transgenesoybeanIt can resist the herbicide glyphosate(toxic mixture)。Glyphosate willsoybeanPlants are killed together with weeds.This soybean is calledtransgeneSoybeans.And this kind of transgenic technology has finally gone out of the laboratory and experimental field, and entered intoCorn, soybeans andcottonDaily cultivation of crops.
In the 1980s, Monsanto researchers cloned resistance genes (EPsPs genes) from Petunia hybrida, and introduced the 35s promoter in the plasmid of Petunia hybrida (caMv) to control EPsPs genes into the soybean genome by using the technology of particle mediated transfer of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), thus breeding glyphosate resistant soybean varieties.This kind of genetically modified soybean was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994, and became one of the first commercially promoted genetically modified crops.Because RR soybean has a herbicide tolerant glyphosate gene, this soybean is highly tolerant to the non selective herbicide Rwndup.Applying glyphosate herbicide in the field will not affect soybean yield.In addition, there are other types of transgenic soybeans, such as high methionine soybean varieties, but the toxicity and safety problems of transgenic soybeans have been controversial.[1]
In the spring of 1996, many farmers in western Illinois planted a new soybean variety, which is a gene of petunia.This new soybean variety can resist the herbicide glyphosate (toxic mixture).Glyphosate will kill common soybean plants and weeds together.
Genetic engineering is expected to make food more conducive to human health, more predictable harvest, less use of synthetic pesticides and improve the efficiency of water use.The achievements of genetic engineering are called "genetically modified" products. The first products to be marketed are small commodities, such as an enzyme produced by bacteria used in the production of fresh tomatoes and cheese in supermarkets.This enzyme had previously had to be extracted from the stomach of cattle.GM technology has finally moved out of laboratories and experimental fields into the daily cultivation of crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton.[2]
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Glyphosate is a low toxic herbicide. The acute oral LD50 of raw powder rats is 4300 mg/kg, and the acute dermal LD50 of rabbits is more than 5000 mg/kg.Mild irritation to rabbit eyes and skinguinea pigThe skin has no allergy and irritation.Glyphosate does not accumulate in animals.Low toxicity to fish and aquatic organisms;No toxicity to bees and birds;It is safe for natural enemies and beneficial organisms.The pure product is a white solid, and its solubility in water is 1.2% (at 25 ℃).Low toxicity to humans and animals.The acute oral LD50 of rats is 4320 mg/kg, and the percutaneous LD50 of rabbits is>7940 mg/kg.Low toxic glyphosate will kill common soybean plants and weeds.
principle
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GM soybeans are developed to matchglyphosateUse of herbicides.herbicideSelective and non selective, glyphosate is a non selective herbicide, and glyphosate resistant transgenic crops are currently the largest transgenic crops in the world.The principle of glyphosate killing plants is to destroy EPSPS (5-enoacetone shikimate 3-phosphate synthase) in plant chloroplasts or plastids.adopttransgeneTo make plants produce more EPSPS enzymes, they can resist glyphosate, so that crops will not be killed by glyphosate herbicides.With such GM soybeans, farmers do not need to use a variety of herbicides as in the past, but can only use glyphosate to kill all kinds of weeds.At present, in addition to soybeans, there are many other GM crops resistant to glycyrrhizin, includingrape、cotton、CornEtc.In addition to glyphosate resistant crops, there are also crops resistant to glyphosate herbicide. However, the principle of glyphosate and glyphosate killing plants is different, and the genes transferred by these two crops are also different.At present, transgenic soybeans are mainly used to extract soybean oil.
Food
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GM FOOD has become the central topic of environment and health in many countries in the world.Moreover, it is also rapidly splitting the ideological camp of the public: those who agree with it believe that technological progress can greatly improve our living standards, while those who fear it believe that scientific practice has gone "too fast".
Genetically modified food means that scientists change the genes of animals and plants in the laboratory to produce food types with new characteristics.Many people have known that all living things have genetic genes written on their DNA, which are chemical information for constructing and maintaining life.By modifying genes, scientists can change some or all of the characteristics of an organism.
However, so far, this technology is still in its infancy, and no food containing genes from other animals and plants has realized large-scale economic cultivation.At the same time, many people insist that the food produced by this technology is "unnatural".
nutritive value
The content of crude fat, crude protein, fatty acid, flavone and phenolic acid in transgenic soybeans was significantly higher than that in non transgenic soybeans.Moreover, these substances can improve the adaptability of plants to the physical environment and enhance the ability of plants to resist natural enemies and diseases[3]。
market
The first kind in the worldGene transplantationThe crop is a kind of tobacco containing antibiotic antibodies, which was cultivated in 1983.Ten years later, the first market-oriented genetic food appeared in the United States, which is a tomato crop that can delay maturity.It was not until 1996 that tomato cakes made from this tomato food were allowed to be sold in supermarkets.
Why do some people think that transgenic technology may be harmful to human health?Critics believe that our current understanding of gene activity is not thorough enough.We are not fully sure of the results of controlling gene adjustment.Critics worry that sudden changes can lead to the production of toxic substances or trigger allergic phenomena.
Others criticize that the DNA used by scientists will be taken from some animals and plants carrying viruses and bacteria, which may cause many unknown diseases.Should we believe in the food we eat?
In order to ensure the safety of consumers and maintain confidence, all foods must go through a series of testing management procedures.The purpose of the testing procedure is to detect problems before the food is marketed.If consumers are unlucky to get sick because of the food they eat, it is often because of problems in the food production line.
Production scale
GM soybeans in the United States have a high oil yield and are cheaper than those in Northeast China. Due to the profit seeking nature of businessmen, American companies and ChinaCOFCO GroupBoth import a large amount of American soybeans, American soybean oil has occupied a monopoly position, and China's edible oil industry is facing potential safety hazards.The Chinese government has the obligation to support domestic soybean production and restrict the import of American soybeans, whether from the perspective of national industrial security or to ensure that the Chinese people do not mutate due to the massive use of American soybean oil.
In 2005, more than seven countries planted genetically modified soybeans in the world. The proportion of genetically modified soybeans planting area is as follows: 81% in the United States,Argentina100%，Brazil20%，Uruguay100%, ParaguaySouth Africa, RomaniaCanadaGM soybeans are also developing in other countries.At present, there are two kinds of transgenic soybeans in the international market, namely herbicide resistant transgenic soybeans and insect resistant transgenic soybeans.At present, GM soybeans resistant to glyphosate herbicide are widely used.In 2006, GM soybean was still the main GM crop, accounting for 57% of the total GM crop planting area in the world（
Related risks
The release of genetically modified crops into the environment may threaten traditional wild species and affect biodiversity.On the one hand, genetically modified organisms are superior to other natural organisms in terms of character and quality“Natural selection, survival of the fittest”The theory of biological evolution and competition mechanism will eliminate the wild species in the biological community, and indirectly affect the structure of the biological community through the food chain, threatening biodiversity.On the other hand, the genes of transgenic crops drift to other species and cross with other species to produce plants with stronger characteristics than wild plants, which will also affect the biological community structure and biodiversity.[4]
The risks that GM soybeans may bring to biological resources and ecosystems mainly include: ⑴ It may affect biological diversity.GM soybean is a superior soybean variety, which will limitNon GMO soybeansThe development of soybean varieties will affect the diversity of soybean varieties.On the one hand, genetically modified soybeans have higher economic benefits, which urges soybean growers to choose to plant genetically modified soybeans rather than non genetically modified soybeans;On the other hand, transgenic soybeans will destroy the original genes of non transgenic soybeans through "gene drift". ⑵May cause the spread of herbicide resistant weeds.Research shows that GM soybeans use 11.4% more herbicides than non GM soybeans, which will undoubtedly accelerate the development of resistant weeds, and will lead to a sharp increase in the resistance of some species. ⑶Genetically modified soybeans will be planted in large areas, the amount of herbicide will increase, and the corresponding content of herbicide in soil and water will also increase, which will eventually affect the soil andAquatic ecosystem。The study found that when glyphosate dissolved into soil and entered into groundwater, if the water temperature rose and the pH value exceeded 7.5, it would have toxic effects on aquatic ecosystems.
Realistic anxiety
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There are two kinds of concerns about GM soybeans, one is from the perspective of health, the other is from the perspective of ecology, which includes the generation of super weeds and the impact of local soybean varieties in China.The current battle of Greenpeace is to let Nanshan Oil Co., Ltd. provide non GMO soybean oil.
We can analyze how realistic these concerns are based on some basic knowledge and common sense.
From a health perspective, it is whether genetically modified soybean oil contains ingredients harmful to human beings.aboutEdible oilWe know that its main components areTriglyceride, and transgenic soybeansgeneIts function is to make plants produce more EPSPS enzymes, which has nothing to do with the composition of vegetable oil. Therefore, the subject composition of soybean oil has nothing to do with whether it is produced by transgenic plants. The key is whether some trace amounts are mixed in it, thus affecting human safety.These harmful ingredients are supposed to come from the following aspects.The first is that the transferred gene fragments enter the human body and affect human genes.The second is that too much EPSPS synthase enters the human body to affect human health.The third is that the transgenic plants may have functions unknown to humans. It is that plants can synthesize some substances harmful to human health and enter the human body with soybean oil to cause impact.Fourth, crops may be applied with too much glyphosate herbicide, which maysoybean oilEntering human body will affect human health.
It can be said that there is no gene that affects human beings.It is easy to understand that if the transferred gene fragments can affect human genes, then the conventional genes of food can also affect them. For humans, both are foreign genes from outside the human body, and there is no difference.From the perspective of human physiology, people can only absorb small molecules. Genes are located on DNA, and DNA is a large molecule, which will be broken down into small nucleotides in the digestive tract.The only difference in genetic information recorded on DNA is the sequence of nucleotides. If digested into independent nucleotides, there will be no sequence, no genetic information, and no genes.EPSPS enzyme is aproteinProtein is also largemoleculeAfter digestion, it will becomeamino acid，enzymeIt does not exist, but it should be considered whether the human body can completely digest it, and whether there will be other effects if there are some residues in the intestine needs to be verified.It may be possible to worry about whether the transferred gene has other functions that people do not know, but if it does, it is also minimal.What is transferred is only a gene fragment with single function, and people have a better understanding of its function. On the contrary, it is more difficult for people to predict the effect of new varieties cultivated by traditional methods.At the same time, the existing detection methods have not yet found that the genetically modified soybean oil contains ingredients harmful to human health. The genetically modified soybean oil has also been used for quite a period of time, and no examples of human health problems have been found.For residuesherbicideThe first problem is not that only GM crops use herbicides. For food residual herbicides and other issues, they are tested in accordance with relevant food safety regulations, which should not be worried.
From an ecological point of view, first of all, there is no need to worry about the resistance of glyphosate soybeans to becoming super weeds, because soybeans can only resist glyphosate, which is a herbicide, and cannot resist other herbicides, nor can they resist pests, nor have other competitive advantages. The possibility of GM soybeans becoming weeds is no different from traditional soybeans.Soybeans have been planted in China for thousands of years, and no serious weeds have been formed.At the same time, herbicide resistant crops are far from limited to transgenic soybeans.
There is no need to worry about the impact on local soybean resources. There are two key links.First, soybeans are self pollinated. Second, they are only imported from abroad and not planted in China.However, there is only one way to threaten the local soybean resources, that is, transgenic soybeans blossom near local soybeans and cross with local soybeans, so that the offspring produced by local soybeans have transgenic ingredients.We know that the probability of this happening is very small after a little analysis.First of all, we have not planted genetically modified soybeans. If soybeans blossom, that means enteringcustomsDuring the period between processing into soybean oil in the processing plant, there were soybeans scattered in the field, or someone stole soybeans for planting.This probability is very small.While Chinese native soybeans are concentrated in the northeast, the soybean oil processing plant that Greenpeace mainly opposes is located inShenzhen。If a few beans are lost in Shenzhen and blossom and bear fruit, it will be passed down from generation to generation, and then spread to the northeast, which is not so easy to achieve.Of course, not all local soybean varieties are in the northeast, nor are soybean oil processing plants in Shenzhen. However, if distance is taken into consideration, the discount will be given.Even though there are many transgenic soybeans blooming around the local soybean production area, it does not necessarily pose a great threat. This is because soybeans are self pollinated, although cross pollination occasionally occurshybridizationBut this ratio is very small.Even if there is hybridization, there is a problem of probability that the offspring of hybridization will have advantages enough to make one or many local varieties disappear. However, if it is circulated to the market and farmers plant in a large area, the consequences will be difficult to calculate.
Detection technology
After the complex processing of edible soybean oil, DNA degradation and destruction are extremely serious, which brings great difficulties to transgenic detection, and false negatives are easy to appear in the detection.Therefore, before the extraction, a certain volume of TE solution is added to edible oil for washing, taking advantage of the property that DNA is soluble in water solution. This step is crucial for the successful extraction of DNA.By improving the DNA extraction method, designing quality control primers for endogenous genes, controlling the length of amplification fragments, and using different detection techniques, false negatives were eliminated and detection sensitivity was improved, so that the nucleic acid detection technology for soybean oil transgenic components became more mature.Real time fluorescent quantitative PCR technology, not only has the advantages of high sensitivity and rapidity, but also enables transgenic detection to be both qualitative and quantitative, becoming the trend of transgenic detection.At present, there is still no unified method to detect transgenic vegetable oil in the world, which is an urgent problem to be solved;The quantitative detection of genetically modified ingredients in edible soybean oil is another direction of future detection, and also a great challenge for inspectors.
Impact on China
After GM soybeans entered China, most of them entered edible oil processing enterprises with foreign investment background, and their products soon occupied most of the market, which affected the resource environment of soybean processing in China and was not conducive to the development of local edible oil processing enterprises.Some domestic edible oil processing enterprises in China use non genetically modified soybeans and other raw materials. Compared with genetically modified soybean oil, the price is higher and they are not competitive. Under the control of the price of genetically modified soybean oil, the efficiency of Chinese oil and fat enterprises has declined sharply, and their operations are in trouble.Looking back at the process in which China's soybean market was dominated by imported GM soybeans, it is clear that the world's four major international grain merchants (ADM, Bangji, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus) have great strategic vision to swallow ChinaSoybean industryIt is intended for the long run.First, change the traditional Chinese cooking oil eating habits;Secondly, international grain traders, as foreign capital introduced, enjoy preferential policies and have successively invested in the establishment of pressing and processing enterprises with imported soybeans as raw materials in China.At the same time, domestic capital has also set foot in the field of oil pressing with imported soybeans as raw materials. When more and more domestic capital enters the field of soybean pressing, pressing enterprises will blossom everywhere.As a result, Chinese economists and industry circles are intoxicated with the eastward shift of the world's soybean crushing center, our labor force has comparative advantages, and China's process of becoming the world's processing plant has accelerated, but we have already fallen into the pockets of the four major international grain traders step by step.
Due to the expansion of processing capacity, the shortage of soybean raw materials has become a headache for processing and pressing enterprises.In 2004, some domestic enterprises decided to set up purchasing groups to buy soybeans in the United States to increase their bargaining power.On the eve of the purchase group's visit to the United States,USDAIt was announced that the soybean harvest of the year was poor.same dayChicago, USAThe price of soybeans on the futures exchange soared from $220 per ton to $391, a 15 year high.Shortly after the Chinese procurement group signed a huge procurement contract and left the United States, the US Department of Agriculture came forward to clarify that the newdataIt shows that the world soybean production will increase greatly.ChicagofuturesThe soybean price on the exchange quickly turned down and plummeted to 266 dollars.Chinese businessmen suffered heavy losses and some enterprises went bankrupt.
However, some critics believe that the excessive publicity (rather than secrecy) of the procurement team before placing an order is the reason for raising market expectations, rather than a conspiracy.
At this time, the four major international grain merchants timely "provide timely help" to let the Chinese crushing enterprises on the verge of bankruptcy continue to operate, on the condition that they transfer their equity.As a result, four major international grain merchants took the opportunity to acquire and hold a large number of Chinese crushing enterprises, completing the layout of China's soybean crushing and processing industry.According to the data, 64 of the 97 large oil processing enterprises in China are controlled by foreign capital, accounting for 66%. Foreign capital also accounts for 80% of China's soybean import processing capacity.
After completely controlling all links of raw materials, processing and market of China's soybean industry chain, the international soybean futures market is once again making waves.Influenced by the international market, the price of domestic soybean futures rose from 2600 yuan at the beginning of the year to 4100 yuan at the end of the year in 2007, and continued to soar in 2008, reaching a maximum of 5240 yuan in July.In just 18 months, the price doubled.Xia YoufuHis research findings were released at the GM International Forum on September 25, 2006. "This is not caused by demand, but by market monopoly. China is the world's largest soybean importer, and the soaring price has caused China to overpay 7.8 billion dollars." He said,"We are willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to buy genetically modified soybeans abroad, and pay an additional 7.8 billion dollars, but we are not willing to subsidize farmers. Maybe as long as 1 billion yuan is used for research and development of soybean seeds, we canChinese farmersUse better seeds. "
What's more, GM soybeans are trying to further expand their territory in China. Chinese corrupt elements and unscrupulous businessmen and American GM soybeans suppliers jointly set up a set to let GM soybeans enter China's grain depot.At the end of last year,HeilongjiangThe provincial food department found that some dealers, taking advantage of the national policy of purchasing domestic soybeans at a preferential price, passed the suspected imported genetically modified soybeans off as domestic soybeans and sold them to the national grain depot to earn a price difference.Heilongjiang soybean Association survey confirmed that in November, ShandongXinchangFood company rejects HeilongjiangJiamusiThe reason why the traders sell soybeans is that they are mixed with suspected GM soybeans. Previously, this Jiamusi trader has been selling domestic soybeans in Heilongjiang.It can be said without hesitation that once China's grain depot is full of genetically modified soybeans, China'sSoybean industryWill be completelyU.S.AAs people know, China's national security is increasingly in the hands of Americans.
On the evening of June 13, 2013, Xinhua News Agency announced that the Ministry of Agriculture had recently approved the issuance of three import safety certificates for genetically modified soybeans, but did not specify which countries were imported.Previously, it was reported that the Chinese government had approved the import of genetically modified crops from Argentina and Brazil.
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Because transgenic soybeans are bred to be resistant to insects and drugs, the identification method should be based on this feature. Generally, non transgenic soybeans can occasionally see the traces of moth eaten.
In addition, non GM soybeans are easy to be infested if they are not well preserved, while GM soybeans are usually clean in shape, with almost no traces of moth eaten.
Moreover, it is difficult to distinguish whether it is non transgenic by germination method, because Roundup Ready transgenic soybeans are widely planted worldwide.
