Oxitec, the biotech firm released the first round of genetically modified mosquitoes at the end of April. This is the first time in the U.S that genetically modified mosquitoes have been released.

Previously the modified Aedes aegypti modified mosquitoes have been released in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia. A. aegypti mosquito populations were said to drop by at least 90% in those locations. In the U.S, the mosquitoes were released in the Florida Keys.

A aegypti mosquitoes carry diseases like Zika and yellow fever. The genetically modified mosquitoes are all male and are engineered with a lethal gene that is passed on to offspring when the genetically modified mosquitoes mate with females. The lethal gene prevents female mosquitoes from developing an essential protein and causes them to die before reaching maturity. Only female mosquitoes bite people, as males exclusively drink nectar.

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The company will capture mosquitoes throughout the trial to observe how far the insects travel from their boxes, how long they live and whether female mosquitoes are actually picking up the lethal gene and dying off. To make it easier to track the modified mosquitoes, Oxitec introduced a gene that causes the mosquitoes to glow under a specific color of light.

The First Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Have Just Been Released in The US

Releasing genetically modified mosquitoes is suppose to serve as an alternative to spraying with pesticides to control the population. Currently, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District budgets a million dollars a year to control the mosquitoes by spraying aerial insecticides.

Kiss The Ground is a new Netflix documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson. The documentary is all about the importance of soil, and more specifically, how we can take care of the soil so the soil will take care of us. The documentary talks about the U.S.’s long history of destroying the soil and what we can do to fix it.

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After Wood Harrelson starts the narration, the film opens on Ray Archuleta, a certified soil scientist. Ray travels around the country and teaches farmers the importance of no-till farming practices. He talks about the importance of the soil, and more specifically, the importance of carbon-rich soil. Ray sets the scene for the film to talk about the importance of regenerative agriculture and the importance of giving back to the soil, as well as how to spread the message.

The documentary also touches on the importance of eating food to feed your gut and the importance of getting the good microbes from the soil into your gut. And of course, you really can’t talk about the damage done to the soil without mentioning pesticides and GMOs. It’s a vicious cycle, says Harrelson. “The more tilling that’s done the weaker the soil gets, and the more compelled farmers feel to use chemical sprays”.

Field corn, our most common crop in the U.S., is genetically modified and sprayed with glyphosate. Glyphosate is known to cause cancer and is so overused it’s found its way into our drinking water. Three pounds of toxic chemicals are sprayed per person onto or food, each year.

“A big reason these chemicals make us sick is because just as toxic chemicals kill the microbes in the soil, they kill the microbes in our bodies.”

Kiss The Ground

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As is pointed out in the documentary, our topsoil in its current condition has about 60 harvests left, and if that doesn’t terrify you, then you’re not paying enough attention. After going through the history of the damage we’ve done, the documentary establishes an important message: It’s not too late. They dive into regenerative practices that feed the earth, sustainable farming, the importance of cover crops, the importance of composting, and so much more.

From the damage done by the Dust Bowl to the German Scientist who originally invented pesticides, to the importance of the bacteria in our soil, I’d say the documentary does a pretty good job of covering the history of soil degradation and informing viewers as to why it’s so important that we fix this problem.

Even you’re pretty well versed with our current environmental crisis, this documentary is still worth a watch. The documentary covers a lot of ground (no pun intended). The way the film covers the importance of taking care of the Earth with how it relates to taking care of our own bodies is something that is not often seen in more mainstream content. I couldn’t even begin to cover all the important points made in the documentary in one review. The film reminded us of how important it is that we keep working to achieve a better, cleaner Earth.

Kiss The Ground is available on Netflix. If the film or even this article has inspired you to learn more about what you can to do help, from a health perspective, we recommend eating as clean as possible. By focusing on gut health, and eating an organic, diverse diet, you can do more than just improve your own health, you can improve the health of the Earth.

The plan to release over 750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022 has final approval from local authorities, despite objections from many local residents and environmental groups.

The proposal had already won state and federal approval.”With all the urgent crises facing our nation and the State of Florida — the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, climate change — the administration has used tax dollars and government resources for a Jurassic Park experiment.

Now the Monroe County Mosquito Control District has given the final permission needed. What could possibly go wrong? We don’t know, because EPA unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks, now without further review of the risks, the experiment can proceed.

Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety

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This pilot project is designed to see if genetically engineered mosquitos are a viable alternative to spraying insecticides to control the Aedes aegypti, also known as the yellow fever mosquito. This species carries several deadly diseases including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.

The GM mosquito has been named OX5034. It has been altered to produce female offspring that die in the larval stage before they can bite and spread disease.

These mosquitos are also approved to be released in Harris County, Texas according to Oxitec, the U.S.-owned, British-based company that developed the GMO.

Do you think these GM mosquitoes are a better choice than spraying pesticides? Or is there a better alternative?

The Food and Drug Administration approved biotechnology company AquaBounty’s application to make and sell genetically engineered salmon in 2015, and now a federal judge is on the verge of ordering the government agency to take another look. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is presiding over a case filed by the Center for Food Safety against the salmon’s approval, and he expressed concerns on Tuesday that the FDA’s approval of the salmon could inspire AquaBounty to expand their AquaAdvantage salmon program without fully considering the ecological impacts of it.

I’m not saying it opens the floodgates or sets the standards, but perhaps it pushes us in a direction and future agency action will likely be informed by this agency action…Shouldn’t the FDA in this case have considered the fact that this was the first such facility and future decisions would be building on this facility?”

Judge Vince Chhabria

The AquaAdvantage salmon is the first genetically engineered food animal that the FDA has approved for raising and selling. The fish is a genetic mix of an ocean pout and Pacific Chinook salmon, a combination that leads to higher growth hormone in the blood. The company plans to breed the salmon at a hatchery on Prince Edward Island in Canada before moving the eggs to their facility in Indiana.

When the agency completed their assessment of the salmon, they listed the salmon as having “no significant impact,” and Department of Justice attorney Marissa Piropato said that…

AquaBounty has no guarantee that the FDA is going to accept whatever comes down the pike…”

Marissa Piropato

Environmental groups have a different take on the approval and current impact status of the modified salmon that echoed Judge Chhabria sentiments. The treatment and regulation of the AquaBounty salmon sets the precedent for the future of gentically engineered food animals.

Whatever they do here is going to inform the approval for those other applications and is going to inform what the FDA does for all GE animals going forward…If the analysis they are doing here is inadequate that means it’s never going to be enough. It’s not going to get better.”

Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy

Oxitec, a biotech company, has made plans to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in both Florida and Texas in an attempt to stop the spread of diseases like Zika and dengue. This has already been approved by the EPA, but a group of biologists, ecologists, bioethicists, and sustainability researchers has concerns about the effect these mosquitos could have on the surrounding ecosystems.

In theory, releasing gene-hacked mosquitoes into the wild is a valid way to kill off or reduce local populations: by engineering sterile breeds of the insect, scientists can drastically reduce the number of bugs born in the next generation. The concept has worked in a laboratory setting. But when officials in Brazil tried it for real, the plan reportedly backfired spectacularly — giving rise to super-resilient genetic hybrids.

SCIENTISTS FIGHT PLAN TO RELEASE GENE-HACKED MOSQUITOES IN TX, FL

Scientists who have raised concerns are worried the EPA has not imposed strong enough measures to monitor the experiment and prevent damage to the ecosystem. Scientists wrote “Genetic engineering offers an unprecedented opportunity for humans to reshape the fundamental structure of the biological world,” However, they pointed out than much of our ecosystems remain understudied and extremely complex.

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The Trump administration wants to exempt many new genetically engineered crops from regulation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Trump wants it to be easier for genetically engineered plants and animals to enter the food supply. He signed an executive order on June 11th to have federal agencies simplify the “regulatory maze” for genetically modified food producers.

The administration says it wants to cut the cost of genetically modified crop development and exempt crops that have similar traits to plants that could be produced through hybridization (traditional plant breeding). GMO companies would be allowed to determine if their products are exempt from regulation.

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The administration argues the approach will allow regulators to focus on ‘increasingly complex products which, in turn, may pose new types of risks.’ “

Bloomberg

Crops produced with the newer gene-editing technologies wouldn’t automatically be subject to special oversight under the proposed rule. GMO companies say gene-editing makes it so that they can easily and more precisely alter the DNA of plants and animals, and that these changes to the DNA could be done with conventional breeding techniques.

Jaydee Hanson of the Center for Food Safety warns that these new gene editing techniques can make significant changes, “including those that would never happen in nature,” and says that the companies need oversight.

The proposed rules are open for public comment through Aug. 5 before the department issues a final regulation.

The Trump Administration has been friendly to companies like Bayer (formerly Monsanto) in the past. In 2019 Trump’s administration lifted Obama’s ban on GMOs and bee-killing chemicals in wildlife refuges.

The CEO of agriculture company Calyxt has confirmed that their gene-edited soybean oil is currently at use at locations in the Midwest. Although he was unable to name the locations using the product for competitive reasons, this marks the first appearance of a gene-edited food in restaurants. Unlike GMOs, gene-edited plants do not contain genetic material. The editing is applied only to the plant’s own DNA, altering or adding already present traits. The soybean oil now being used in restaurants has been edited to have a longer shelf life and contain no trans fats.

No Label, No Warning, No Problem…?

As a consumer, the arrival of gene-edited foods leaves something to be desired. For one thing, the company isn’t releasing where these oils are being used. For those who are concious of what they’re eating, that’s an issue.

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Gene-edited foods are also exempt from labeling. Since the changes to the plant could potentially happen through traditional breeding methods, the U.S. regulatory agencies does not consider the product to be genetically engineered. Compnaies are not required to report anything to the Food and Drug Administration, although they can request an evaluation. has Calyxt?

This attitude contrasts with the European Union’s take on gene-edited foods. Last year, the Court of Justice in the European Union ruled that gene-edited crops will be subjected to the same regulations as GMOs. There is language allowing for exemptions, but those have conditions, according to the court. Only plants that have “conventionally been used in a number of applications and have a long safety record are exempt from those obligations.” This is a much more decisive stance than that of the U.S. government, which is exercising little to no oversight.

Market Players

Depending on the poll, the percentage of American people in favor of GMO labeling is anywhere from 89 to 96. The number of countries banning or heavily regulating those products is growing. What we think of when we think genetically modified food is becoming more expensive to bring to market and there is much less demand for it. Major companies are looking for another advantage, and genetically engineered plants allow them to use many of the same resources at their disposal with fewer regulatory hassles and less consumer knowledge.

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Calyxt is the first company to get gene-edited crops into restaurants, but it will not be the last. Syngenta, an agribusiness giant and producer of GM seeds, has plans to have genetically engineered products on the market in the next decade. The ChemChina owned corporation is also planning to expand into tomatoes, rice, and sunflowers. Arcadia Biosciences, another biotech firm based in Davis, CA, is also developing genetically engineered foods. Bayer (formerly Monsanto) is also getting into action, partnering with Pairwise, a gene-editing company based in North Carolina.

Business Friendly

The U.S. government has not tried to check the speed at which companies have been able to develop and implement genetically engineered foods. Once again, they are choosing big business over truly examining a new food technology with the potential to seriously damage our health and the environment.

Sources:

• Gene-edited Food Quietly Arrives in Restaurant Cooking Oil – AP News
• Restaurant in the midwest is first in the US to use gene-edited food – Earth.com
• Gene-Edited Foods Are Coming to Your Plate But Aren’t Being Regulated – Bloomberg
• CRISPR plants now subject to tough GM laws in European Union – Nature.com