Genetically Engineered Food
Uploaded by Waltohar on May 03, 2000
Millions of people all over the planet suffer from poverty and starvation. One very interesting but experimental solution to the problem of world hunger is genetically engineered food. The process involves the crossbreeding of crops in a laboratory with species that are not plant like. Say for example, that a scientist crossed a fish and a potato. The diversity of this gene mixture is supposed to give this hybrid crop special characteristics like resistance to disease, the ability to deal with extreme environmental situations, and much higher crop yields at harvest time.
The production of genetically enhanced food is considered a radical approach to dealing with the world hunger crisis. Critics of gene refined food believe that tampering with the natural order of environmental evolution can be potentially dangerous.
"There is an uncertainty about the effects that chemical experimenting could have on non-target species (http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood/IsGEFoodSafe.asp)."
Meaning that scientists fear that extracting genes that perform an apparently useful function as part of a plant or animal may not have the same effects if inserted into a totally unrelated species. These potentially dangerous mixes could create deformed, mutant like crops and animals. The effects that such altered species could have on the environment and peoples overall health is uncertain.
Though the process has been proven successful in the lab, many experts feel that serious precautionary measures should be taken before genetically engineered food is mass-produced and sold on the open market. Politics act as the major obstacle in the way of genetically engineered food production. The fact is that legal advances such as copy writes and distribution need to be taken care of first. Despite the advances in genetic food, some forms of these foods still need the aid of pesticides, which are harmful to the soil and insect life.
The old saying, "Time is money" can be used to explain why it may be unlikely that these foods will ever make the mainstream market. The red tape surrounding the issue makes the idea of production unattractive to companies who may be interested in investing. Trying to back the production of genetically engineered food would be a bad business move because it is too difficult to get past government health regulations. It would take too long maybe years before bankers would receive returns on their investments.
Most analysts of gene enhanced food believe that it is unnecessary to take such an extreme step...