Sue Chun

FRINQ Essay (Body paragraph)

2/10/2015

The Windup Girl and its view on the future

Anderson finds a new fruit called ngaw which he thinks could possibly save people
from starvation. As he goes through the documents and study findings of the past when
the world used to be abundant in foods and energy sources to find the history of the
ngaw, he becomes more miserable and skeptical about the past and the book
illustrates it as He can actually ignore the foolish confidence of the past---the waste,
the arrogance, the absurd wealth---but this one irritates him: the fat flesh hanging off the
farangbut there are no oranges, now. (pg64) To the people that are living in the world
that this book describes, our world that we live in now is something that is only
imaginary and they even wonder if there really was a world full of golden age fueled and
technology. In The Windup Girl, we ourselves in the future made genetically modified
crop stains to feed the world, and modified animals to work much more efficiently on
fewer calories. There is a modified animal called megodont that is used to create
energy and modified algae used also to be a source of energy. It sounds fairly fictional
but looking at how much of energy, foods, and natural resources are wasted in our real
world, there could be a chance of us facing this as a reality in the future. How much of
our natural resources are overused? And how does it relate to the creation of genetically

modified organism (GMO)? According to The Organization for Economic Co-operation

and Development (OECD), given the current trends, energy-related emissions will
increase by 70 percent by 2050. Not only that, but it was also found that United States
wastes more than $2 billion worth of energy each year from inefficient outdoor lighting
alone. And in the food waste aspect, Americans alone waste enough food in a day to
transform the Rose Bowl, a football stadium capable of seating 90,000 people, into a
landfill. Between 2009 and 2030, the World Bank estimates that the demand for food
will increase by 50% as the global population grows, creating a positive feedback loop
resulting in further waste. It is true that these studies do not necessarily lead to such
dramatic results like it is portrayed in the book. But setting the better taste criteria of
the GMOs aside, there certainly are reasonable reasons for us (pretending that we are
living in the world in the book) to choose GMOs. In the world that has not enough food
to provide energy for humans and been exposed to a lot of diseases, GMOs benefits of
resistance to disease and pests, faster output of crops, less usage of land, and better
natural waste management by conserving water, soil, and energy can be useful and
crucial.
The Thai Empire in this book may look like a country that has somewhat survived
from the collapse of the world, but there still are illogical things going on by humans.
The Environment Empire and The Trade Empire are having their teeth out on each
other and the administrators called white shirts are going around towns abusing their
authorities on working class population. A bribe and violence are everywhere just like
the world we live in now. There is a part in the book where it says, It amuses him that
the Thais, even amid starvation, have found the time and energy to resurrect nicotine

addiction. He wonders if human nature ever really changes. (pg63) Humans are known
to have desires for food, sleep, and sex. Every person seeks for their own entertainment
and welfare from a lot of different things like nicotine as it is mentioned. But how much
does this human nature play against the GMOs? What is the limit for it? In the book,
there is a character called Emiko, a windup preprogrammed by humans. Like she is
being used as a sexual tool for humans entertainment, abusing or misinterpreting an
organism can be over the line. Instead of finding ways to make more agricultural land,
trying to stop eating as much meat, or growing crops efficiently indoors, without soil,
people from the future have chosen to use GMO as a way to fulfill their needs. Looking
at the case of Malia Chun and her neighbors from Hawaiian island of Kauai, people
fought against the GMO related biotech companies to keep their children and
themselves from the health threatening risks. Just like these two examples, people fight
and find their ways to both protect and satisfy their desires which explain all the current
controversies going on with the GMOs. And by looking at people pointing out many
negative parts of GMO like unconscientious labeling, possibility of exposing new
allergens to humans, and encouraging the evolution of herbicide resistance through
liberal use, it seems like people care more about their health condition and safety. But
the reason why there still are conflicts between pro and anti GMO is because people
are still trying to watch for a chance to fit their personal desires.
When Hock Seng, a Chinese refugee yellow card holding manager of the undercover
factory of Andersons, continuously plan and dream about getting his position back
behind Andersons back, one incident gets in the way of doing so. A work to create
energy from the modified algae, which he was responsible for in the factory, seems to

be spreading new disease around the workers. Living in the world where yellow card
holders like him has almost no luck in getting jobs, the book illustrates him questioning
as, He grimaces, wondering how he himself would balance the terrors of some
unknown sickness against the certainty of work. (pg181) Like it is described from where
it says Chaiyanuchit remembered the beginning of the plaguesThere was no end to
the duties of the Ministry., (pg120-121) the imaginative, but possible future world of
ours is full of hazardous diseases like cibiscoscosis and bacteria. Nowadays, it is
claimed by the scientists that the GMOs may cause toxic poisoning, allergic reactions,
antibiotic resistance, and even cancer in humans. Research hasnt proven all the
concerns, but theres enough evidence to warrant caution. The book suggests the
building of UV sterilization barriers along the Kingdoms borders and the growing of
epidemic resistant modified seeds as a solution to such health related issues. But there
are not much of such specific solutions to the issues that we have in todays world, (of
course the book is a lot more dramatic than our world now) and that is because we are
not as desperate or thirsty for jobs, foods, or welfare in general as the people from the
destroyed world in the book. The usage of glyphosate, based herbicide that is now the
most commonly used herbicide in the world, affects human enzymes in a way that it
blocks the uptake of manganese and other essential minerals. Without those minerals,
we cannot properly metabolize our food which explains the rampant epidemic of obesity
in the United States. Such human health related issues without any certain solutions
could change this fictional setting of life to our reality in the desolated future.

Works Cited

1.
2.
3.
4.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/effects-overusing-energy-78753.html
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/890/the-consequences-of-food-waste
http://www.eufusions.org/uploads/deliverables/FUSIONS%20Drivers%20of

%20food%20waste%202014.pdf
5. On the Front Lines of Hawaii's GMO War, Mike Ludwig, November 21, 2013
6. http://www.iflscience.com/environment/myths-and-controversies-gmos-0
7. http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/news/2013_12_06/GMO-products-couldbe-cause-of-epidemic-in-US-7584/