Group+3c

=**Genetically** **Modified** **Foods**=

**What is a "Genetically Modified" food?**
Genetically Modified foods, also known as GM foods, are crop plants whose genetic code has been altered to adapt or lose a certain characteristic. Normally, the intention of this transformation is to become a stronger, more durable plant. Take this particular corn plant for example. It has been infested with a worm that continues to eat and kill the corn off. Scientists can alter the corn plant’s DNA to make it worm-resistant, so the worm can’t infect the plant.

**A Better Understanding**
The following video provides a more in-depth description of just how GM foods work.

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**The Controversy**
The subject of using GM foods has its ups and downs. Although plants' characteristics can be improved as we saw with the corn plant example, there are also many concerns involved in the effects altering an organism's genetic code.


 * ====**Positives**==== || ====**Negatives**==== ||
 * * Drought and cold tolerant
 * Bug, pest, and disease resistant
 * Nutritional food for third world countries || * Unintended harm to other organisms
 * Pesticides become less effective
 * Transfer genetics to other species
 * Produce new allergies
 * Negative effect on humans
 * Expensive
 * Time consuming ||

**Where do we stand?**
As a group, we believe that Genetically Modified foods are more harmful than they are beneficial. Although they have proven to be helpful in some specific cases, they have proven hazardous on the wide spectrum. One of the issues being brought up when discussing the efficiency of GM foods is the idea that they may cause several health problems. Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a GM researcher, did an experiment on mice to see what effects the GM foods have on the body of the mice. He gave the mice potatoes that had been genetically altered, and the mice suffered from stunted organ and brain growth. Another concern with GM foods is that they have been proven to create different allergies. For example, a group of scientists wanted to make soy beans more nutritional by transferring genes from the brazilian nut to the soy bean. The confrontation of the genes triggered a reaction in the soy bean, which made people who were allergic to brazilian nuts also allergic to the soy beans. A negative effect of overusing these GM products is that antibiotics lose effectiveness in the body, because the plants are antibiotic resistant. It has also been noted that GM foods hurt the environment. A study was conducted at Cornell University, in which monarch butterflies were pollinating genetically altered plants. As a result, the butterflies were then stunted and killed. On the topic of pollination, GM plants raise another issue when they cross-pollinate with non-GM plants. This is called **genetic drift**. This can lead to the creation of new species, which can interfere with the natural flow of the environment. Because plants can cross-contaminate other plants, it is unknown as to which plants are genetically modified and which are natural. Consumers who purchase a product labeled "organic" may be falsely informed, because there is no sure way of knowing whether the plant was modified unintentionally. The idea of genetically modified foods is not fully developed, and until scientists can find away to work around the above concerns, they shouldn't be put to use. When a concept's negative effects heavily outweigh it's positive ones, as we've shown in our chart (above), then the conclusion is clear. Genetically Modified foods are bad for people, other animals, other plants, and the environment in general, and they are a threat to our way of life.

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"The new genetic science raises more troubling issues than any other technological revolution in history. In reprogramming the genetic code of life, do we risk a fatal interruption of millions of years of evolutionary development? Might not the artificial creation of life spell the end of the natural world?… Will the creation, mass production, and wholesale release of thousands of genetically engineered life forms…cause irreversible damage to the biosphere, making genetic pollution an even greater threat to the planet than nuclear or petrochemical pollution?" **- Jeremy Rifkin: The Biotech Century**

1. http://www.holistic.com/holistic/learning.nsf/0/01b2264aecdc096a87256a3b0001cff9?OpenDocument 2. http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php 3.[| http://www.cqs.com/50harm.htm] 4. http://www.google.com/imghp 5. http://youtube.com/

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