title: Lumen (unit)

text: Alternatively, an isotropic one-candela light-source emits a total luminous flux of exactly 4π lumens. If the source were partly covered by an ideal absorbing hemisphere, that system would radiate half as much luminous flux—only 2π lumens. The luminous intensity would still be one candela in those directions that are not obscured.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: The lumen can be thought of casually as a measure of the total amount of visible light in some defined beam or angle, or emitted from some source. The number of candelas or lumens from a source also depends on its spectrum, via the nominal response of the human eye as represented in the luminosity function.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: The difference between the units "lumen" and "lux" is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. A flux of 1,000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1,000 lux. The same 1,000 lumens, spread out over ten square metres, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux. Mathematically, .


title: Lumen (unit)

text: A source radiating a power of one watt of light in the color for which the eye is most efficient (a wavelength of 555 nm, in the green region of the optical spectrum) has luminous flux of 683 lumens. So a lumen represents at least 1/683 watts of visible light power, depending on the spectral distribution.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: Lamps used for lighting are commonly labelled with their light output in lumens and, in many jurisdictions, that is required by law.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: A 23 W spiral compact fluorescent lamp emits about 1,400–1,600 lm. Many compact fluorescent lamps and other alternative light sources are labelled as being equivalent to an incandescent bulb with a specific power. Below is a table that shows typical luminous flux for common incandescent bulbs and their equivalents.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: On 1 September 2010, European Union legislation came into force mandating that lighting equipment must be labelled "primarily" in terms of luminous flux (lm), instead of electric power (W). That change is a result of the EU's Eco-design Directive for Energy-using Products (EuP). For example, according to the European Union standard, an energy-efficient bulb that claims to be the equivalent of a 60 W tungsten bulb must have a minimum light output of 700–750 lm.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: The light output of projectors (including video projectors) is typically measured in lumens. A standardized procedure for testing projectors has been established by the American National Standards Institute, which involves averaging together several measurements taken at different positions. For marketing purposes, the luminous flux of projectors that have been tested according to this procedure may be quoted in "ANSI lumens", to distinguish them from those tested by other methods. ANSI lumen measurements are in general more accurate than the other measurement techniques used in the projector industry. This allows projectors to be more easily compared on the basis of their brightness specifications.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: The method for measuring ANSI lumens is defined in the IT7.215 document which was created in 1992. First the projector is set up to display an image in a room at a temperature of . The brightness and contrast of the projector are adjusted so that on a full white field, it is possible to distinguish between a 5% screen area block of 95% peak white, and two identically sized 100% and 90% peak white boxes at the center of the white field. The light output is then measured on a full white field at nine specific locations around the screen and averaged. This average is then multiplied by the screen area to give the brightness of the projector in "ANSI lumens".


title: Lumen (unit)

text: Peak lumens is a measure of light output normally used with CRT video projectors. The testing uses a test pattern typically at either 10 and 20 percent of the image area as white at the center of the screen, the rest as black. The light output is measured just in this center area. Limitations with CRT video projectors result in them producing greater brightness when just a fraction of the image content is at peak brightness. For example, the Sony VPH-G70Q CRT video projector produces 1200 "peak" lumens but just 200 ANSI lumens.


title: Lumen (unit)

text: Brightness (white light output) measures the total amount of light projected in lumens. The color brightness specification Color Light Output measures red, green, and blue each on a nine-point grid, using the same approach as that used to measure brightness.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: We're All Going to the World's Fair is a 2021 American coming-of-age horror drama film directed, written, and edited by Jane Schoenbrun. The film stars Anna Cobb in her debut role and Michael J. Rogers. David Lowery served as an executive producer.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021. It was then released in U.S. theaters by Utopia on April 15, 2022 and streaming on HBO Max on September 1, 2022.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: Casey is a lonely teenage girl who lives with her widower father. One day, she decides to record herself taking the viral “World’s Fair Challenge,” in which she states, “I want to go to the World’s Fair,” three times on camera, smears some of her blood on her laptop computer screen and watches a short strobe light video, before saying she’ll make updates on any “changes” she notices.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: Other World’s Fair challengers record and post their own psychological and physical changes. Casey’s next video recounts bouts of sleepwalking she experienced when she was younger, saying she’s begun feeling similarly since taking the challenge. Late one night, she sneaks into her shed, where she finds her father’s assault rifle. She then watches an ASMR video of a young woman calming someone after a nightmare before a disturbing video made to her from user “JLB” plays, featuring Casey’s distorted face along with the messages “YOU ARE IN TROUBLE” and “I NEED TO TALK TO YOU.”


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: Casey reaches out to JLB, a collaborator with other World’s Fair challengers, and speaks with him over Skype. JLB claims to worry about the symptoms Casey reported in her last post, and he encourages her to keep making videos so he can monitor her wellbeing. JLB is revealed to be an equally lonely middle-aged man who spends his time watching other people's World's Fair videos.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: JLB watches another video of Casey’s that she recorded while she slept, during which she appears to pull herself out of bed with a menacing smile. JLB informs her through another personal video that the forces behind the World’s Fair are taking her over, and that she should continue posting videos. Casey’s mental state begins to deteriorate, which becomes apparent in the stream of videos she continues posting online, including one where she inexplicably screams in terror while recording herself singing and dancing to a song, and then another later one where she states her intention to either murder her father with his gun or kill herself.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: In her next video, she covers her face and arms in glow paint in her blacklit bedroom and tears apart the stuffed animal she's slept with since she was a newborn. She then appears to come to, becoming distraught over her toy's destruction. In her next conversation with JLB, he asks to "go out of game" and admits he continues to worry about her and says he once considered calling the police over her videos’ content. Casey seems surprised by JLB's statement that the Fair is just a game, but quickly regains her composure and angrily asserts that her videos were not real, that she was only playing along with the challenge, and that Casey isn’t even her real name. She cuts off contact with him, and he tries in vain to convince her to continue making videos.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: One year later, JLB recounts having been reached back out to by Casey, whom he meets in person and eventually befriends in New York City where she’s currently living. It is not confirmed whether this meeting actually happened or not.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: A number of performers appear in various real and staged YouTube videos, including Theo Anthony, Evan Santiago, May “NyxFears” Leitz, and the ASMR content creator Slight Sounds.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: The film had its premiere in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021 in the "Next" section.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: The film had its Asian Premiere at the 2021 Perspectives Film Festival on October 21, 2021 in Singapore.


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on reviews from 64 critics, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The critics consensus reads: "Narratively challenging and visually haunting, "We're All Going to the World's Fair" adds a uniquely ambitious and unsettling entry to the crowded coming-of-age genre." On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 79 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."


title: We're All Going to the World's Fair

text: Many reviewers praised the film's evocation of gender dysphoria through horror. Of this, Schoenbrun, who is nonbinary, has said that they were trying "to do something that felt truthful to my coming-out process.”


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds (also referred to as traumatic bonds) are emotional bonds with an individual (and sometimes, with a group) that arise from a recurring, cyclical pattern of abuse perpetuated by intermittent reinforcement through rewards and punishments. The process of forming trauma bonds is referred to as trauma bonding or traumatic bonding. A trauma bond usually involves a victim and a perpetrator in a uni-directional relationship wherein the victim forms an emotional bond with the perpetrator. This can also be conceptualized as a dominated-dominator or an abused-abuser dynamic. Two main factors are involved in the establishment of a trauma bond: a power imbalance and intermittent reinforcement of good and bad treatment, or reward and punishment. Trauma bonding can occur in the realms of romantic relationships, platonic friendships, parent-child relationships, incestuous relationships, cults, hostage situations, sex trafficking (especially that of minors), or tours of duty among military personnel.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds are based on terror, domination, and unpredictability. As a trauma bond between an abuser and a victim strengthens and deepens, it leads to conflicting feelings of alarm, numbness, and grief, that show up in a cyclical pattern. More often than not, victims in trauma bonds do not have agency and autonomy, and don't have an individual sense of self either. Their self-image is a derivative and an internalization of the abuser's conceptualization of them.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds have severe detrimental effects on the victim not only while the relationship persists, but beyond that as well. Some long-term impacts of trauma bonding include but are not limited to remaining in abusive relationships, having adverse mental health outcomes like low self-esteem, negative self image, and increased likelihood of depression and bipolar disorder, and perpetuating a generational cycle of abuse. Victims who traumatically bond with their victimizers are often unable to leave these relationships or are only able to do so with significant duress and difficulty. Even among those who do manage to leave, many go back to the abusive relationship due to the pervasiveness of the learned trauma bond.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: In the 1980s, Donald G. Dutton and Susan L. Painter began to explore the concept of traumatic bonding theory in the context of abusive relationships and battered women. This work was then further studied in contexts of parent-child relationships, sexual exploitation, and more. Patrick Carnes developed the term to describe "the misuse of fear, excitement, sexual feelings, and sexual physiology to entangle another person." A simpler and more encompassing definition is that traumatic bonding is: "a strong emotional attachment between an abused person and his or her abuser, formed as a result of the cycle of violence." Carnes also did a lot of work on traumatic bonding theory, exploring it specifically in the context of betrayal, which involved the exploitation of the victim's trust, sense of power, or both, by the abuser.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds are formed in abused-abuser or victim-victimizer dynamics. A victim can form a trauma bond with an abuser in the presence of a perceived threat from the abuser, the conviction that the abuser will follow through with the threat, perception of some form of kindness from the abuser, isolation from perspectives that do not serve to deepen the trauma bond, and perceived lack of ability or capacity to leave the situation.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: The first incident of abuse is often perceived as an anomaly, as a one-off instance occurring at the beginning of a seemingly healthy and positive relationship. The first incident is often not very severe and the expression of affection and care by the abuser following the incident pacifies the victim and instills in them the belief that the abuse is not recurring. However, later on, repeated instances of abuse and maltreatment generate a cognitive shift in the victim's mind: that preventing the abuse is in their power. By the time the inescapability of the abuse becomes apparent, the emotional trauma bond is already strong.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: There are two main factors that facilitate the formation and continuation of a trauma bond: a power imbalance and intermittent reinforcement.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: For a trauma bond to persist, it is necessary for a power differential to exist between the abuser and the victim such that the abuser is in a position of power and authority whereas the victim is not. Inequity in power can itself produce pathologies in individuals that can fortify the trauma bond. Upon experiencing intermittent punishment from the abuser/dominator, who is in a position of high power, the victim may internalize the abuser's perception of themselves. This may result in a tendency for the victim to self-blame in situations of violence perpetrated by the abuser, which can negatively impact the victim's self-concept.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: A negative self-appraisal can maximize emotional dependency on the abuser and the cyclical nature of this dependency and negative self-concept can eventually lead to the formation of a strong emotional bond from the victim to the abuser (i.e. towards the person who is in a position of power and authority, from the person who is not). Furthermore, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse can be used to maintain the power differential. This dynamic is also maintained via the interaction of the abuser's sense of power and the victim's sense of powerlessness and subjugation.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Intermittent reinforcement of rewards and punishments is crucial to the establishment and maintenance of a trauma bond. In trauma bonding, the abuser intermittently maltreats the victim in the forms of physical, verbal, emotional, and/or psychological abuse. This maltreatment is interspersed with positive behaviors like expressing affection and care, showing kindness, giving the victim gifts, and promising not to repeat the abuse. Alternating and sporadic periods of good and bad treatment serve to intermittently reinforce the victim.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: The pervasiveness of learning something through intermittent reinforcement can be elucidated upon by drawing from learning theory and the behaviorist perspective. In the presence of an aversive stimulus, reinforcement through rewards in unpredictable ways are a key component to learning. When the learner is unable to predict when they will get the reward, learning is maximized. Similarly, the intermittent expressions of affection and care are unexpected and the inability to predict them makes them more sought after. Intermittent reinforcement produces behavioral patterns that are tough to terminate. Thus, they develop incredibly strong emotional bonds.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: A trauma bond can be maintained by keeping the power imbalance and the intermittency of abuse intact.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds can also be maintained if the victim is financially dependent on the abuser or has some investment in the relationship, such as a child with the abuser.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Cognitive dissonance theory can also explain the maintenance of a trauma bond. This theory postulates that when individuals experience a conflict between their beliefs and action, they are motivated to make efforts to reduce or eliminate the incongruency in an attempt to minimize the psychological discomfort arising from it. In this vein, victims may distort their cognitions about the trauma and violence of the relationship in order to maintain a positive view of the relationship. This could involve rationalizing the abuser's behavior, justifications, minimizing of the impact of the abuser's violence, and self-blaming.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Furthermore, research shows that the memory of instances wherein abuse was experienced is dissociated or state-dependent, meaning that the memories of abuse only fully resurface when the situation is similar in intensity and experience to the original situation of terror.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: If and when the victim finally decides to leave the abusive relationship, the immediate relief from the traumatizing violence will begin to abate and the underlying, deep attachment formed as a result of intermittent reinforcement, will begin to surface. This current period of vulnerability and emotional exhaustion is likely to trigger memories of when the abuser was temporarily affectionate and caring. In the desire to receive that affection once more, the victim may try to return to the abusive relationship.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Strong social support, however, can be a protective factor when it comes to preserving the victim's functioning and providing a buffer in traumatic situations.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: John Bowlby maintained that a secure attachment was an evolutionarily sound human need that superseded even the need for food and reproduction. Attachment has been explored in depth in caregiver-child dynamics but recent research has shown that the principles that explain attachment between caregivers and infants can also explain attachment throughout one's lifespan, specifically in the context of intimate relationships and romantic bonds.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Attachment bonds formed during early life lay the foundation for interpersonal relationships, interactions, personality characteristics, and mental health in the future. Infants usually form attachments with their parents or immediate caregivers. Harlow's research on monkeys shows that infant monkeys formulate attachment bonds even with abusive mothers (In the experimental setup, the abusive 'mother' was a monkey made out of fabric who delivered mild shocks to the infant monkey or flung the infant monkey across the arena). These findings also apply to human attachment bonds. Even in situations where immediate caregivers are abusive, human infants still tend to attach to them – rejection from a caregiver only enhances the efforts to increase proximity to them and establish an attachment bond with them.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Furthermore, in situations of danger, humans seek increased attachment. When ordinary pathways of attachment are unavailable, people tend to turn to their abusers. This leads to the development of strong bonds and deep emotional connections with abusers. This attachment – both, to abusive caregivers and to other abusers in the absence of a main caregiver – may be adaptive in the short-run as it may aid survival. But in the long-run, this attachment is maladaptive and can lay the foundation for, increase vulnerability to, and even directly lead to trauma bonding.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: The concept of trauma bonding is often conflated with Stockholm syndrome. Although there are overarching similarities between the two, especially in the context of developing an emotional bond with one's victimizer, trauma bonding and Stockholm syndrome are distinct from one another. The main difference is the directionality of the relationship. While a trauma bond is uni-directional in that only the victim becomes emotionally attached to the victimizer, Stockholm syndrome is bi-directional. In other words, in the case of Stockholm syndrome, the emotional connection is reciprocal such that the abuser also seems to develop an emotional connection towards the abused and harbor positive feelings for the abused, in addition to the abused developing an emotional bond with the abuser.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Unhealthy, or traumatic, bonding occurs between people in an abusive relationship. The bond is stronger for people who have grown up in abusive households because it seems to them to be a normal part of relationships.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Initially, the abuser is inconsistent in approach, developing it into an intensity perhaps not matched in other relationships of the victim. It is claimed the longer a relationship continues, the more difficult it is for people to leave the abusers with whom they have bonded.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Initial research about battered women held the view that a victim's return to an abusive relationship was an indicator of a flawed personality and more specifically, masochism. However, this view was perpetuated by the 'just-world hypothesis', that supports the idea that people “get what's coming for them”. In other words, the tendency to victim-blame arises from the belief that the world is a just and fair place where the victim is seen as deserving of any negative consequences. However, research on battered women and research on traumatic bonding has shown that that is not the case. In terms of battered women's decision to stay in or return to an abusive relationship, many factors are at play, ranging from family history and role expectations, to access to resources, to the dynamics of the relationship itself. A crucial part of the relationship's dynamic is the existence of a trauma bond. Maltreatment interspersed with periods of kindness aid the formation of a trauma bond that makes the victim harbor positive feelings towards the abuser.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Among battered women, a three-phase process can explain the intermittent reward-punishment cycle. During phase one, there is a gradual increase in tension, followed by an "explosive battering incident" in phase two, which is then followed by a peaceful expression of love and affection from the abuser during phase three. The recurring and cyclical nature of these phases gives rise to a trauma bond.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds are extremely common in situations of sex-trafficking, child grooming, commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), and pimp-prostitute relationships.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Child grooming involves the establishment and maintenance of trauma bonds between the child and the abuser. Along with the factors of power imbalance and intermittent reinforcement that contribute to trauma bonding, child grooming also necessitates gaining the trust of those around the child. Grooming also involves the dynamic of gaining the child's trust while simultaneously violating their boundaries. Treats and trips are used as bribes to both gain access to the child as well as ensure that they comply. Intense attachments coupled with cognitive distortions deepen the bond.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: A 2019 case study explores the life of one individual who was groomed. The victim's perception of the abuser as a benefactor, of the abuser as a substitute parent, and of the abuser as a mind-controller, all contributed to the development of a traumatic bond between the victim and the abuser. In terms of being a benefactor, the abuser in this case study went above and beyond to give the victim what they needed: from getting the victim a job to gifting them a plot of land for their first house, the abuser was always present as a benefactor. The abuser also acted as a substitute parent, giving advice and offering emotional support in times of crises. The roles of the abuser as a benefactor and substitute parent constituted the good treatment necessary to establish a trauma bond. In contrast, the abuser's role as a mind-controller involved controlling and dominating tendencies that emulated being brainwashed. This combination of perceptions established a traumatic bond that the victim found incredible difficulty in leaving, because rejecting the emotional connection as a whole would also involve rejecting the perks and benefits – the trips, the gifts, the treats, the confidante and the caretaker.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Child grooming can be understood from a developmental perspective as well and the relationship between the victim and the abuser evolves across the lifespan. Grooming starts when the child is extremely young – the trust of the child and the family is acquired. The child is given immense attention and is showered with gifts. As the individual matures and enters adolescence, the abuser becomes a confidante and a benefactor. In the aforementioned case study, the abuser gave the victim career advice and even picked him up and dropped him off to school. Then, at the onset of adulthood, the abuser provided the victim with land to build their home and became the person the victim brought their partner home to. Overall, as the victim's developmental needs evolved, so did the abuser's response, such that the only thing constant was the victim's need for affection. In other words, the abuser was "able to capitalize on [the victim's] relational needs" until the victim was able to meet those needs in other ways.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) can cause debilitating physical and psychological trauma. Along with causing functional impairments, it can amplify risk-taking behaviors and increase impulse dysregulation that can further compromise the child's ability to conceptualize, comprehend, establish, and maintain boundaries. This can lead to confusion regarding what safety, affection, intimacy, and kindness entail, resulting in the formation of a trauma bond with the abuser/trafficker that is based on skewed perceptions of safety and kindness. The trauma bond deepens and strengthens when isolation and threats to survival increase, forcing the victim to depend almost entirely on the abuser for survival and protection. This increased emotional dependence on the abuser normalizes the emotional violence experienced by the victim at the hands of the abuser and gradually, the victim develops a sense of trust and safety – albeit skewed – towards the abuser.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonding thrives in the presence of a power imbalance and intermittent reward/punishment behavior. Trauma coercive bonding, on the other hand, has two additional elements: social isolation and perceived inability to escape the situation. Since these two elements are crucial to the experiences of victims of CSEC, their bonds with their abusers are better described as trauma coercive bonds rather than simply as trauma bonds. The element of coercion concretized by social isolation and the perceived inability to escape makes the trauma bond more complex and far more deep-rooted. The use of coercive trauma bonding encapsulates the psychosocial dynamics of a relationship between a victim and a perpetrator of CSEC.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: has been defined as the physical, sexual, psychological, economical or stalking abuse, both concrete and menaced, perpetuated by current or ex-partners. Trauma bonding is used to solidify this type of relationship by, rationalizing and/or minimizing a violent partner’s behavior, self-blame, and reporting love in the context of fear.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds in parent-child or caregiver-child dynamics can be borne either from abuse and neglect or from incestuous relationships.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: The children of dismissive caregivers or cruel/harsh caregivers can develop insecure attachments, which can be very dysfunctional. Inconsistencies in reward and punishment (i.e. intermittent reinforcement of good and bad treatment) can highlight the affection the child receives from the parent, forcing a split between the abuse and the kindness such that the child seeks to form an overall positive view of the caregiver and thus, focuses only on the affection and kindness they receive. Overall, a trauma bond develops such that the child's sense of self is derived from their emotional dependence on the authority figure who, in this case, is the parent and/or caregiver.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Incestuous relationships between parents and children cultivate trauma bonds similar to those prevalent in victims of sex-trafficking. All participants of a 1994 study on trauma in adult incest survivors demonstrated some type of trauma bond with their abusers. There was a positive correlation between the pervasiveness of the trauma bond and the amount of contact the victim or the victim's close family members had with the abuser: those who self-reported less pervasive trauma also reported sustained contact with their abuser, while those who self-reported more pervasive trauma demonstrated an active avoidance of maintaining a relationship with their abuser. In incestuous parent-child dynamics, the study found that maintaining an unhealthy relationship with the abuser contributes to trauma and sustains the trauma bond. This aligns with the idea that trauma bonds are toxic and difficult to leave due to the inherent power imbalance, which, in parent-child relationships, is even more pervasive than in other situations. Incestuous relationships also have an added layer of betrayal trauma, which arises from the exploitation of the victim's trust, resulting in a feeling of betrayal.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds can develop in military settings. The literature demonstrates this specifically in the context of tours of duty, wherein military personnel are deployed in hostile environments or areas of combat. A 2019 study exploring this specific phenomenon sought to understand the traumatic bond developed between Japanese soldiers and Korean 'comfort women' in the midst of World War II. The trauma in this case was two-fold: not only did the trauma bond develop in an abused-abuser dynamic, the trauma itself was a result of and was perpetuated by the war. While the relationships provided the Japanese soldiers with emotional relief and an escape from the violence of the war and the tyranny of the higher-ranking officers, they provided the Korean 'comfort women' much-desired protection and kindness from the soldiers.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Soldiers would behave aggressively and violently towards the 'comfort women' and often sexually exploit them. They would use intimidation tactics to assert dominance and foster coercion. However, this abuse would be interspersed with kindness and empathy from the soldiers, whose moods – and subsequent behavior and interactions – were highly contingent on the time and context in terms of the ongoing war. Nonetheless, the intermittent kindness allowed the formation and maintenance of a trauma bond. Intermittent rewards were sometimes also more tangible, in the form of food, outings, and physical protection. However, protection and emotional support were pivotal in maintaining the trauma bonds, and far more important than food and outings. The Korean 'comfort women' eventually came to be emotionally dependent on the Japanese soldiers and began to relate this dependence with their own sense of power, thereby establishing a trauma bond that, for some, persisted even after the war was over.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonding has several short-term and long-term impacts on the abused. It can force people to stay in abusive relationships, negatively affect self-image and self-esteem, perpetuate transgenerational cycles of abuse, and result in adverse mental health outcomes like increased likelihood of developing depression and/or bipolar disorder.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Owing to the debilitating psychological manipulation involved in the development of a trauma bond, abused people tend to stay in abusive relationships mainly because the perceived consequences of leaving the relationship seem far more negative than the consequences of staying in the abusive relationship.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: In such relationships, maltreatment is often interspersed with fragments of solace and peace that involve the expression of love, kindness, affection, and/or general friendliness from the abuser towards the abused. This intermittent reinforcement of a reward (here, the abuser's love and kindness) amidst all the abuse becomes what the victim begins to hold on to. Thus, victims tend to become emotionally dependent on the abuser and construct the belief that their survival is contingent upon receiving the abuser's love. Victims thereby begin to formulate their sense of identity and their sense of self around receiving the abuser's affection. Additionally, the provision of intermittent love and affection makes the victim cling onto the hope that things can change. Furthermore, self-blame, the fear of social stigma and embarrassment, the fear of loneliness in the absence of a partner, and the lack of or poor social support from other family and friends also contribute to individuals remaining in abusive relationships.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: People who have experienced trauma and traumatic bonds can – knowingly or unknowingly – repeat the cycle of abuse. In other words, victims who were traumatically bonded with abusers may grow to become abusers themselves. The abuse that victims inflict may or may not involve trauma bonding.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: For instance, in a 2018 study on convicted child murderers, researchers found that caregivers who committed child homicide (murdered their child/care-receiver) had experienced traumatic experiences and had trauma bonds with abusers in their early lives. Individuals with cruel and/or dismissive caregivers are likely to develop insecure attachments that result in a host of problems, including emotion dysregulation and an attitude of confusion towards the caregiver, who becomes a source of comfort as well as fear. These adverse attachments can manifest in the individual's relationship with their own children as well. Attachment issues and painful memories of trauma bonds with their own caregivers can be triggered and individuals may demonstrate heightened and disproportionate aggression toward their child, some culminating in homicide. In this study, participants had experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, lack of protection from external dangers, abandonment, emotional rejection, and more from their caregivers. Nonetheless, participants expressed unconditional love towards their caregiver, justified by wanting to maintain an overall positive view of them. In their continued efforts to form an emotional connection, a trauma bond was fostered. These experiences had a severe negative impact on their relationship and bonding with their own children, contributing to "affectionless, un-empathetic interpersonal behavior" that inflated aggressive and violent tendencies triggered by vulnerabilities.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: The experience of being in a trauma bond can have adverse neurobiological and neurophysiological outcomes. The body of the victim of a trauma bond is in a perpetual 'fight-or-flight' response state, which can increase cortisol levels that can have a cascading effect and trigger other hormones. Persistent, chronic stress can also hamper the cellular response in the body, thereby negatively impacting immunity, organ health, mood, energy levels, and more. In the long run, this can cause epigenetic changes as well. Furthermore, a study conducted in 2015 found that the establishment of a trauma bond in infancy is also linked with amygdala dysfunction, neurobehavioral deficits, and increased vulnerability to psychiatric disorders later on in life.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonding is linked to several adverse mental health and wellbeing outcomes. As a result of the abuse itself and of their emotional dependence on their abusers, victims tend to develop a self-image that is incredibly negative. "[C]ontrolling, restricting, degrading, isolating, or dominating" abuse has a crippling effect on the self-image and self-esteem of the abused and this psychological abuse is far more dangerous than the physical abuse. In a 2010 study on battered women labeling themselves as "stupid", researchers found that victims who felt like they allowed themselves to be mistreated and victims who stayed in abusive relationships labelled themselves as "stupid" for doing so. This further contributes to a negative self-image and maintenance of low self-esteem, both of which foster a poor self-concept, which, in turn, adversely impacts mental wellbeing. The same was observed in the aforementioned case study on grooming.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonding can also lead to dissociative symptoms that could be a self-preservation and/or coping mechanism. Neurobiological changes can also affect brain development and hamper learning. The internalization of the psychological manipulation and trauma can give rise to anxiety and increase the likelihood of engagement in risk-taking behaviors. Furthermore, the isolation involved in trauma bonding can foster a generally skewed sense of trust, making victims vulnerable to situations that may retraumatize or revictimize them. Victims may also tend to either completely dismiss or minimize dangerous, damaging behaviors and violence around them.


title: Traumatic bonding

text: Trauma bonds in parent-child relationships (wherein the child is the victim and the parent is the abuser) can also lead to depressive symptoms later on in life. In a 2017 study exploring this, it was found that an "affectionless control" parenting style, characterized by high protection and low care from parents, was a major predictor of depressive symptomology for the victim. In other words, the presence of poor parental bonding coupled with childhood trauma bonds increased the likelihood of the child developing depressive symptoms in the future. A negative self-image is formed when feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness persist and are reinforced by caregivers. Perpetual efforts to seek secure emotional attachments reap no rewards and a trauma bond facilitates a negative core schema that influences perceptions and interactions throughout one's life. This can give rise to mental health issues such as depression, bipolar disorder, mania, suicidality, and substance abuse that can be pervasive and lifelong.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. It was acquired by Whitbread in 1995, sold in 2019 to The Coca-Cola Company in a deal worth £3.9bn, and has grown to 3,401 stores across 31 countries and 18,412 employees. The business has 2,121 UK restaurants, over 6,000 Costa Express vending facilities and a further 1,280 outlets overseas, including 460 in China.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Coca-Cola acquired Costa from parent company Whitbread PLC for US$5.1 billion on 3 January 2019, providing a coffee platform across parts of Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Sergio Costa founded a coffee roastery in Fenchurch Street, London, in 1971, supplying local caterers. The family had moved to England from Parma, Italy, in the 1950s. Costa branched out to selling coffee and opened their first store in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London in 1981.


title: Costa Coffee

text: By 1995, the Costa Coffee chain had 41 stores in UK, and was acquired by Whitbread, the UK's largest hotel and coffee shop operator, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2009, Costa opened its 1,000th store in Cardiff. In December 2009, Costa Coffee agreed to acquire the Polish chain Coffeeheaven for £36million, adding 79 stores in central and eastern Europe.


title: Costa Coffee

text: The company's products (such as its coffee and drinks) were sold in Brewers Fayre and Beefeater until it was subsequently purchased by the Coca-Cola Company from Whitbread.


title: Costa Coffee

text: In 2018, Whitbread faced pressure from two of its largest shareholders, activist group Elliott Advisers and hedge fund Sachem Head, to sell or demerge Costa Coffee, the theory being that the individual businesses would be worth much more than the one company alone. On 25 April 2018, Whitbread announced its intention to fully demerge Costa within two years. On 3 January 2019 the Coca-Cola Company purchased Costa Coffee for $4.9 billion.


title: Costa Coffee

text: In November 2019, Dominic Paul was succeeded as CEO of the company by Jill McDonald. In March 2020, all UK coffee shops were closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In late May some branches reopened for takeaway or drive-through orders. In 2022, Costa Coffee discontinued the Costa Book Awards that Whitbread had started 51 years earlier.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Costa branches sell hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, cakes and pastries, and snacks. In 2020, the brand collaborated with three chocolate brands (Quality Street, After Eight and Terry's) for some of their limited-edition Christmas drinks.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Costa moved its roastery from Lambeth to Basildon, Essex, in May 2017 with an investment of £38million, increasing their annual coffee-roasting capacity from 11,000 to 45,000 tonnes.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Costa Coffee employs Gennaro Pelliccia as a coffee taster, who had his tongue insured for £10m with Lloyd's of London in 2009.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Costa Coffee operates 2,467 outlets in the United Kingdom . Overseas, it operates 1,413 stores in 32 countries. The first Costa store outside the UK opened in the United Arab Emirates in 1999, and, in September 2017, was the first coffee shop worldwide to start delivering coffee via drones.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Following Whitbread's £59.5m acquisition of Coffee Nation, a chain of coffee machines, the machines were re-branded as Costa Express. The company planned to expand to hospitals, universities and transport interchanges. In Denmark, Costa Express machines are located in Shell stations; they had previously also been in Shell Canada. In the UK, many grocery store chain SPAR petrol station stores have Costa Express machines.


title: Costa Coffee

text: On 19 August 2019, Costa Coffee attracted media attention due to claims of unfair deductions from the pay of its employees. Reports stated that current and former employees had £200 deducted from their pay for training, as well as additional deductions being levied for till discrepancies and running costs. Claims of unfair deductions were triggered by a Twitter post suggesting that staff at a Costa store were forced to reimburse money lost to scammers who came into the store. Trying to distance themselves from the controversy, Costa said contracts for franchise stores were managed by franchisees, and that some staff contracts did have "clauses relating to deductions".


title: Costa Coffee

text: Only four days later, additional claims appeared in the media that Costa Coffee franchise workers were "not treated like humans". The report included managers' alleged refusal to pay for sickness, annual leave, or working outside contracted hours, and retaining tips. It cited an anonymous former employee at a store under Goldex Essex Investments Ltd who claimed that almost £1,000 of their holiday pay was deducted from their salary, despite being contracted to work 48 hours a week. The report said that baristas and employees at managerial level had complained about the numerous deductions outlined in Costa Coffee franchisees' contracts. A former manager was quoted as saying she had £150 deducted from her wages after having been five minutes late opening the store. Other fines outlined in the contracts were for uniform that were damaged when returned to the employer, excessive waste and till discrepancies. A Costa Coffee spokesperson responded that an independent audit had been launched.


title: Costa Coffee

text: Costa Coffee has been the sponsor of the Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Book Awards) since 2006. On 10 June 2022 they announced this would end.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The human abdomen is divided into quadrants and regions by anatomists and physicians for the purposes of study, diagnosis, and treatment. The division into four quadrants allows the localisation of pain and tenderness, scars, lumps, and other items of interest, narrowing in on which organs and tissues may be involved. The quadrants are referred to as the left lower quadrant, left upper quadrant, right upper quadrant and right lower quadrant. These terms are not used in comparative anatomy, since most other animals do not stand erect.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The left lower quadrant includes the left iliac fossa and half of the flank. The equivalent in other animals is "left posterior quadrant". The left upper quadrant extends from the umbilical plane to the left ribcage. This is the "left anterior quadrant" in other animals. The right upper quadrant extends from umbilical plane to the right ribcage. The equivalent in other animals is "right anterior quadrant". The right lower quadrant extends from the umbilical plane to the right inguinal ligament. This in other animals is the "right posterior quadrant".


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The nine regions offer more detailed anatomy and are delineated by two vertical and two horizontal lines.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The left lower quadrant (LLQ) of the human abdomen is the area left of the midline and below the umbilicus. The LLQ includes the left iliac fossa and half of the left flank region. The equivalent term for animals is "left posterior quadrant".


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The left upper quadrant (LUQ) extends from the median plane to the left of the patient, and from the umbilical plane to the left ribcage. The equivalent term for animals is "left anterior quadrant". Important organs here are:


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The right upper quadrant (RUQ) extends from the median plane to the right of the patient, and from the umbilical plane to the right ribcage. The equivalent term for animals is "right anterior quadrant". Important organs here are:


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The right lower quadrant (RLQ) extends from the median plane to the right of the patient, and from the umbilical plane to the right inguinal ligament. The equivalent term for animals is "right posterior quadrant". Important organs here are:


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: Nine regions of the abdomen can be marked using two horizontal and two vertical dividing lines. The vertical lines are the mid-clavicular lines taken from the mid-point of each clavicle. The upper horizontal line is the subcostal line taken from the inferior parts of the lowest costal cartilages. The lower horizontal line is the intertubercular line connecting the tubercles of the pelvis.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The three main centrally positioned regions are the epigastric region, the umbilical region, and the hypogastric region also known as the pubic region.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: On the sides of the abdomen the other six regions are the left and right hypochondriac regions, on either side of the epigastrium; the left and right lumbar flank regions, on either side of the umbilical region, and the left and right iliac or inguinal regions on either side of the hypogastrium.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: If abdominal pain or signs of peritonitis are localised in the LLQ, colitis, diverticulitis, ureteral colic or pain due to ovarian cysts or pelvic inflammatory disease may be suspected. Examples of tumors in the left lower quadrant include colon cancer and ovarian tumor.


title: Quadrants and regions of abdomen

text: The LUQ may be painful or tender in the case of intestinal malrotation. The RUQ may be painful or tender in hepatitis, cholecystitis, and peptic ulcer. The RLQ, in particular the right inguinal region or right iliac fossa may be painful and tender in conditions such as appendicitis.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genetically modified foods (GM foods), also known as genetically engineered foods (GE foods), or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering techniques allow for the introduction of new traits as well as greater control over traits when compared to previous methods, such as selective breeding and mutation breeding.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The discovery of DNA and the improvement of genetic technology in the 20th century played a crucial role in the development of transgenic technology. In 1988, genetically modified microbial enzymes were first approved for use in food manufacture. Recombinant rennet was used in few countries in the 1990s. Commercial sale of genetically modified foods began in 1994, when Calgene first marketed its unsuccessful Flavr Savr delayed-ripening tomato. Most food modifications have primarily focused on cash crops in high demand by farmers such as soybean, maize/corn, canola, and cotton. Genetically modified crops have been engineered for resistance to pathogens and herbicides and for better nutrient profiles. The production of golden rice in 2000 marked a further improvement in the nutritional value of genetically modified food. GM livestock have been developed, although, , none were on the market. As of 2015, the AquAdvantage salmon was the only animal approved for commercial production, sale and consumption by the FDA. It is the first genetically modified animal to be approved for human consumption.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genes encoded for desired features, for instance an improved nutrient level, pesticide and herbicide resistances, and the possession of therapeutic substances, are often extracted and transferred to the target organisms, providing them with superior survival and production capacity. The improved utilization value usually gave consumers benefit in specific aspects.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The application of genetically modified food also brings with it some potential risks, including the negative impact of modified genes on human beings and the contaminations to the surrounding environment. These concerns lead to people’s different attitude toward transgenic food products. There is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction. Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe. The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation, which varied due to geographical, religious, social, and other factors.


title: Genetically modified food

text: However, there are ongoing public concerns related to food safety, regulation, labelling, environmental impact, research methods, and the fact that some GM seeds, along with all new plant varieties, are subject to plant breeders' rights owned by corporations.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genetically modified foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering as opposed to traditional cross breeding. In the U.S., the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) favor the use of the term "genetic engineering" over "genetic modification" as being more precise; the USDA defines "genetic modification" to include "genetic engineering or other more traditional methods".


title: Genetically modified food

text: According to the World Health Organization, "Foods produced from or using GM organisms are often referred to as GM foods."


title: Genetically modified food

text: What constitutes a genetically modified organism (GMO) is not clear and varies widely between countries, international bodies and other communities, has changed significantly over time, and was subject to numerous exceptions based on "convention", such as exclusion of mutation breeding from the EU definition.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Even greater inconsistency and confusion is associated with various "Non-GMO" or "GMO-free" labelling schemes in food marketing, where even products such as water or salt, that do not contain any organic substances and genetic material (and thus cannot be genetically modified by definition) are being labelled to create an impression of being "more healthy".


title: Genetically modified food

text: Human-directed genetic manipulation of food began with the domestication of plants and animals through artificial selection at about 10,500 to 10,100 BC. The process of selective breeding, in which organisms with desired traits (and thus with the desired genes) are used to breed the next generation and organisms lacking the trait are not bred, is a precursor to the modern concept of genetic modification (GM). With the discovery of DNA in the early 1900s and various advancements in genetic techniques through the 1970s it became possible to directly alter the DNA and genes within food.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genetically modified microbial enzymes were the first application of genetically modified organisms in food production and were approved in 1988 by the US Food and Drug Administration. In the early 1990s, recombinant chymosin was approved for use in several countries. Cheese had typically been made using the enzyme complex rennet that had been extracted from cows' stomach lining. Scientists modified bacteria to produce chymosin, which was also able to clot milk, resulting in cheese curds.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The first genetically modified food approved for release was the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994. Developed by Calgene, it was engineered to have a longer shelf life by inserting an antisense gene that delayed ripening. China was the first country to commercialize a transgenic crop in 1993 with the introduction of virus-resistant tobacco. In 1995, "Bacillus thuringiensis" (Bt) Potato was approved for cultivation, making it the first pesticide producing crop to be approved in the US. Other genetically modified crops receiving marketing approval in 1995 were: canola with modified oil composition, Bt maize/corn, cotton resistant to the herbicide bromoxynil, Bt cotton, glyphosate-tolerant soybeans, virus-resistant squash, and another delayed ripening tomato.


title: Genetically modified food

text: With the creation of golden rice in 2000, scientists had genetically modified food to increase its nutrient value for the first time.


title: Genetically modified food

text: By 2010, 29 countries had planted commercialized biotech crops and a further 31 countries had granted regulatory approval for transgenic crops to be imported. The US was the leading country in the production of GM foods in 2011, with twenty-five GM crops having received regulatory approval. In 2015, 92% of corn, 94% of soybeans, and 94% of cotton produced in the US were genetically modified varieties.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The first genetically modified animal to be approved for food use was AquAdvantage salmon in 2015. The salmon were transformed with a growth hormone-regulating gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter from an ocean pout enabling it to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer.


title: Genetically modified food

text: A GM white button mushroom ("Agaricus bisporus") has been approved in the United States since 2016. See Mushroom below.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The most widely planted GMOs are designed to tolerate herbicides. The use of herbicides presents a strong selection pressure on treated weeds to gain resistance to the herbicide. Widespread planting of GM crops resistant to glyphosate has led to the use of glyphosate to control weeds and many weed species, such as Palmer amaranth, acquiring resistance to the herbicide.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In 2021, the first CRISPR-edited food has gone on public sale in Japan. Tomatoes were genetically modified for around five times the normal amount of possibly calming GABA. CRISPR was first applied in tomatoes in 2014. Shortly afterwards, the first CRISPR-gene-edited marine animal/seafood and second set of CRISPR-edited food has gone on public sale in Japan: two fish of which one species grows to twice the size of natural specimens due to disruption of leptin, which controls appetite, and the other grows to 1.2 the natural average size with the same amount of food due to disabled myostatin, which inhibits muscle growth.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Creating genetically modified food is a multi-step process. The first step is to identify a useful gene from another organism that you would like to add. The gene can be taken from a cell or artificially synthesised, and then combined with other genetic elements, including a promoter and terminator region and a selectable marker. Then the genetic elements are inserted into the targets genome. DNA is generally inserted into animal cells using microinjection, where it can be injected through the cell's nuclear envelope directly into the nucleus, or through the use of viral vectors. In plants the DNA is often inserted using "Agrobacterium"-mediated recombination, biolistics or electroporation. As only a single cell is transformed with genetic material, the organism must be regenerated from that single cell. In plants this is accomplished through tissue culture. In animals it is necessary to ensure that the inserted DNA is present in the embryonic stem cells. Further testing using PCR, Southern hybridization, and DNA sequencing is conducted to confirm that an organism contains the new gene.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Traditionally the new genetic material was inserted randomly within the host genome. Gene targeting techniques, which creates double-stranded breaks and takes advantage on the cells natural homologous recombination repair systems, have been developed to target insertion to exact locations. Genome editing uses artificially engineered nucleases that create breaks at specific points. There are four families of engineered nucleases: meganucleases, zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and the Cas9-guideRNA system (adapted from CRISPR). TALEN and CRISPR are the two most commonly used and each has its own advantages. TALENs have greater target specificity, while CRISPR is easier to design and more efficient.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are genetically modified plants that are used in agriculture. The first crops developed were used for animal or human food and provide resistance to certain pests, diseases, environmental conditions, spoilage or chemical treatments (e.g. resistance to a herbicide). The second generation of crops aimed to improve the quality, often by altering the nutrient profile. Third generation genetically modified crops could be used for non-food purposes, including the production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as for bioremediation. GM crops have been produced to improve harvests through reducing insect pressure, increase nutrient value and tolerate different abiotic stresses. As of 2018, the commercialised crops are limited mostly to cash crops like cotton, soybean, maize/corn and canola and the vast majority of the introduced traits provide either herbicide tolerance or insect resistance.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The majority of GM crops have been modified to be resistant to selected herbicides, usually a glyphosate or glufosinate based one. Genetically modified crops engineered to resist herbicides are now more available than conventionally bred resistant varieties. Most currently available genes used to engineer insect resistance come from the "Bacillus thuringiensis" (Bt) bacterium and code for delta endotoxins. A few use the genes that encode for vegetative insecticidal proteins. The only gene commercially used to provide insect protection that does not originate from "B. thuringiensis" is the Cowpea trypsin inhibitor (CpTI). CpTI was first approved for use cotton in 1999 and is currently undergoing trials in rice. Less than one percent of GM crops contained other traits, which include providing virus resistance, delaying senescence and altering the plants composition.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Adoption by farmers has been rapid, between 1996 and 2013, the total surface area of land cultivated with GM crops increased by a factor of 100. Geographically though the spread has been uneven, with strong growth in the Americas and parts of Asia and little in Europe and Africa in 2013 only 10% of world cropland was GM, with the US, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina being 90% of that. Its socioeconomic spread has been more even, with approximately 54% of worldwide GM crops grown in developing countries in 2013. Although doubts have been raised, most studies have found growing GM crops to be beneficial to farmers through decreased pesticide use as well as increased crop yield and farm profit.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Long before humans began using transgenics, sweet potato emerged naturally 8000 years ago by embedding of genes from bacteria, that increased its sugar content. Kyndt et al 2015 finds "Agrobacterium tumefaciens" DNA from this natural transgenic event still in the crop's genome today.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Papaya was genetically modified to resist the ringspot virus (PSRV). "SunUp" is a transgenic red-fleshed Sunset papaya cultivar that is homozygous for the coat protein gene PRSV; "Rainbow" is a yellow-fleshed F1 hybrid developed by crossing 'SunUp' and nontransgenic yellow-fleshed "Kapoho". The GM cultivar was approved in 1998 and by 2010 80% of Hawaiian papaya was genetically engineered. "The New York Times" stated, "without it, the state's papaya industry would have collapsed". In China, a transgenic PRSV-resistant papaya was developed by South China Agricultural University and was first approved for commercial planting in 2006; as of 2012 95% of the papaya grown in Guangdong province and 40% of the papaya grown in Hainan province was genetically modified. In Hong Kong, where there is an exemption on growing and releasing any varieties of GM papaya, more than 80% of grown and imported papayas were transgenic.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The New Leaf potato, a GM food developed using "Bacillus thuringiensis" (Bt), was made to provide in-plant protection from the yield-robbing Colorado potato beetle. The New Leaf potato, brought to market by Monsanto in the late 1990s, was developed for the fast food market. It was withdrawn in 2001 after retailers rejected it and food processors ran into export problems. In 2011, BASF requested the European Food Safety Authority's approval for cultivation and marketing of its Fortuna potato as feed and food. The potato was made resistant to late blight by adding resistant genes blb1 and blb2 that originate from the Mexican wild potato Solanum bulbocastanum. In February 2013, BASF withdrew its application. In 2014, the USDA approved a genetically modified potato developed by J. R. Simplot Company that contained ten genetic modifications that prevent bruising and produce less acrylamide when fried. The modifications eliminate specific proteins from the potatoes, via RNA interference, rather than introducing novel proteins.


title: Genetically modified food

text: As of 2005, about 13% of the Zucchini grown in the US was genetically modified to resist three viruses; that variety is also grown in Canada.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In 2013, the USDA approved the import of a GM pineapple that is pink in color and that "overexpresses" a gene derived from tangerines and suppress other genes, increasing production of lycopene. The plant's flowering cycle was changed to provide for more uniform growth and quality. The fruit "does not have the ability to propagate and persist in the environment once they have been harvested", according to USDA APHIS. According to Del Monte's submission, the pineapples are commercially grown in a "monoculture" that prevents seed production, as the plant's flowers aren't exposed to compatible pollen sources. Importation into Hawaii is banned for "plant sanitation" reasons. Del Monte launched sales of their pink pineapples in October 2020, marketed under the name "Pinkglow".


title: Genetically modified food

text: In February 2015 Arctic Apples were approved by the USDA, becoming the first genetically modified apple approved for sale in the US. Gene silencing is used to reduce the expression of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), thus preventing the fruit from browning.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Maize/corn used for food and ethanol has been genetically modified to tolerate various herbicides and to express a protein from "Bacillus thuringiensis" (Bt) that kills certain insects. About 90% of the corn grown in the US was genetically modified in 2010. In the US in 2015, 81% of corn acreage contained the Bt trait and 89% of corn acreage contained the glyphosate-tolerant trait. Corn can be processed into grits, meal and flour as an ingredient in pancakes, muffins, doughnuts, breadings and batters, as well as baby foods, meat products, cereals and some fermented products. Corn-based masa flour and masa dough are used in the production of taco shells, corn chips and tortillas.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Soybeans accounted for half of all genetically modified crops planted in 2014. Genetically modified soybean has been modified to tolerate herbicides and produce healthier oils. In 2015, 94% of soybean acreage in the U.S. was genetically modified to be glyphosate-tolerant.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Golden rice is the most well known GM crop that is aimed at increasing nutrient value. It has been engineered with three genes that biosynthesise beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, in the edible parts of rice. It is intended to produce a fortified food to be grown and consumed in areas with a shortage of dietary vitamin A, a deficiency which each year is estimated to kill 670,000 children under the age of 5 and cause an additional 500,000 cases of irreversible childhood blindness. The original golden rice produced 1.6μg/g of the carotenoids, with further development increasing this 23 times. In 2018 it gained its first approvals for use as food.


title: Genetically modified food

text: As of December 2017, genetically modified wheat has been evaluated in field trials, but has not been released commercially.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In April 2016, a white button mushroom ("Agaricus bisporus") modified using the CRISPR technique received "de facto" approval in the United States, after the USDA said it would not have to go through the agency's regulatory process. The agency considers the mushroom exempt because the editing process did not involve the introduction of foreign DNA, rather several base pairs were deleted from a duplicated gene coding for an enzyme that causes browning causing a 30% reduction in the level of that enzyme.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genetically modified livestock are organisms from the group of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, birds, horses and fish kept for human consumption, whose genetic material (DNA) has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. In some cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the animals which does not occur naturally in the species, i.e. transgenesis.


title: Genetically modified food

text: A 2003 review published on behalf of Food Standards Australia New Zealand examined transgenic experimentation on terrestrial livestock species as well as aquatic species such as fish and shellfish. The review examined the molecular techniques used for experimentation as well as techniques for tracing the transgenes in animals and products as well as issues regarding transgene stability.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Some mammals typically used for food production have been modified to produce non-food products, a practice sometimes called Pharming.


title: Genetically modified food

text: A GM salmon, awaiting regulatory approval since 1997, was approved for human consumption by the American FDA in November 2015, to be raised in specific land-based hatcheries in Canada and Panama.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Bacteriophages are an economically significant cause of culture failure in cheese production. Various culture microbes - especially "Lactococcus lactis" and "Streptococcus thermophilus" - have been studied for genetic analysis and modification to improve phage resistance. This has especially focused on plasmid and recombinant chromosomal modifications.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Lecithin is a naturally occurring lipid. It can be found in egg yolks and oil-producing plants. It is an emulsifier and thus is used in many foods. Corn, soy and safflower oil are sources of lecithin, though the majority of lecithin commercially available is derived from soy. Sufficiently processed lecithin is often undetectable with standard testing practices. According to the FDA, no evidence shows or suggests hazard to the public when lecithin is used at common levels. Lecithin added to foods amounts to only 2 to 10 percent of the 1 to 5 g of phosphoglycerides consumed daily on average. Nonetheless, consumer concerns about GM food extend to such products. This concern led to policy and regulatory changes in Europe in 2000, when Regulation (EC) 50/2000 was passed which required labelling of food containing additives derived from GMOs, including lecithin. Because of the difficulty of detecting the origin of derivatives like lecithin with current testing practices, European regulations require those who wish to sell lecithin in Europe to employ a comprehensive system of Identity preservation (IP).


title: Genetically modified food

text: The US imports 10% of its sugar, while the remaining 90% is extracted from sugar beet and sugarcane. After deregulation in 2005, glyphosate-resistant sugar beet was extensively adopted in the United States. 95% of beet acres in the US were planted with glyphosate-resistant seed in 2011. GM sugar beets are approved for cultivation in the US, Canada and Japan; the vast majority are grown in the US. GM beets are approved for import and consumption in Australia, Canada, Colombia, EU, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, the Russian Federation and Singapore. Pulp from the refining process is used as animal feed. The sugar produced from GM sugar beets contains no DNA or protein – it is just sucrose that is chemically indistinguishable from sugar produced from non-GM sugar beets. Independent analyses conducted by internationally recognized laboratories found that sugar from Roundup Ready sugar beets is identical to the sugar from comparably grown conventional (non-Roundup Ready) sugar beets.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Most vegetable oil used in the US is produced from GM crops canola, maize/corn, cotton and soybeans. Vegetable oil is sold directly to consumers as cooking oil, shortening and margarine and is used in prepared foods. There is a vanishingly small amount of protein or DNA from the original crop in vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is made of triglycerides extracted from plants or seeds and then refined and may be further processed via hydrogenation to turn liquid oils into solids. The refining process removes all, or nearly all non-triglyceride ingredients.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Livestock and poultry are raised on animal feed, much of which is composed of the leftovers from processing crops, including GM crops. For example, approximately 43% of a canola seed is oil. What remains after oil extraction is a meal that becomes an ingredient in animal feed and contains canola protein. Likewise, the bulk of the soybean crop is grown for oil and meal. The high-protein defatted and toasted soy meal becomes livestock feed and dog food. 98% of the US soybean crop goes for livestock feed. In 2011, 49% of the US maize/corn harvest was used for livestock feed (including the percentage of waste from distillers grains). "Despite methods that are becoming more and more sensitive, tests have not yet been able to establish a difference in the meat, milk, or eggs of animals depending on the type of feed they are fed. It is impossible to tell if an animal was fed GM soy just by looking at the resulting meat, dairy, or egg products. The only way to verify the presence of GMOs in animal feed is to analyze the origin of the feed itself."


title: Genetically modified food

text: A 2012 literature review of studies evaluating the effect of GM feed on the health of animals did not find evidence that animals were adversely affected, although small biological differences were occasionally found. The studies included in the review ranged from 90 days to two years, with several of the longer studies considering reproductive and intergenerational effects.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Enzymes produced by genetically modified microorganisms are also integrated into animal feed to enhance availability of nutrients and overall digestion. These enzymes may also provide benefit to the gut microbiome of an animal, as well as hydrolyse antinutritional factors present in the feed.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The foundation of genetic engineering is DNA, which directs the production of proteins. Proteins are also the common source of human allergens. When new proteins are introduced they must be assessed for potential allergenicity.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Rennet is a mixture of enzymes used to coagulate milk into cheese. Originally it was available only from the fourth stomach of calves, and was scarce and expensive, or was available from microbial sources, which often produced unpleasant tastes. Genetic engineering made it possible to extract rennet-producing genes from animal stomachs and insert them into bacteria, fungi or yeasts to make them produce chymosin, the key enzyme. The modified microorganism is killed after fermentation. Chymosin is isolated from the fermentation broth, so that the Fermentation-Produced Chymosin (FPC) used by cheese producers has an amino acid sequence that is identical to bovine rennet. The majority of the applied chymosin is retained in the whey. Trace quantities of chymosin may remain in cheese.


title: Genetically modified food

text: FPC was the first artificially produced enzyme to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. FPC products have been on the market since 1990 and as of 2015 had yet to be surpassed in commercial markets. In 1999, about 60% of US hard cheese was made with FPC. Its global market share approached 80%. By 2008, approximately 80% to 90% of commercially made cheeses in the US and Britain were made using FPC.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In some countries, recombinant (GM) bovine somatotropin (also called rBST, or bovine growth hormone or BGH) is approved for administration to increase milk production. rBST may be present in milk from rBST treated cows, but it is destroyed in the digestive system and even if directly injected into the human bloodstream, has no observable effect on humans. The FDA, World Health Organization, American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association and the National Institutes of Health have independently stated that dairy products and meat from rBST-treated cows are safe for human consumption. On 30 September 2010, the United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, analyzing submitted evidence, found a "compositional difference" between milk from rBGH-treated cows and milk from untreated cows. The court stated that milk from rBGH-treated cows has: increased levels of the hormone Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1); higher fat content and lower protein content when produced at certain points in the cow's lactation cycle; and more somatic cell counts, which may "make the milk turn sour more quickly".


title: Genetically modified food

text: Genetically modified foods are usually edited to have some desired characteristics, including certain benefits for surviving extreme environments, an enhanced level to nutrition, the access of therapeutic substances, and the resistance genes to pesticide and herbicides. These characteristics could be beneficial to humans and the environment in certain ways.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Plants that have undergone genetic modification are capable of surviving extreme weather. Genetically modified (GM) food crops can be cultivated in locations with unfavorable climatic conditions on occasion. The quality and yield of genetically modified foods are often improved. These foods tend to grow more quickly than conventionally cultivated ones. Furthermore, the application of genetically modified food could be beneficial in resisting drought and poor soil.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Increased levels of specific nutrients in food crops can be achieved by genetic engineering. The study of this technique, sometimes known as nutritional improvement, is already well advanced. Foods are well monitored to gain specific qualities that became practical, for example, concentrated nutraceutical levels and health-promoting chemicals, making them a desirable component of a varied diet. Among the notable breakthroughs of genetic modification is Golden Rice, whose genome is altered by the injection of the vitamin A gene from a daffodil plant conditioning provitamin A production. This increases the activity of phytoene synthase, which therefore synthesizes a higher amount of beta-carotene, followed by modification and improvement of the level of iron and bioavailability. This affects the rice’s color and vitamin content, which is beneficial in places where vitamin A shortage is common. In addition, increased mineral, vitamin A, and protein content has played a critical role in preventing childhood blindness and iron deficiency anemia.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Lipid composition could also be manipulated to produce desirable traits and essential nutrients. Scientific evidence has shown that inadequate consumption of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is generally associated with the development of chronic diseases and developmental aberrations. Alimentary lipids can be modified to gain an increased saturated fatty acid together with a decreased polysaturated fatty acid component. Genes coded for the synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids are therefore introduced into plant cells, increasing the synthesis of polyunsaturated omega-3 acids. This omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid is responsible to lower the level of LDL cholesterol and triglyceride level as well as the incidence rate of cardiovascular diseases.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The genetically modified organisms, including potato, tomato, and spinach are applied in the production of substances that stimulate the immune system to respond to specific pathogens. With the help of recombinant DNA techniques, the genes encoded for viral or bacterial antigens could be genetically transcribed and translated into plant cells. Antibodies are often produced in response to the introduction of antigens, in which the pathological microflora obtains the immune response towards specific antigens. The transgenic organisms are usually applied to use as oral vaccines, which allows the active substances to enter the human digestive system, targeting the alimentary tract in which stimulate a mucosal immune response. This technique has been widely used in vaccine production including rice, maize, and soybeans. Additionally, transgenic plants are widely used as bioreactors in the production of pharmaceutical proteins and peptides, including vaccines, hormones, human serum albumin (HSA), etc. The suitability of transgenic plants can helps meet the demand for the rapid growth of therapeutic antibodies. All this has given new impetus to the development of medicine.


title: Genetically modified food

text: There is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction. Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe. The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Opponents claim that long-term health risks have not been adequately assessed and propose various combinations of additional testing, labeling or removal from the market.


title: Genetically modified food

text: There are no certifications for foods that have been verified to both be genetically modified – in particular in a way that is ensured to be well-understood, safe and environmentally friendly – as well as otherwise organic (i.e. produced without the use of chemical pesticides) in the U.S. and possibly the world, giving consumers the binary choice of either genetically modified food or organic food.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation. Countries such as the United States, Canada, Lebanon and Egypt use "substantial equivalence" to determine if further testing is required, while many countries such as those in the European Union, Brazil and China only authorize GMO cultivation on a case-by-case basis. In the U.S. the FDA determined that GMO's are "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS) and therefore do not require additional testing if the GMO product is substantially equivalent to the non-modified product. If new substances are found, further testing may be required to satisfy concerns over potential toxicity, allergenicity, possible gene transfer to humans or genetic outcrossing to other organisms.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Some studies purporting to show harm have been discredited, in some cases leading to academic condemnation against the researchers such as the Pusztai affair and the Séralini affair.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Government regulation of GMO development and release varies widely between countries. Marked differences separate GMO regulation in the U.S. and GMO regulation in the European Union. Regulation also varies depending on the intended product's use. For example, a crop not intended for food use is generally not reviewed by authorities responsible for food safety. European and EU regulation has been far more restrictive than anywhere else in the world: In 2013 only 1 cultivar of maize/corn and 1 cultivar of potato were approved, and eight EU member states did not allow even those.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In the U.S., three government organizations regulate GMOs. The FDA checks the chemical composition of organisms for potential allergens. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) supervises field testing and monitors the distribution of GM seeds. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for monitoring pesticide usage, including plants modified to contain proteins toxic to insects. Like USDA, EPA also oversees field testing and the distribution of crops that have had contact with pesticides to ensure environmental safety. In 2015 the Obama administration announced that it would update the way the government regulated GM crops.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In 1992 FDA published "Statement of Policy: Foods derived from New Plant Varieties". This statement is a clarification of FDA's interpretation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to foods produced from new plant varieties developed using recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) technology. FDA encouraged developers to consult with the FDA regarding any bioengineered foods in development. The FDA says developers routinely do reach out for consultations. In 1996 FDA updated consultation procedures.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The StarLink corn recalls occurred in the autumn of 2000, when over 300 food products were found to contain a genetically modified maize/corn that had not been approved for human consumption. It was the first-ever recall of a genetically modified food.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The European Union's control of genetically modified organisms is a particular part of an image of the promise and limitations of debate as a framework for supranational regulation. The issues posed by the EU’s GMO regulation have caused major problems in agriculture, politics, societies, status, and other fields. 12 The EU law regulates the development and use of GMOs by allocating responsibilities to different authorities, public and private, accompanied by limited recognition of public information, consultation, and participation rights. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provided certain rights and protection for GM biotechnology in the EU. However, the value of human dignity, liberty, equality, and solidarity, as well as the status of democracy and law, as emphasized in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, are considered the ethical framework governing the employment of scientific and technological research and development.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Due to the political, religious, and social differences in EU countries, the EU’s position on GM has been divided geographically, including more than 100 “GM-free” regions. Different regional attitudes to GM foods make it nearly impossible to reach a common agreement on GM foods. In recent years, however, the sense of crisis that this has generated for the European Union has intensified as several of the larger and more powerful member states. Some member states, including Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Luxembourg, have even banned the planting of certain GM food in their countries in response to public resistance to GM foods. The whole thing is set against a backdrop of consumer holding the attitude that GM foods are harmful to both the environment and human health, revolting against GM foods in an anti-biotech coalition. The current political deadlock over GM foods is also a consequence of the ban and has yet to be resolved by scientific methods and processes. Public opinion tends to politicize the GM issue, which is the main obstacle to an agreement in the EU.


title: Genetically modified food

text: US and Canadian national policy is to require a label only given significant composition differences or documented health impacts, although some individual US states (Vermont, Connecticut and Maine) enacted laws requiring them. In July 2016, Public Law 114-214 was enacted to regulate labeling of GMO food on a national basis.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In some jurisdictions, the labeling requirement depends on the relative quantity of GMO in the product. A study that investigated voluntary labeling in South Africa found that 31% of products labeled as GMO-free had a GM content above 1.0%.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In the European Union all food (including processed food) or feed that contains greater than 0.9% GMOs must be labelled.


title: Genetically modified food

text: At the same time, due to lack of single, clear definition of GMO, a number of foods created using genetic engineering techniques (such as mutation breeding) are excluded from labelling and regulation based on "convention" and traditional usage.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The Non-GMO Project is the sole U.S. organization that does verifiable testing and places seals on labels for presence of GMO in products. The "Non-GMO Project Seal" indicates that the product contains 0.9% or less GMO ingredients, which is the European Union's standard for labeling.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Efforts across the world that are being made to help restrict and label GMO's in food involve antigenic engineering campaigns and in America the "Just Label It" movement is joining organizations together to motion for mandatory labeling.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Testing on GMOs in food and feed is routinely done using molecular techniques such as PCR and bioinformatics.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In a January 2010 paper, the extraction and detection of DNA along a complete industrial soybean oil processing chain was described to monitor the presence of Roundup Ready (RR) soybean: "The amplification of soybean lectin gene by end-point polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was successfully achieved in all the steps of extraction and refining processes, until the fully refined soybean oil. The amplification of RR soybean by PCR assays using event-specific primers was also achieved for all the extraction and refining steps, except for the intermediate steps of refining (neutralisation, washing and bleaching) possibly due to sample instability. The real-time PCR assays using specific probes confirmed all the results and proved that it is possible to detect and quantify genetically modified organisms in the fully refined soybean oil. To our knowledge, this has never been reported before and represents an important accomplishment regarding the traceability of genetically modified organisms in refined oils."


title: Genetically modified food

text: According to Thomas Redick, detection and prevention of cross-pollination is possible through the suggestions offered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Suggestions include educating farmers on the importance of coexistence, providing farmers with tools and incentives to promote coexistence, conduct research to understand and monitor gene flow, provide assurance of quality and diversity in crops, provide compensation for actual economic losses for farmers.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The genetically modified foods controversy consists of a set of disputes over the use of food made from genetically modified crops. The disputes involve consumers, farmers, biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations, environmental and political activists and scientists. The major disagreements include whether GM foods can be safely consumed, harm the human body and the environment and/or are adequately tested and regulated. The objectivity of scientific research and publications has been challenged. Farming-related disputes include the use and impact of pesticides, seed production and use, side effects on non-GMO crops/farms, and potential control of the GM food supply by seed companies.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The conflicts have continued since GM foods were invented. They have occupied the media, the courts, local, regional, national governments, and international organizations.


title: Genetically modified food

text: "GMO-free" labelling schemes are causing controversies in farming community due to lack of clear definition, inconsistency of their application and are described as "deceptive".


title: Genetically modified food

text: New allergies could be introduced inadvertently, according to scientists, community groups, and members of the public concerned about the genetic variation of foods. An example involves the methionine rich soybean production. Methionine is an amino acid obtained by synthesizing substances derived from Brazil nuts, which could be an allergen. A gene from the Brazil nut was inserted into soybeans during laboratory trials. Because it was discovered that those who were allergic to Brazil nuts could also be allergic to genetically modified soybeans, the experiment was stopped. In vitro assays such as RAST or serum from people allergic to the original crop could be applied to testify the allergenicity of GM goods with known source of the gene. This was established in GM soybeans that expressed Brazil nut 2S proteins and GM potatoes that expressed cod protein genes. The expression and synthesis of new proteins that were previously unavailable in parental cells were achieved by gene transfer from the cells of one organism to the nuclei of another organism. The potential risks of allergy that may develop with the intake of transgenic food come from the amino acid sequence in protein formation. However, there have been no reports of allergic reactions to currently approved GM foods for human consumption, and experiments showed no measurable difference in allergenicity between GM and non-GM soybeans.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Scientists suggest that consumers should also pay attention to the health issues associated with the utilizations of pesticide-resistant and herbicide-resistant plants. The ‘Bt’ genes cause insect resistance in today's GM crops; however, other methods to confer insect resistance are in the works. The Bt genes are usually obtained from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, and they can generate a protein that breaks down in the insect’s gut, releasing a toxin called delta-endotoxin, which causes paralysis and death. Concerns about resistance and off-target effects of crops expressing Bt toxins, consequences of transgenic herbicide-tolerant plants caused by the use of herbicide, and the transfer of gene expression from GM crops via vertical and horizontal gene transfer are all related to the expression of transgenic material.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Another concern raised by ecologists is the possible spread of the pest-resistant genes to wildlife. This is an example of gene pollution, which is often associated with a decrease in biodiversity, proliferation resistant weeds, and the formation of new pests and pathogens.


title: Genetically modified food

text: Studies have proven that herbicide resistant pollen from transgenic rapeseed could spread up to 3 km, while the average gene spread of transgenic crops is 2 km and even reach to maximum 21 kilometers. The high aggressiveness of these GM crops could cause certain disasters by competing with traditional crops for water, light, and nutrients. Crossbreeding of spreading pollens with the surrounding organisms has led to the introduction of the modified resistant genes. An international database that demonstrated genetic contaminations with undesired seeds has been a major problem due to the expansion of field trials and commercially viable cultivation of GM crops around the world. Even a decrease in the number of one pest under the impact of a pest-resistant weed could increase the population of other pests that compete with it. Beneficial insects, so named because they prey on crop pests, were also exposed to dangerous doses of Bt.


title: Genetically modified food

text: The introduction of GM crops in place of more locally adapted varieties could lead to long-term negative effects on the entire agricultural system. Much of the concern with GM technology involves encoding genes that increase or decrease biochemicals. Alternatively, the newly programmed enzyme might result in the consumption of the substrate, forming and accumulating the products. Also, it might lead to the conversion of metabolites between secondary biochemical pathways, resulting in metabolic disorders are disrupted in unpredictable ways and an increase in toxin concentrations. Toxin evaluation is usually done in animals, but differences between animals make it difficult to assess the effects on humans according to GM food effect of the ingestion of GM foods in animals. Insertional mutagenesis is associated with a series of consequences; for example, mutations occur when existing genes of the host plant are rewritten, and endogenous genes are inactivated.


title: Genetically modified food

text: In terms of socioeconomics, GM crops are usually dependent on high levels of external products, for example, pesticides and herbicides, which limit GM crops to high-input agriculture. This, coupled with the widespread patents held on GM crops, limited farmers’ trading rights over the harvested seeds without paying royalties. Other arguments against GM crops hold by some opponents are based on the high costs of isolating and distributing GM crops over non-GM crops.