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Shmoop! Agriculture, well corporations and scientists were chomping at the bit to

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use our DNA, to change the DNA of Crops. Because you never know there could have

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been a huge market for glow-in-the-dark corn. Well the very first genetically

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altered plant to hit the market was called, the flavor saver tomato. Popping

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up in 1994, the flavor saver was super popular, for a hot second at least. The not [tomatoes on shelf in store]

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so mad scientist, who invented the flavor saver, altered its DNA, so that it would

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stay riper for a longer period of time and rumor has it that they actually

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tasted pretty good. Way to go Franken tomato. Unlike most genetically

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modified foods in America today, the flavor saver was labeled as a GMO, meaning a

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genetically modified organism. If you slapped in a pair of bolts in it would

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have scared too many people off. Well regardless, consumers totally knew

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what they were getting. Because the company was transparent about the whole

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thing. There were still critics who said, that it was too early, to be marketing [people rioting with posters]

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GMOs, there hadn't been long-term testing. What if the flavor saver caused cancer,

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or scrambled human DNA. Turning us into half human, half tomato monsters? Well

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unfortunately, we never got to find out. Yep, unfortunately, how cool would be if

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being a half human, half tomato being. Well that begs the question, would [man wearing a tomato in an Italian restaurant]

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eating marinara be considered cannibalism? Anyway the company that made

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flavor savor didn't last to long. It was bought out by Monsanto, a mega

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corporation that's now one of the kingpins, of GMOs, herbicides and

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pesticides. No one's seen a flavor saver since they bought them out. Though they

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may be lurking in a Monsanto basement somewhere. Well pop that thing up on eBay [crate full of tomatoes]

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we bet it would make a fortune. Well one of the big things that corporations like

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Monsanto started experimenting with, was the ability to have plants that just

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naturally produced pesticides. Wait, what? What kind of black magic is

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that? Well it turns out there.this bacteria called, Bacillus thuringiensis

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or BT, which produces a toxin that kills bugs and guess what, those evil sorcerers,

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we mean scientist, figured out how to make corn, cotton and potatoes, that have

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BT already inside of them. Farmers all over the world, have been growing them

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like crazy and then they're still controversial. Because come on, plants

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infuse with the traits of a deadly bacteria. That sounds like a horror novel [man in wheat field with live bush]

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just waiting to happen. BT fans say, these kind of crops make

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more food and reduce the need to spray pesticides. But critics say that BT crops

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will kill all the nice species of bugs like, monarch butterflies and Charlotte, from Charlottes

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Webb. Yeah try living with that death on your conscience. Well they also say that

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a lot of pests, will become resistant to the toxin. So there's no simple answers

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here and may mean world destruction, or it may mean nothing at all. [man beating on computer]

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Another majorly successful experiment for Monsanto, has been making what they

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call, Roundup Ready crops. Basically once they had crops that killed bugs, they

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needed cross that were resistant to herbicides. The idea was that farmers

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would spray their whole field with herbicides and only their genetically

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modified crops would be able to survive, leaving the weeds to die in drove. That's [corn field]

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exactly what Monsanto made, there are now varieties of corn, soybeans, canola,

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alfalfa and cotton, that are totally resistant to glyphosate, the main poison

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in roundup, from Monsanto's herbicide. In 2010, more than 70% of the corn grown in the

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US, was Roundup Ready. Yep Monsanto might as well go ahead and smack its

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label on the entire US. It's probably no shock that there's some controversy here.

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Some people think herbicide resistant plants, let farmers use more and more

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herbicides, which could hurt the environment. Plus they worry that Roundup

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Ready crops might not be safe for humans to eat. Monsanto of course says its opponents

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are overreacting and need to take chill pills and inside sources say that

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Monsanto is already working towards cornering the market on chill pills. [woman scientist in lab]

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