! ! ! ! !

Genetically engineered food, also known as genetically modied (GM) food, comes from plants or animals that have had genes from other plants or animals inserted into them. Although humans have modied food plants and animals for many centuries by breeding, modern biotechnology allows the genetic make-up of living things to be altered directly, producing much quicker results. It also allows the transfer of genes between organisms that cannot breed with one another. The potential advantages include increased agricultural production, improved nutrition and better tasting foods. On the other hand, there are concerns about possible unexpected adverse health e"ects, environmental damage and commercial exploitation.! Beneting from resources ! ! Genetic engineering may eventually bring advantages that are, as of 2012, at the speculative stage. There are also a number of concerns about possible adverse e"ects that as yet are not supported by any hard evidence; nevertheless, evidence may emerge in the future. It is a relatively new technology that may bring huge benets, but that also has the potential for misuse. The pros and cons of genetically engineered food include the following:! ! Pros! ! Better Pest and Disease Resistance! ! Genetic modication of crops can produce varieties that are more resistant to pests and diseases, reducing losses and lessening the dependence on pesticides. For example, a gene that gives resistance to a fungal infection in a wild plant can be inserted into a food plant that lacks this protection. The crop is then less susceptible to this disease.! ! Ads by Google! Bank of America and (RED)# !

It's Time to End AIDS. Join the Fight for an AIDS Free Generation. red.bankofamerica.com! 2014 Best Skin Tighteners# ! An Unbiased Review List of The Top Performing Skin Tighteners In 2014 www.skincaresearch.com/FaceLifting! Lumosity Brain Games# ! Train memory and attention with scientic brain games. www.lumosity.com! Cheap Non-GMO Food Supply#! Shocking video reveals sneaky trick to getting non-gmo food super cheap www.crisiseducation.com! 5 Foods you must not eat:# ! If you never eat these 5 foods, you will burn your stomach fat everyday trimdownclub.com! Improved Stress Tolerance! ! Genes that give greater tolerance of stress, such as drought, low temperatures or salt in the soil, can also be inserted into crops. This can extend their range and open up new areas for food production.! ! Faster Growth! ! Crops can be altered to make them grow faster, so that they can be cultivated and harvested in areas with shorter growing seasons. This again can extend the range of a food crop into new areas or perhaps allow two harvests in areas where only one is currently practical.! ! More Nutritious Crops! ! Plants and animals can be engineered to produce larger amounts of essential vitamins and minerals, such as iron, helping to solve nutrition problems in some parts of the world. They can also be altered to change the amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and saturated and unsaturated fats that they contain. This could lead to the production of foods designed specically for a healthy diet for all consumers.! ! Production of Medicines and Vaccines by Crops! !

It may be possible to have plants and animals produce useful medicines and even vaccines, so that prevention and treatment of human diseases in some places can be achieved cheaply and e$ciently through the diet.! ! Resistance to Herbicides! ! Crops can be modied to be resistant to specic herbicides, making it much easier to control troublesome weeds. Farmers can simply apply the weed killer to a crop eld, killing the unwanted plants and leaving the food crop una"ected. For example, GM oilseed rape the source of canola oil is resistant to one chemical that's widely used to control weeds.! ! Better Tasting Foods! How do they make them taste better? ! Foods can be engineered to taste better, which could encourage people to eat more healthy foods that are currently not popular because of their taste, such as broccoli and spinach. It may be possible to insert genes that produce more or di"erent avors as well.! ! Cons! ! Unexpected Side-E"ects! ! Some of the e"ects of genetically engineered food on human health may be unpredictable. The many chemical compounds present in foods behave in extremely complex ways in the human body. If the food contains something not normally present in the human diet, it is hard to tell what its e"ects may be over time. Although GM foods are rigorously tested, there may be some subtle, long-term e"ects that cannot be detected yet.! ! Problems with Labeling of GM Food! ! It may not be clear to customers exactly what they are eating when they purchase GM foods. Not all countries have a requirement to label food, or ingredients, as genetically modied, and even where such foods are clearly labeled, people may not take the time to read the information. People with an allergy to a specic ingredient may be unexpectedly

a"ected by a GM food that contains that substance. Vegetarians and vegans might unknowingly eat plant-based foods containing genes that originally came from animals.! ! Reduced Species Diversity! ! Genes introduced to make crops toxic to specic insect pests may kill other, benecial insects, with e"ects on animals further up the food chain. This could lead to a reduction in the diversity of wildlife in a"ected areas and possibly even to the extinction of vulnerable species.! ! Ecological Damage! ! It is possible that genes for resistance to insect pests, diseases and herbicides might spread to native plants. Pollen from GM crops could be transferred by insects or wind to wild plants, fertilizing them and creating new, modied plants. This could lead to herbicide-resistant weeds and to the uncontrollable spread of plant species normally kept in check by natural predators and diseases. This might damage delicate ecosystems.! ! E"ects on Non-GM Crops! ! Pollen from genetically modied crops can also spread to elds containing non-GM crops. This can result in supposedly non-GM foods actually containing material from genetically engineered crops. This has happened in at least one well-documented case, leading to a lengthy legal wrangle between a farmer and a well-known GM company. Many complex legal issues involving compensation and ownership may arise. Another problem may be a blurring of the distinction between foods that have been modied and those that have not, creating problems for consumers.! ! Over-Use of Herbicides! ! The planting of herbicide-resistant crops might encourage farmers to use weed killers more freely, since they could then be applied indiscriminately to crop elds. As a result, the excess could be carried away by rainfall to pollute rivers and other waterways. The chemicals may poison sh and

other wild animals and plants, and could get into human drinking water as well.! ! The Benets May Not Be Available to Everyone! ! The potential to end poverty and malnutrition may not be realized if patent laws and intellectual property rights lead to genetically engineered food production being monopolized by a small number of private companies. The owners of the rights to produce GM foods may be reluctant to allow access to technology or genetic material, making countries in the developing world even more dependent on industrialized nations. Commercial interests may override worthy and potentially achievable goals, limiting the benets to the world as a whole.