WEBVTT 00:01.660 --> 00:03.240 Prof: All right, so I'll start off this class 00:03.244 --> 00:05.234 like I did last one, apologizing for my voice, 00:05.226 --> 00:07.996 not quite up to it's usual place, but we'll do the best we 00:07.999 --> 00:08.339 can. 00:08.340 --> 00:13.950 In the last class in the lecture notes, 00:13.950 --> 00:17.120 you'll see a slide that we posted announcing the times and 00:17.115 --> 00:20.055 the locations of the review sessions that the teaching 00:20.058 --> 00:21.278 fellows will have. 00:21.280 --> 00:24.700 If you'd like to take advantage of those review sessions in 00:24.704 --> 00:28.664 preparation for next Wednesday's exam, please feel free to do so. 00:28.660 --> 00:32.490 Please remember as well that you will not need to turn in a 00:32.488 --> 00:35.788 concept sheet for next week, just as a little extra 00:35.789 --> 00:38.429 opportunity to prepare for the exam. 00:38.430 --> 00:42.140 Are there any questions about the exam that people would like 00:42.136 --> 00:42.936 to ask now? 00:42.940 --> 00:44.510 Yes? 00:44.510 --> 00:46.360 Student: > 00:46.360 --> 00:47.430 Prof: Okay, describe the format. 00:47.430 --> 00:50.550 It'll be brief answers, a few definition type things 00:50.554 --> 00:53.724 like define this, that, or the other thing, 00:53.720 --> 00:58.300 but mainly it'll be brief essay type answers to questions. 00:58.300 --> 01:01.410 In one of the previous lectures, I gave an example of 01:01.414 --> 01:04.894 an exam question from the last time I taught the class, 01:04.890 --> 01:08.620 and that's a good--and also the criteria that we would use--that 01:08.623 --> 01:11.413 we did use to score that particular question. 01:11.409 --> 01:15.209 That'll give you a pretty good idea about how we ask questions, 01:15.206 --> 01:18.756 and the type of things we're looking for in the answers. 01:18.760 --> 01:23.120 I don't want anybody to get fooled by the nature of the 01:23.123 --> 01:27.893 exam, so hopefully we've done a good job describing that. 01:27.890 --> 01:29.960 Another question, okay go ahead. 01:29.959 --> 01:31.349 Student: > 01:31.349 --> 01:34.179 Prof: The exam will be here, and it'll take place 01:34.182 --> 01:35.832 during the regular class time. 01:35.830 --> 01:39.810 People always have enough time during the regular class time to 01:39.812 --> 01:41.292 answer the questions. 01:41.290 --> 01:43.980 Right now, it looks like there will be six questions that 01:43.983 --> 01:45.093 you'll have answered. 01:45.090 --> 01:47.070 Some of them will have different parts to them. 01:47.069 --> 01:49.149 In fact, each of them will have different parts to them, 01:49.150 --> 01:52.310 but it'll be comprised of six questions and you'll get points 01:52.313 --> 01:54.843 for each question and it'll add up to 100 points, 01:54.843 --> 01:56.113 100 possible points. 01:56.110 --> 02:00.690 Okay good, let's get started. 02:00.688 --> 02:04.438 The last evening I received an email from a student in the 02:04.436 --> 02:08.246 class who said that I might be creating some misperceptions 02:08.248 --> 02:11.008 about farmers, and farming in general. 02:11.008 --> 02:15.508 I was grateful to get that email, because I'm always happy 02:15.509 --> 02:19.689 to hear from you folks about things that you think may 02:19.693 --> 02:24.593 be--things that I'm covering in class that may be biased, 02:24.590 --> 02:28.690 maybe leave out important information, 02:28.688 --> 02:31.948 or there are things you'd like to see included that I haven't. 02:31.949 --> 02:34.159 Please let me know that because I really appreciate that 02:34.157 --> 02:34.597 feedback. 02:34.598 --> 02:37.968 In some cases there will be time during the class to repair 02:37.971 --> 02:40.181 the problem that you might identify; 02:40.180 --> 02:43.170 but at the very least, it's helpful for the next class 02:43.170 --> 02:46.220 I teach, so please pass along that kind of feedback. 02:46.220 --> 02:48.790 I wanted to address that question in particular, 02:48.794 --> 02:51.044 which I think is really very important. 02:51.038 --> 02:55.788 If you look at farming in balance, it's sort of up and 02:55.786 --> 03:01.066 down sides: there's a lot to say on each of the equation. 03:01.068 --> 03:06.778 One thing we cannot do is to create a stereotype of what the 03:06.782 --> 03:11.302 typical farmer is like, because a farmer can range from 03:11.301 --> 03:15.051 a person that has an acre or two of land and grows a lot of 03:15.048 --> 03:18.358 different crops, to somebody that has thousands 03:18.359 --> 03:22.129 of acres and may not even own the farm him or herself, 03:22.128 --> 03:25.438 but just lease the land from a larger enterprise, 03:25.438 --> 03:29.128 and have control over much more stuff and only raise one 03:29.131 --> 03:31.281 particular crop or one animal. 03:31.280 --> 03:36.550 Within that wide array of farming practices there are 03:36.550 --> 03:40.810 farmers who care deeply about the land, 03:40.810 --> 03:43.870 there are others who care less and are just in it for the 03:43.867 --> 03:44.357 profit. 03:44.360 --> 03:47.750 There are some who care deeply about the animals they raise; 03:47.750 --> 03:49.900 there are others who care less about them. 03:49.900 --> 03:51.710 There's caring, there's callousness, 03:51.705 --> 03:54.385 there's really all of this mixed into the picture. 03:54.389 --> 03:59.329 We're talking in the last class and in this class about 03:59.331 --> 04:02.751 sustainability, and in the context of that 04:02.747 --> 04:06.417 particular issue there are important concerns that have 04:06.420 --> 04:09.550 been raised about modern farming practices. 04:09.550 --> 04:12.270 By definition, in the last class and in this 04:12.270 --> 04:15.880 class, we're talking about some of the downsides of modern 04:15.877 --> 04:16.887 agriculture. 04:16.889 --> 04:20.099 When we talked in the green revolution, we talked more about 04:20.100 --> 04:22.060 the upsides of modern agriculture. 04:22.060 --> 04:25.780 We're going to come back later in a subsequent class and I'll 04:25.778 --> 04:29.498 have some guest lecturers come in--the folks particularly who 04:29.500 --> 04:32.660 run the Yale Sustainable Food Program--and these are 04:32.661 --> 04:34.771 individuals who are farmers. 04:34.769 --> 04:38.629 Yale has a farm that they run, they are people who interact 04:38.629 --> 04:42.489 with farmers who bring in food to the Yale dining halls. 04:42.490 --> 04:46.600 These are a group of farmers who care very deeply about their 04:46.603 --> 04:50.173 farming practices and care deeply about the land, 04:50.170 --> 04:52.810 and about the animals and things like that, 04:52.810 --> 04:55.520 and so in that class you'll get a more positive picture. 04:55.519 --> 04:58.209 What I don't want to do is leave the impression that 04:58.206 --> 05:01.046 farming is inherently dangerous, inherently bad, 05:01.050 --> 05:04.310 or inherently callous, because it's not necessarily 05:04.312 --> 05:05.562 those things at all. 05:05.560 --> 05:09.390 There are those practices, and it's true that there are a 05:09.387 --> 05:13.277 lot of pressures on modern farmers to be--I mean they have 05:13.283 --> 05:17.253 to survive in the marketplace and those pressures make them 05:17.249 --> 05:21.829 compete with what other farmers are doing in the marketplace. 05:21.829 --> 05:26.339 That means if their crops are yielding more because of things 05:26.336 --> 05:30.916 like pesticides and fertilizers and the like that we've talked 05:30.916 --> 05:33.986 about in class, or they're using genetically 05:33.988 --> 05:36.478 modified crops, it puts a lot of pressure on 05:36.483 --> 05:39.743 the individual farmers to follow those kinds of practices. 05:39.740 --> 05:43.440 Some farmers yield to all of them, some to part of them, 05:43.440 --> 05:46.700 some to none of them; it really depends on who the 05:46.704 --> 05:47.384 farmer is. 05:47.379 --> 05:50.189 The picture is actually quite an interesting and complicated 05:50.190 --> 05:52.430 one, with a lot of different things going on. 05:52.430 --> 05:56.190 I alluded to this last time, but if you look at how the 05:56.190 --> 06:00.160 American farm has changed over the last hundred years, 06:00.160 --> 06:04.410 you see that the number of farms has gone way down, 06:04.410 --> 06:10.410 so as you can imagine, the average size of the farm 06:10.410 --> 06:12.570 has gone way up. 06:12.569 --> 06:16.769 so there are some farms that are many multiples of the 06:16.771 --> 06:20.101 average here, but the number of people that 06:20.101 --> 06:23.751 own and run small farms has gone way down. 06:23.750 --> 06:27.560 The average number of crops, as you see, 06:27.560 --> 06:31.110 has gone way down as well, and so this monoculture has 06:31.113 --> 06:34.673 created some negative consequences but some upsides as 06:34.668 --> 06:36.488 well, so there are good and bad parts 06:36.485 --> 06:37.035 of everything. 06:37.040 --> 06:39.930 Then the number of people in the population, 06:39.934 --> 06:43.374 the percentage of the population that work on farms, 06:43.365 --> 06:45.785 has really changed dramatically. 06:45.790 --> 06:48.830 There are up and down sides of this, and we'll talk about both 06:48.834 --> 06:51.134 in class, but again, I wanted to deal with that 06:51.130 --> 06:52.430 particular perception. 06:52.430 --> 06:57.750 As we talk about food and what issues around food people care 06:57.747 --> 07:00.937 about, there are a number of them. 07:00.939 --> 07:03.749 These terms have been used a lot in class and they'll 07:03.747 --> 07:04.987 continue to get used. 07:04.990 --> 07:07.570 Each has definitions--some of which we talked about 07:07.571 --> 07:10.721 already--but it's interesting that different people care about 07:10.721 --> 07:13.601 different parts of these, and at the end of the class 07:13.603 --> 07:16.423 I'll come back to how there may be some common ground that 07:16.416 --> 07:18.586 unites all of these particular interests. 07:18.589 --> 07:22.169 Today I'd like to talk just briefly about definitions of 07:22.165 --> 07:25.085 organic and sustainable and what they mean. 07:25.089 --> 07:28.589 The definition of organic is precise. 07:28.589 --> 07:31.389 It's driven by the U.S. Department of 07:31.389 --> 07:36.129 Agriculture, that in response to what farmers were asking for, 07:36.134 --> 07:40.884 was--set a uniform standard for it meant to be organic. 07:40.879 --> 07:44.629 There are different parts of the whole food chain process 07:44.627 --> 07:48.307 that you see listed on the screen that have to be met if 07:48.309 --> 07:51.119 something is truly considered organic. 07:51.120 --> 07:56.060 It has to do with the seeds; it has to do with how the crops 07:56.062 --> 07:58.992 are grown, how the animals are raised, and how the food is 07:58.990 --> 07:59.660 processed. 07:59.660 --> 08:04.370 If a farm meets all these criteria then what the farm is 08:04.367 --> 08:07.617 producing can be considered organic. 08:07.620 --> 08:11.000 This is administered through something called The National 08:11.000 --> 08:13.610 Organic Program which is run by the USDA, 08:13.610 --> 08:17.130 and the symbol that you see on the right is granted to crops 08:17.127 --> 08:20.757 that meet those criteria and it covers those criteria that you 08:20.762 --> 08:22.792 see on the bottom of the page. 08:22.790 --> 08:27.590 This had led to some real advances, 08:27.589 --> 08:30.939 because prior to establishing a national standard, 08:30.939 --> 08:34.219 people were using the word organic in many different ways, 08:34.220 --> 08:36.630 and consumers didn't really know what it meant. 08:36.629 --> 08:38.259 Well, now you know what it means. 08:38.259 --> 08:41.499 So if you buy something organic in the United States and it has 08:41.500 --> 08:44.380 that USDA symbol it means it's met those criteria on the 08:44.375 --> 08:45.365 previous slide. 08:45.370 --> 08:48.200 Sustainability is different from organic, 08:48.202 --> 08:51.952 something can be raised sustainably but not be organic 08:51.953 --> 08:55.753 and vice versa; so sustainable really has to do 08:55.746 --> 08:59.376 less with the crop itself or the animal itself, 08:59.378 --> 09:03.718 than with the conditions under which they're raised. 09:03.720 --> 09:08.070 The UK Sustainable Development Commission has what I think is a 09:08.067 --> 09:10.407 nice definition, so safe, healthy, 09:10.413 --> 09:13.633 and nutritious food can meet the needs of less well off 09:13.634 --> 09:16.924 people--so there's a social conscience part of it that's 09:16.916 --> 09:20.436 built into the definition--it provides a valuable livelihood 09:20.436 --> 09:23.456 for farmers, processors, and retailers whose 09:23.455 --> 09:26.635 employees enjoy a safe and hygienic working environment 09:26.635 --> 09:28.575 whether in the UK or overseas. 09:28.580 --> 09:30.340 Now there are different pieces to that. 09:30.340 --> 09:35.130 There's the livelihood for farmers so that in order for 09:35.125 --> 09:38.685 food to be sustainable, the farmer has to be 09:38.687 --> 09:42.267 sustainable, but it also talks about employees in the food 09:42.270 --> 09:42.900 system. 09:42.899 --> 09:46.089 Respects biophysical and environmental limits in its 09:46.086 --> 09:49.896 production of processing while reducing energy consumption and 09:49.899 --> 09:53.519 improving the wider environment; it also respects the highest 09:53.517 --> 09:56.297 standards of animal health and welfare compatible with the 09:56.299 --> 09:59.229 production of affordable food for all sectors of society. 09:59.230 --> 10:01.420 There's a lot built into that well, 10:01.418 --> 10:03.728 affordable food, animal welfare, 10:03.731 --> 10:07.001 environmental friendliness, and then finally: 10:06.995 --> 10:10.495 supports rural economies and diversity of rural culture, 10:10.500 --> 10:13.510 in particular through an emphasis on local products that 10:13.511 --> 10:15.211 keep food miles to a minimum. 10:15.210 --> 10:18.530 The whole idea about rural economies and rural cultures is 10:18.532 --> 10:19.642 very interesting. 10:19.639 --> 10:22.869 As you can imagine, rural culture has changed a lot 10:22.868 --> 10:25.578 with the number of farms going way down; 10:25.580 --> 10:28.700 the number of people employed on farms, rural communities have 10:28.702 --> 10:31.492 changed an awful lot; and the attractiveness of 10:31.489 --> 10:35.229 living in those communities, working in those communities 10:35.232 --> 10:39.182 has changed over time depending on the economic conditions and 10:39.182 --> 10:41.582 whether farms are thriving or not. 10:41.580 --> 10:44.740 A definition of sustainability can have a lot of different 10:44.738 --> 10:47.068 pieces to it, all affecting different parts 10:47.065 --> 10:48.335 of the food system. 10:48.340 --> 10:52.120 Let's talk about an example, and sustainable or not, 10:52.118 --> 10:55.298 modified or not, and what qualities food may 10:55.303 --> 10:59.383 have, depending on what you're paying attention to. 10:59.379 --> 11:03.309 There was an article in New York Magazine in 2006 that I 11:03.306 --> 11:05.646 thought was quite interesting here. 11:05.649 --> 11:08.879 They gave examples of two different tomatoes. 11:08.879 --> 11:12.039 The one on the left is called the Striped German tomato, 11:12.038 --> 11:13.358 raised in New Jersey. 11:13.360 --> 11:17.810 It has a relatively short shelf life unless it's refrigerated, 11:17.808 --> 11:20.408 but that harms the taste properties, 11:20.408 --> 11:22.708 and so it's usually eaten locally or shipped into 11:22.706 --> 11:23.756 Manhattan let's say. 11:23.759 --> 11:27.459 The cost is high because you can't raise so many of them, 11:27.460 --> 11:30.730 the one on the right is a hybrid round red that's grown in 11:30.729 --> 11:34.429 different parts of the country, but particularly in Florida 11:34.426 --> 11:35.586 costs a lot less. 11:35.590 --> 11:38.520 Now, we've all had the tomato on the right. 11:38.519 --> 11:41.029 It's in a lot of different foods we eat, 11:41.029 --> 11:44.789 and you can see from the consistency in the middle there, 11:44.788 --> 11:47.878 you can almost taste what that tomato tastes like without--just 11:47.875 --> 11:49.265 by looking at the picture. 11:49.269 --> 11:52.619 It's one of those things that has relatively little taste, 11:52.615 --> 11:56.015 people are amazed when they grow tomatoes in their yard how 11:56.022 --> 11:58.862 wonderful they taste; or when they get locally grown 11:58.859 --> 12:01.459 things at a farmer's market compared to the kind of things 12:01.460 --> 12:03.880 that are mass-produced and shipped long distances. 12:03.879 --> 12:08.649 If you look at these two tomatoes, the Striped German is 12:08.652 --> 12:12.472 grown more sustainably then the other one. 12:12.470 --> 12:16.520 Heirloom seeds are used, so it's not crossbred to create 12:16.524 --> 12:19.994 some modified version of the original tomato; 12:19.990 --> 12:21.470 it is the original tomato. 12:21.470 --> 12:23.970 The seeds are planted in a greenhouse, 12:23.970 --> 12:26.230 they're then transplanted into the field, 12:26.230 --> 12:29.380 they're harvested and trucked to the local market without much 12:29.375 --> 12:30.505 stuff going on them. 12:30.509 --> 12:35.049 The Hybrid Red, which is bred not for taste 12:35.048 --> 12:38.568 necessarily, but for color and consistency 12:38.565 --> 12:42.545 because you--it would be great if you could have a tomato that 12:42.552 --> 12:45.822 had all the right properties but in this case, 12:45.820 --> 12:50.090 taste yields in the breeding process to color and long shelf 12:50.091 --> 12:53.641 life so they can be transported long distances. 12:53.639 --> 12:55.189 Here's what happens. 12:55.190 --> 12:58.280 Here are all the things happen to that tomato by the time the 12:58.277 --> 13:01.307 seed goes in the ground and it gets to you, so I'll just let 13:01.312 --> 13:02.242 you read that. 13:02.240 --> 13:12.380 13:12.379 --> 13:15.139 That's a lot of stuff going on with that particular tomato. 13:15.139 --> 13:20.539 One can come to your own--you can come to your conclusions 13:20.537 --> 13:24.227 whether overall this is good or bad, 13:24.230 --> 13:27.800 because the upside is that we can get tomatoes any time of the 13:27.801 --> 13:29.911 year and any part of the country, 13:29.908 --> 13:33.938 the cost is relatively low, the shelf life is long which 13:33.937 --> 13:37.887 helps the supermarket, and there's not so much waste 13:37.886 --> 13:40.356 and spoilage; but the cost is all those 13:40.360 --> 13:43.850 things and the impact all those things do to the environment, 13:43.845 --> 13:45.525 potentially to our health. 13:45.529 --> 13:47.919 There's good, there's bad as there is with 13:47.922 --> 13:51.192 any part of these sort of things, but it's interesting to 13:51.190 --> 13:53.700 look at the two tomatoes as an example. 13:53.700 --> 13:57.330 Now, one of the reasons that there's a market for this kind 13:57.327 --> 14:00.077 of thing is that it goes in so many foods. 14:00.080 --> 14:04.310 Burger King needs slices of tomatoes that look good and 14:04.312 --> 14:09.102 uniform on--because they're open all year long in all parts of 14:09.095 --> 14:10.345 the country. 14:10.350 --> 14:14.410 Taco Bell has the same thing for the tomatoes that go on, 14:14.408 --> 14:18.468 so the fact that there is a market for these foods creates a 14:18.466 --> 14:22.446 market for those tomatoes and that's how--but--and the only 14:22.452 --> 14:26.582 way to meet that need and meet that demand is create tomatoes 14:26.577 --> 14:30.297 with certain properties, and that's where you get the 14:30.302 --> 14:33.722 differences between an heirloom locally grown variety and the 14:33.716 --> 14:36.386 mass produced varieties from somewhere else. 14:36.389 --> 14:40.729 That leads us to the discussion of genetically modified foods. 14:40.730 --> 14:43.960 We talked about this a little bit before in the context of the 14:43.956 --> 14:46.386 green revolution, but there's a lot more to say 14:46.390 --> 14:47.450 about the issue. 14:47.450 --> 14:50.440 As with anything else, there are going to be up and 14:50.442 --> 14:51.222 down sides. 14:51.220 --> 14:56.100 In the past lecture, especially pertaining to the 14:56.104 --> 14:59.754 green revolution, we talked about the genetic 14:59.754 --> 15:03.054 modification of foods, the great increases in yields, 15:03.052 --> 15:06.722 the development of foods with certain nutritional properties 15:06.715 --> 15:10.425 like the golden rice and things, where there's clearly an upside 15:10.427 --> 15:11.807 of the genetic modification. 15:11.808 --> 15:15.258 Now, we're talking about genetic modification today in 15:15.264 --> 15:17.354 the context of sustainability. 15:17.350 --> 15:21.470 Do genetically modified foods lead to a more sustainable world 15:21.465 --> 15:23.485 or a less sustainable world? 15:23.490 --> 15:26.600 Certainly a more sustainable world if you can increase the 15:26.600 --> 15:29.110 amount of food available to the population, 15:29.110 --> 15:31.880 but there are concerns with it as well, 15:31.879 --> 15:33.989 and I'm going to talk about some of those today. 15:33.990 --> 15:37.780 This is a graphic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture 15:37.779 --> 15:40.549 showing the increase in the United States, 15:40.553 --> 15:44.823 or worldwide increase rather of genetically modified foods going 15:44.817 --> 15:46.237 through 1999. 15:46.240 --> 15:49.250 Now, it's interesting where in the world these things are 15:49.250 --> 15:49.680 grown. 15:49.678 --> 15:53.308 These are the top ten countries that grow genetically modified 15:53.306 --> 15:56.626 food and I'm going to show the--not the first number one, 15:56.634 --> 15:58.244 but all the other nine. 15:58.240 --> 16:00.870 These are the countries and the number of acres, 16:00.870 --> 16:03.780 and if you add up these acres for all nine of these countries 16:03.783 --> 16:06.653 they make up most of the top ten, it's 137 million acres. 16:06.649 --> 16:11.229 Now as you may guess, number one on the list is the 16:11.230 --> 16:15.630 United States, and here's the number of acres. 16:15.629 --> 16:17.069 The U.S. 16:17.070 --> 16:19.870 is the clear leader, it has almost--it has 16:19.871 --> 16:23.901 half--essentially half of the world's total of planted acres 16:23.904 --> 16:26.234 of genetically modified foods. 16:26.230 --> 16:29.380 As I mentioned earlier in a class, there's a social history 16:29.376 --> 16:29.916 to this. 16:29.919 --> 16:31.239 In the U.S. 16:31.240 --> 16:33.370 people don't care very much about this. 16:33.370 --> 16:37.280 We don't have to label genetically modified foods, 16:37.279 --> 16:39.529 most of us don't ask whether the foods we're eating are 16:39.533 --> 16:41.493 genetically modified, and the population doesn't 16:41.494 --> 16:41.874 care. 16:41.870 --> 16:46.160 In other parts of the world people care a lot about this, 16:46.155 --> 16:48.065 particularly in Europe. 16:48.070 --> 16:52.760 Some people have estimated that 40% to 60% of all the foods we 16:52.759 --> 16:56.529 eat in the United States have genetically modified 16:56.527 --> 16:58.447 constituents in them. 16:58.450 --> 17:00.850 If you go to a place like Europe it's much, 17:00.847 --> 17:03.497 much different; much, much lower number because 17:03.503 --> 17:05.733 people in those countries care about it. 17:05.730 --> 17:07.670 Now the people who have written about this, 17:07.670 --> 17:09.290 the people who are concerned about it, 17:09.288 --> 17:12.498 have said it's mainly because of the muscle of the big 17:12.500 --> 17:16.140 agribusiness companies that have stifled debate in the United 17:16.136 --> 17:19.706 States and have basically went over legislators so that they 17:19.711 --> 17:22.561 don't do anything to regulate against it. 17:22.558 --> 17:25.848 Whereas, in the European countries and this is true in 17:25.853 --> 17:29.463 general, business is a less powerful force in the political 17:29.455 --> 17:31.875 system and people do care about it; 17:31.880 --> 17:34.890 legislators have stepped in with regulation and things, 17:34.892 --> 17:38.242 and the situation is much different then it is in the U.S. 17:38.240 --> 17:42.440 This slide slows where the genetically modified foods are 17:42.440 --> 17:46.790 around the world and what has increased in recent years. 17:46.788 --> 17:49.598 I'm going to pause over this too much, but if you care to go 17:49.604 --> 17:52.324 back and look at it you'll see what's happening around the 17:52.323 --> 17:52.803 world. 17:52.798 --> 17:56.958 Just a few facts about this: number of millions of acres of 17:56.961 --> 18:00.841 it, how many countries are involved, and then again the 18:00.836 --> 18:01.406 U.S. 18:01.410 --> 18:04.060 is half the world's total of crops. 18:04.058 --> 18:07.698 Here's--when you talk about genetically modified foods we 18:07.700 --> 18:09.910 talked about golden rice before. 18:09.910 --> 18:13.180 Let's talk about BT corn, because this is something 18:13.180 --> 18:14.750 that's closer to home. 18:14.750 --> 18:20.400 BT corn is a very prominent and highly controversial genetically 18:20.395 --> 18:21.825 modified food. 18:21.828 --> 18:26.948 The BT corn has been--it was developed to resist this 18:26.950 --> 18:32.460 particular insect that devours the corn and poses a great 18:32.463 --> 18:36.603 threat to the corn farmer's existence. 18:36.598 --> 18:41.348 The fact that this borer feasts on the corn so much, 18:41.348 --> 18:45.538 leaves a farmer with several possibilities. 18:45.538 --> 18:49.848 One is to apply pesticides, and now the alternative is to 18:49.851 --> 18:52.851 plant BT corn, which is corn that's been 18:52.848 --> 18:56.968 developed to resist the insect itself without having to put on 18:56.971 --> 18:58.391 an external agent. 18:58.390 --> 19:01.900 It works like this, so here's a little graphic of 19:01.903 --> 19:06.483 the corn borer eating the corn; and then there's this 19:06.477 --> 19:10.687 particular bacillus that is listed here; 19:10.690 --> 19:13.170 that's where the BT comes from right there. 19:13.170 --> 19:15.390 I'm sorry it's not a little more clear, but I'll show you 19:15.394 --> 19:16.354 this in another slide. 19:16.348 --> 19:21.528 That gene, the particular gene from this, is inserted into the 19:21.525 --> 19:27.205 crop, and then the crop develops its own expression of that gene. 19:27.210 --> 19:32.110 Then that crop can be bred and that gene persists in the crop 19:32.108 --> 19:37.008 and when the corn borer eats that particular corn it dies. 19:37.009 --> 19:41.399 So the gene again from this bacillus which is toxic to the 19:41.403 --> 19:44.413 corn borer is inserted into the corn; 19:44.410 --> 19:47.580 the corn then expresses the gene and the corn borers consume 19:47.580 --> 19:50.270 the toxin, their stomachs rupture, and they die. 19:50.269 --> 19:55.149 This, as you can imagine, depending on the cost, 19:55.150 --> 19:58.460 has some real advantages to the farmer and potentially to the 19:58.461 --> 20:01.141 environment, because you're not spraying 20:01.141 --> 20:04.161 pesticides on to get rid of the corn borer. 20:04.160 --> 20:07.960 Now, there are environmental concerns about the impact of the 20:07.961 --> 20:11.521 genetically modified corn, but there are some upsides to 20:11.515 --> 20:13.935 with not having to spray the pesticides. 20:13.940 --> 20:18.870 You can see a farmer makes lots of judgment calls about how to 20:18.873 --> 20:21.303 approach this kind of issue. 20:21.298 --> 20:23.608 What's the worse of the two evils? 20:23.608 --> 20:26.668 What's better for my utility in the market, etc.? 20:26.670 --> 20:29.440 Here's an example to one of those judgment calls that has to 20:29.440 --> 20:29.910 be made. 20:29.910 --> 20:33.810 Here's a slide from The University of Illinois that 20:33.807 --> 20:38.267 shows corn crops side by side, where on the left they've tried 20:38.272 --> 20:41.572 to deal with traditional insecticides to get rid of the 20:41.571 --> 20:44.811 corn borer and on the right they've used BT corn, 20:44.808 --> 20:47.368 and you can see a clear difference in how the corn is 20:47.368 --> 20:49.318 thriving, and of course different 20:49.316 --> 20:52.026 environmental concerns with these two things. 20:52.029 --> 20:55.259 Here are a few facts about BT corn. 20:55.259 --> 21:00.969 Licensed for use in 1996, so it hasn't been around all 21:00.971 --> 21:04.961 that long, it's now 35% of the U.S. 21:04.960 --> 21:06.600 corn crop and growing. 21:06.598 --> 21:10.598 The concerns about it are that it travels long distances in the 21:10.596 --> 21:11.366 ecosystem. 21:11.368 --> 21:16.428 If that slide that I showed you before from The University of 21:16.425 --> 21:21.175 Illinois would be typical, the genetically modified corn 21:21.182 --> 21:26.132 is not--and it's by products in the corn plant are not going to 21:26.127 --> 21:31.067 be confined to that particular field because they'll be carried 21:31.073 --> 21:33.653 elsewhere, particularly through rainwater, 21:33.651 --> 21:35.331 flooding, and storms into other places. 21:35.328 --> 21:40.258 So to the extent that the genetically modified corn is 21:40.257 --> 21:45.277 having negative impacts, then it is not confined to the 21:45.277 --> 21:48.807 areas just where it's being grown. 21:48.808 --> 21:52.788 There's also concern that this kills more then the corn borer. 21:52.788 --> 21:56.878 Potential allergic reactions when people consume the food, 21:56.884 --> 22:01.054 that's a controversial and not very highly studied area. 22:01.048 --> 22:05.208 Then there are always concerns about unknown effects on human 22:05.205 --> 22:09.215 beings from consuming these genetically modified foods that 22:09.224 --> 22:11.654 we just haven't discovered yet. 22:11.650 --> 22:14.270 Not enough science has been done, so that's a big question 22:14.266 --> 22:15.226 mark at the moment. 22:15.230 --> 22:21.420 Here would be an example of how this concern about the spread of 22:21.423 --> 22:26.933 the genetically modified organisms might be a problem. 22:26.930 --> 22:30.630 You have the BT corn over here through streams, 22:30.627 --> 22:32.877 and floods, and rainwater. 22:32.880 --> 22:37.210 The corn itself will spread downstream sometimes quite long 22:37.213 --> 22:41.553 distances and then there's this particular insect here, 22:41.548 --> 22:45.608 the Caddis Fly which is not the target of the BT gene because 22:45.611 --> 22:49.471 the farmer's aren't concerned about this particular insect 22:49.470 --> 22:52.240 because it's not eating the corn, whereas, 22:52.244 --> 22:53.874 the corn borer is. 22:53.868 --> 22:58.148 So it kills not only the thing it's intended to kill but other 22:58.154 --> 22:59.354 things as well. 22:59.348 --> 23:03.658 This is a common food for fish and amphibians in these streams, 23:03.655 --> 23:07.675 and so you can see how the whole ecosystem can get affected 23:07.683 --> 23:09.563 by something like this. 23:09.558 --> 23:12.998 When one talks about the costs and the benefits of genetically 23:13.001 --> 23:15.541 modified foods, this is the sort of thing that 23:15.541 --> 23:17.801 has to be factored into the picture. 23:17.798 --> 23:22.758 Now, there is a large concern about genetically modified foods 23:22.763 --> 23:27.083 and their transfer in contamination to different parts 23:27.077 --> 23:28.947 of the environment. 23:28.950 --> 23:31.520 Here would be a hypothetical example. 23:31.519 --> 23:35.239 Here are wheat crops. 23:35.240 --> 23:39.180 Let's just say that this white line represents the property 23:39.182 --> 23:43.192 line between two farms and one Farmer A owns the property on 23:43.192 --> 23:47.202 the left and is growing wheat and Farmer B owns the property 23:47.203 --> 23:50.403 on the right and is growing wheat there, 23:50.400 --> 23:54.940 and let's say on the right it's organic wheat and on the left 23:54.942 --> 23:56.232 it's GMO wheat. 23:56.230 --> 23:59.520 The question is: does the farmer on the right 23:59.523 --> 24:03.723 suffer potential negative consequences from the fact that 24:03.718 --> 24:08.058 he's right next door to somebody using genetically modified 24:08.060 --> 24:08.960 wheat? 24:08.960 --> 24:13.660 There have been lawsuits filed about this from farmers claiming 24:13.661 --> 24:17.681 contamination by nearby genetically modified crops. 24:17.680 --> 24:21.950 The concern here is that there's contamination from one 24:21.948 --> 24:25.888 farm to the next, or transfer of genetic material 24:25.888 --> 24:29.338 from one to the next, and that it can happen through 24:29.343 --> 24:31.513 a lot of things wind, water, birds, 24:31.509 --> 24:34.019 animals and humans can transfer them. 24:34.019 --> 24:37.569 A truck that is full of the harvested wheat from the left 24:37.568 --> 24:41.368 going down that road and some of it blows out and the wind is 24:41.371 --> 24:43.781 blowing toward the organic wheat, 24:43.779 --> 24:47.179 you potentially have issues, birds will transfer things, 24:47.179 --> 24:47.549 etc. 24:47.548 --> 24:51.348 Then the question is: is the livelihood of the farmer 24:51.352 --> 24:54.792 on the right affected by the one on the left? 24:54.788 --> 24:58.858 And would his crop then, when it's crossbred through 24:58.861 --> 25:03.971 that sort of natural process of the transfer of these things, 25:03.970 --> 25:08.390 not have an organic crop any longer because it doesn't meet 25:08.390 --> 25:13.120 the non-GMO criteria that's part of the organic set of criteria 25:13.115 --> 25:15.625 for being considered organic? 25:15.630 --> 25:18.220 These become very interesting issues. 25:18.220 --> 25:22.140 So again GMOs may be good or bad, but to the extent that they 25:22.144 --> 25:25.684 have negative consequences, this is one of the concerns 25:25.678 --> 25:27.508 that people have raised. 25:27.509 --> 25:31.759 There's a book by a man named Jeffrey Smith called Seeds of 25:31.762 --> 25:34.232 Deception, and you can see from the 25:34.229 --> 25:37.349 title of the book how he feels about genetically modified 25:37.347 --> 25:37.847 foods. 25:37.848 --> 25:40.608 This is the third time I've taught this class, 25:40.612 --> 25:44.482 and in the first class I had him come and speak to the class. 25:44.480 --> 25:48.750 He's a very interesting, colorful and passionate person 25:48.753 --> 25:51.363 on this topic, and he cares a lot about these 25:51.355 --> 25:52.855 sorts of things, and the book is very 25:52.862 --> 25:53.492 interesting. 25:53.490 --> 25:59.350 It's a combination of a review of the recent science on the 25:59.347 --> 26:05.507 issue, but also anecdotal things that are most interesting. 26:05.509 --> 26:08.449 For example, he would talk about corn fields 26:08.450 --> 26:12.080 or wheat fields, or flocks of birds migrating 26:12.079 --> 26:16.409 from the north to the south would stop every year, 26:16.410 --> 26:19.770 similar flocks with the same number of birds and things, 26:19.767 --> 26:21.107 feast on the fields. 26:21.108 --> 26:28.968 And then a farmer--then one farmer would plant genetically 26:28.965 --> 26:32.465 modified crops; the other one would keep the 26:32.471 --> 26:33.261 traditional crops. 26:33.259 --> 26:36.489 The birds would come and completely ignore or stay away 26:36.488 --> 26:40.068 from the genetically modified crops and continue to go to the 26:40.074 --> 26:41.394 traditional crops. 26:41.390 --> 26:43.000 What does that mean? 26:43.000 --> 26:45.950 Who knows, but there are all these anecdotal reports that are 26:45.950 --> 26:48.850 really very interesting and those are contained in this book 26:48.849 --> 26:49.489 by Smith. 26:49.490 --> 26:54.670 Now whether you take his message and consider it alarming 26:54.670 --> 26:58.740 or alarmist depends on your point of view. 26:58.740 --> 27:02.040 If you think GMOs are a potentially bad thing and the 27:02.035 --> 27:05.585 concerns outweigh the benefits, his book is alarming and 27:05.586 --> 27:08.436 there's a lot in there that would make you say, 27:08.440 --> 27:10.050 oh my God I can't believe that's true. 27:10.048 --> 27:13.898 Then--but if you believe that the genetically modified foods 27:13.902 --> 27:17.692 are good thing for the environment and for the economy, 27:17.690 --> 27:20.510 and for farming in general, then you look at this and say 27:20.509 --> 27:23.529 that he is being selective in the information he presents; 27:23.528 --> 27:26.018 these anecdotes don't really prove anything; 27:26.019 --> 27:28.659 and he really ignores the upsides of it. 27:28.660 --> 27:31.420 So it depends on your perspective here. 27:31.420 --> 27:36.730 The fact that genetically modified crops are being used in 27:36.734 --> 27:42.334 different parts of the world is made clear a lot of different 27:42.329 --> 27:43.169 ways. 27:43.170 --> 27:46.790 I heard not too long ago this interesting NPR clip on this, 27:46.788 --> 27:48.918 and I thought I would play this for you <