GM+Foods

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=** What is genetic engineering? ** = = = It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species.

 Genetic engineering modifies the food being harvested. This means that each time a food has to be put in a place where it to grow better, sometimes it’s good to modify them so that they grow faster and better, with less infections/diseases.

 GM Foods that are made by genetic engineering are helped to combine two different types of foods and produce a new combination.

 Tomatoes for example have to be harvested in a very cold place. Because of this scientists extract a gene from a fish since this animal has the ability to live in very cold water without freezing. By putting this gene into the fruits and plants, each time the food we eat is more genetically modified and this may cause severe problems but also it may help people with diseases because they become immune and that way there are less people dying because of gm foods.

**Genetically modified foods**

Genetically modified foods vary from the finest salmon of all to tomatoes. Genetically modified foods are normally developed depending on the conditions they are being grown or taken care of.

Genetical modifications vary greatly. Some examples are pest resistance, making the crops resistant to insect pests

Another example is Herbicide tolerance. For some crops it is not cost-effective to remove weed by physical means such as tilling, so farmers will often spray large quantities of different herbicides. Herbicide causes normal plants to decay, while genetically modified plants survive easily to it.

Disease Resistance is commonly seen between plants, since there are many viruses, fungi and bacteria that cause plant diseases.

Cold tolerance is also commonly seen in genetically modified plants, since some plants such as tomatoes and tobacco are cultivated in places where in certain parts of the year gets extremely cold, so in order to avoid the crops from dying, a certain gene from artic fish is injected into them, causing them not to freeze.

Drought/Salinity resistance is often seen in crops grown near the sea or in extremely arid areas. What is done is a gene extracted from the cacti plants is inserted into the desired crop, thus developing a new kind of crop which is resistant to long periods of time without water. The same for salinity, a gene from seaweed is inserted in order to make it embrace salinity rather than die from it.

**ADVANTAGES**

  Eliminates the use of pesticides that fight against pest that are potentially harmful for humans and other animals as well. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Can be engineered to be tolerant to one type of herbicide (weed killer) so that when farmers try to get rid of weeds in the farms, they do not need to use multiple types of pesticides that can be harmful to the environment and are very expensive (not wallet friendly) <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Genetically engineered plants will have tolerance to diseases that can kill them, so worries about these things will become obsolete. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Will have tolerance against cold weather conditions. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Plants will be able to resist drought, and become easier to plant in areas that were once thought, uninhabitable for plant life. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Plants could be engineered to have more nutrients in them, this would help in third world countries were they east a lot of rice, the problem with this is that rice doesn’t have all the nutrients needed to prevent malnutrition. With these plants they problem would never be seen again.

**DISADVANTAGES**

<span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Lots of criticism has been raised in the areas of environmental health, human health, and economic concerns. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Environmental- <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> The pollen from these plants has been known to kill of many insect larva <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> People are worried that like other pesticides that have been invented in the past, insects will develop resistance to the pesticides. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> People are also worried that the herbicides created for the weeds will not destroy them, but rather form with the weeds, super weeds that will be resistant to the herbicides <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Human Health- <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> For humans, people are worried that the plants created will have allergic affects on some humans. Along with this, they simple don’t know what will happen to humans who eat these plants. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Economic Concerns- <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Economically, people are worried that these new plants will come will seeds that are so costly that small farmers may not be able to afford them. <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Prices for raising the plants then bringing them into market are also expensive, so people are not sure if this investment is worth the trouble or not.



**Insecticide Sweet Corn**

<span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px;">Sweet corn has been modified to produce its own poison that kills any insects that might harm the plant. With this features, farmers no longer have the need to use insecticides in their crops. This is called BT-corn due to Bacillus Thuringiensis, the bacteria used to modify this plant. Although there are various benefits to this such has no need to use toxic sprays in the plants, there are also some disadvantages. Over time, the insects which the plant fights may become resistant to the poison, thus the usage of a stronger insecticide would be needed again. Another down side is that the non harmful insects like butterflies are also harmed by the corn’s poison.

**Golden Rice ** = = <span style="font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">Rice that had been modified to have more quantity of beta-carotene, substance that becomes vitamin A inside the human body. That substance comes from carrots, that is why this type of rice had a golden color to it. To make beta-carotene three genes needed to be inserted on the rice: two from daffodils and one from bacterium. This rice was made meant for people in underdeveloped countries. This would improve health in such countries by providing this vitamin to their diet. This is mainly used in Asia, where most population consume rice. A down side to this is the dependency those countries have from the western world. In order to get such rice they are forced to buy the seed from rich companies.

= =    <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17px;">Bibliography <span style="color: #001df6; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal 'Gill Sans'; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> __<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|http://c1.redgreenandblue.org/files/2008/11/cornfield.jpg] __ __<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|http://www.newworldorderwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1412_1_380.jpg] __ <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/kitchen/2008_03_21-GMFoods.jpg] [|http://www.citrusandvegetable.com/Media/Issues/FL_sweet_corn-3.jpg]   http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/files/imagecache/feature/files/features/online/20081023_golden_rice.jpg http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php