants.  Better management of resources, protection of habitat and healthy consumption patterns will be necessary to establish practices of sustainability to preserve life on planet earth.



Our class discussion on GMOs solidified my stance against this agricultural practice.  We still do not know the long term effects of GMOs on health.  Transgenic modification produces organism types that would never occur naturally and result in unpredictability.  I am also against the fact that food labels in the USA are not labeled if they contain GMO products.  Companies who developed GMO crops funded a successful attempt to make sure that consumers are unaware of the genetically modified foods that are used in their products.  I don't agree with the fact that people are not given a choice to decide whether or not they wish to consume GMO products.




Comments

  1. AmyAugust 5, 2018 at 11:45 AM

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts and some of the figures regarding land use in the Americas. The saddest aspect of this resource use mess is that we destroy so much land in the name of food production, and yet so much of the food that is produced is wasted. Plants are genetically engineered in the name of more efficient food production, and yet the land that is currently used for agriculture is very poorly managed and underutilized.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 5, 2018 at 5:56 PM

    I agree with your comment on GMO's. There are far too many businesses out there who merely seek to gain from the market, and have no idea on how many lives their crops affect!

    ReplyDelete

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