Genetic Engeneering Essay, Research Paper

Human Awareness Essay

Should genetically engineered food be grown and sold in South Australia?

Recently more and more foods that we buy from the supermarket are involved in the manipulation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) also known as genetic engineering or gene technology. but should genetic engineered food be sold to us the consumers even if we don t know that it has been altered? Like every issue genetic engineering has its good points and it s bad points. It is good for financial reasons, it would create more jobs, it could create better quality foods for lower prices and help solve world hunger but in the long run it could turn out a disaster, causing pollution, killing crops, animals or even us, is it such a good idea to play with gods creations? Only you could decide.

A lot of scientists believe that genetic engineering is a revolutionary brake through. With the use of gene technology it is possible to create a perfect organism. Useful characteristics can be transferred from one species to another, this includes animals with plants and vice a versa. As a result it is possible to make foods with high resistance to whether, temperature, pesticides, etc. therefore crop quality and amount grown would increase. Another area of genetic technology involves inserting genes into plants to make them immune to common viruses, this could increase the crop production. If the crop production could be increased, food would become cheaper and easier to obtain. For economical reasons gene technology is better for the producers and consumers. The producers wouldn t have to throw some crops away due to disease and weather damage, and we the consumers would get better quality foods for a smaller price.

More food could be created with the use of genetically engineering therefore solving some of the world hunger problem. The world has a population of 5.8 billion today. A lot of those people are starving because there is either not enough food in the area as it is too hard to grow or because the food is too expensive. Imagine growing vegetables in the dessert or having a crop that produces near perfect fruit at lower price. Gene technology could produce enough foods for everyone.

Genetic engineered food should be grown and sold in SA as it would create more jobs. Because a lot more scientists would be needed to modify DNA, therefore more institutions would need to be created to modify DNA, therefore construction workers would need to be hired, more people would need to learn about gene technology therefore more teachers would need to be hired to teach students. The circle of jobs could go on and decrease unemployment.

Like everything good there are bad points to genetic engineering. First of all us as the consumers should have the right to know whether the food that we buy is altered, at the moment foods that have been modified aren t labelled. This could cause immense problems for people with allergies. It is possible for people with food intolerances to have an allergic reaction to completely different foods with a gene of the food that they are allergic to. An investigation was carried out in the mid-90 s showed that seven out of nine people allergic to brazil nuts and not allergic to soybeans also had an allergic reaction to soybeans that have been genetically engineered to contain a protein usually found in brazil nuts. Consumers with allergies who buy unlabelled genetically modified foods could even die, so producers should either label gene modified foods or not produce them. Religious issues might arise from this issue as people of some religions don t eat pork or meat at all therefore they don t want to eat genes of the animals that they can t eat.

Even though modifying DNA has been around since 1970 s it is still a relatively new and the full long term effects aren t known yet. Mr Bob Phelps from the Spokesperson for GeneEthics Network said Such foods are spliced from foreign genes from humans, animals, plants, bacteria and viruses, resulting in unpredictable permanent changes. Genetically engineered foods should be tested out thoroughly before they are marketed. As something could go really wrong. Growing genetically adjusted foods should not be allowed as it could cause a transgenetic species to escape into the wild and cause problems among natural species.

Recently a test on rats consuming genetically modified food was conducted. The result? The food has damaged the rats immune systems. Imagine if it done that to lab rats what will happen to us if we keep eating genetically engineered food?

There are lot of good things that would come from selling and growing genetically engineered food in South Australia but do they cancel out the bad? There is no right or wrong answer but one could turn out deadly, would you be able to take the risk?