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These developments have proven positive for the human species, allowing for greater nutritional variety and varieties of tastes: "Beginning with Mendel's study of peas, knowledge of genetics helped usher in scientific crop development, resulting in high-yielding varieties. Food production increased in every part of the world in the past few decades, including in Africa" (Prakash 2001). The idea humans are tampering with nature in an insidious manner through genetic modification seems more due to superstition than science: using gene transfers to develop GM crops is an extension of older forms of human evolutionary influences on agriculture.
The idea that organic is always inherently better, more natural, and an 'older' form of agriculture likewise seems specious, given how long human beings have been engineering nature to sustain communities in a more salutary fashion. In fact, genetically modified foods permit less use of pesticides, if they are engineered to be more disease and pest-resistant. This is a boon to individuals all over the world,...
Even the most controversial moves by genetic engineers of plants have the potential to cure world hunger and malnutrition: "the most important food crop in the developing worldricehas no provitamin A and little iron in its endosperm. This has led to horrific problems, such as blindness among millions of children due to vitamin A deficiency, and iron-deficiency anemia in nearly a billion women dependent on a rice diet. Biotechnology research, far from causing any new food safety problems, has already demonstrated its potential in enhancing the nutritional quality of our food and is also being employed to reduce harmful toxic compounds that exist in our food"(Prakash 2001).
Works Cited
Prakash, Channapatna S." The Genetically Modified Crop Debate in the Context of Agricultural
Evolution. Plant Physiology, 126 (May 2001): 8-15
Hall, B.K. And B. Hallgrimsson. Strickberger's Evolution, 4th ed., Jones and Bartlett Publishers,
Sudury, MA, 2008.
Works Cited
Prakash, Channapatna S." The Genetically Modified Crop Debate in the Context of Agricultural
Evolution. Plant Physiology, 126 (May 2001): 8-15
Hall, B.K. And B. Hallgrimsson. Strickberger's Evolution, 4th ed., Jones and Bartlett Publishers,
Sudury, MA, 2008.
genetically modified foods, and discussed some of the arguments for and against genetically modified foods. The paper looks, in particular, at the decision by the U.S. To send GM grain, via the WFP of the UN, as part of their food aid to Africa. The paper concludes that the U.S. were not correct in their decision to send GM grain to Africa, were incorrect in forcing African nations to
Then in May 2000, honey on sale in supermarkets was found to be contaminated with GM pollen from British crop trials. Two out of nine samples show contamination" (Chapman 2006:5). The results of an analysis by Fox (1999) confirmed this cross-contamination of pollen: "The pollen produced by these plants, carrying new genes, cannot be contained. As a result, genetic pollution of natural crop varieties and of wild plant relatives
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Genetically Engineered Food Over the last ten to fifteen years, the presence of genetically modified foods in grocery stores and homes has increased exponentially. This emergence of genetically modified foods has impacted many different details of human life, including in the areas of farming, research, fertility, the environment, and pharmaceuticals, just to name a few. However, there remains strong opposition to the use of this technology in foods that will be
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