GMOs at the Teva Seminar: Tomatoes, anyone?
A few weeks ago, the Adamah fellows attended the Teva Environmental Education Seminar at Surprise Lake Camp — what an amazing day. Kudos to Teva for organizing such a great event. Here are some thoughts inspired by one of the sessions by Jackie Topol. Jackie is an artist who loves photographing nature (esp. produce from farmer’s markets) — check out her website: www.jackietopol.com. Hopefully we’ll get some of her photos up here soon ;-)
– Anna
As you may have gathered from Jeff & Anna, our schedule here at Adamah is exciting and filled to the brim. So — as much as I love working in the fields, the greenhouse, and the pasture — it was a nice change of pace to head to the Teva Seminar for a day of Jewish learning and environmental education. The first lecture I attended was about GMO foods and the Jewish response, led by Noam Dolgin. Genetically modified organisms are a major piece of the conversation around contemporary food issues. We talked about BT corn, square tomatoes, vegetables with fish genes, and other new and bizarre developments that are or will soon be growing on farms in the US.
Noam shared examples from the Torah and Rabbinic commentary that could be said to pertain to our current agricultural practices, including the question of GMO. A quote that I found particularly poignant was: “Look at My creations! See how beautiful and perfect they are… Make sure you do not spoil or destroy My world, for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you” [Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) Rabbah 7:13].
But, although the biblical excerpts really resonated with me, what has really been on my mind for the past two weeks is the square tomato.
From frequenting my city’s Farmer’s Market and now working on an organic farm, I have cultivated a deep appreciation for the unique and sometimes imperfect forms of fruits and vegetables. The idea that someone would change the shape of the tomato is so ridiculous to me that I almost see it as an abomination. Of course I understand the reasoning behind it (the fruit will bruise far less when shipped), but what will be next?? Square peaches? Square grapes? Square peppers? If you think about it there is nothing in nature that is square; the shape is an invention made by man.
I must admit that it is by no means a new agricultural invention. Japan has been growing square watermelons for some time, but a major distinction is that they do not genetically modify their watermelons. Instead they grow their fruits in boxes so that they take on the square shape as they grow. This, like the square tomato, ensures an easy shipment for farmers.
After reflecting on the altered physical appearance of these fruits, I shifted my attention to the fact that genetically modified foods not only have different appearances, but they have different compositions too. What is scary is that we have yet to see if there may be any consequences of consuming foods with a new genetic makeup.
I wonder if maybe people were to see square tomatoes they may be as disturbed by the sight of them as I am by the thought of them. Perhaps after looking at these bizarre man-made creations they would understand how abnormal genetically modified foods are. It makes me quite uncomfortable when I think about just how much these genetic engineers play God. Perhaps by altering the unique state of nature, we destroy the blueprint that God has written for it.
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One Response to “GMOs at the Teva Seminar: Tomatoes, anyone?”
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judi Says:
June 24th, 2007 at 5:48 amHi Anna,
I respect your concern for the safety of produce and food products in the marketplace and I understand that the idea of GMOs just feels bad. But not everyone has access to small-scale farms, farmers’ markets or even organic produce in a grocery store. I certainly don’t on a continuous basis, and I’m one of the lucky people on the planet who has access to a wide variety of food 24/7.
I’d suggest, though, that there must be a balance between the steadfast refusal to consider any good that might arise from these technologies and the wanton use of unproven methods with possibly disastrous effects.
The World Health Organization has a great page on their site which attempts to bring the GMO dialogue back down to earth. You can find it at http://www.who.int/foodsafety/.....tions/en/.
It would also be fair to point out that humans have been mucking with God’s blueprint throughout the ages, adding on a “kitchen” or “bath” whenever the family outgrew the old structure. We’ve been culturing grapes forever on grafted vines, natural recombination and selective breding has been used for ages to create, from whole cloth, new types of animals and plants (did French poodles just wander in from the Serengeti one day?).
We can’t seem to be able to leave well enough alone and God, in His foreward-thinking-ness, has generously provided us with minute details of His blueprint that make it even more possible than ever to mess with the original design. Intentional on God’s part? Maybe… Who knows?
I’m not a Monsanto scientist or a raving pro-tech prophet. I’m just someone who works in research (another field) who sees how easy it is for those not savvy in particular fields to be easily misled by misinformation.
