Maricle promotes genetically modified organism education

CSC collegiate Farm Bureau hosted guest speaker, Hilary Maricle, who came to CSC to give a presentation to help others understand Genetically Modified Organisms, otherwise known as GMOs.
Maricle is a member of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Promotion & Education Committee and is currently an educator and farmer from Spalding.
A GMO is an organism that is developed using the tools of genetic engineering. GMOs can often sound scary to consumers; however, there are a lot of foods that most people think are GMOs, but are actually just selectively bred.
Selective breeding is when we choose what traits we want the organism to have, and only reproduce organisms that have the specified traits in hopes that future generations will all hold the desired traits.
Tomatoes and bananas are prime examples of food items that many people think are genetically modified, but are actually just organisms that have been selectively bred throughout the years.
The foods currently approved to be considered GMO products by the USDA are: alfalfa, potatoes, arctic apples, papaya, corn, soybeans, sugar beets, canola, and squash. According to the USDA, 94 percent of cotton is considered to be genetically modified, proving that not just food items can be considered GMOs. Even most of the insulin used today is considered to be genetically modified.
The four steps to making a plant become considered a candidate for genetically modified engineering are: determining whether or not using genetic engineering is the most effective way to solve the plant’s problem, identifying the desired gene, removing the desired trait from a donor organism, and, finally, planting the new seed to test it.
Although some uninformed consumers worry that GMOs are not safe to eat, Maricle assured the audience that the process GMOs take to be considered safe for the environment is a lengthy process that can take several years to complete.
Maricle said GMOs are safe to eat and grow. She also said that she uses GMOs on her farm and doesn’t recall a time where she hasn’t been using GMO crops.
“Rather than putting on an insecticide that may kill multiple insects, because we know some insects are good, it allows us to target very specifically,” Maricle said.
When stating the benefits of GMOs, Maricle brought up that GMOs can help reduce production time, production cost and food waste levels.
Maricle presented an example of misleading consumer information during her presentation. She showed the audience a Tropicana orange juice she bought from Safeway earlier in the day that had the sticker ‘Non-GMO’ on it.
Although the labels are not misinforming customers, they can be considered misleading due to the fact that currently there are no GMO oranges on the market. Marking one style of jug with ‘Non-GMO’ but not putting any GMO related sticker on other jug styles next to it on shelves can lead consumers to falsely believe that one orange juice jug may actually contain GMOs at first glance.