Frankenfoods Essay -- Biotechnology Farming Agriculture Essays

Frankenfoods Biotechnology and genetically modified organisms have gained quite a bit of notoriety in the past decade. Proponents of biotechnology are claiming that genetic modification will revolutionize agriculture and medicine and overall benefit human kind far beyond the reaches of imagination. On the other side of the issue, there are those who claim that genetic modification is dangerous and unneeded. But is either side correct? Will GMOs revolutionize the food and health industries or will they cause damage and downfall? Moreover, is it even ethical to tamper with nature and release science fiction into the food supply? GMOs and the History Behind Them Genetic modification has been present in agriculture since the Egyptians and the Sumerians first developed it over four thousand years ago. While modification was first used at a very basic level, today it involves implantation of DNA from one organism to another. The basis for genetic modification occurred in the 1970's when the technology to isolate individual genes and alter and copy them in cells was developed. In 1994, the first genetically modified crop, the Flavr Savr Tomato, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale and consumption 1. Since then the GMOs have taken over the agriculture industry with over 22 percent (or roughly 60-70% of commercially sold foods) of crops worldwide being GM crops. The basis of modern biotechnology began in 1953 when a biologist and a physicist by the names of Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA2 . Since then, scientists have discovered ways to manipulate DNA and even transfer the DNA from one organism to another. Current genetic modification involves a process in which a gene segment literally g... ..., 18 Nov. 2003, Shah, Anup. Genetically Engineered Food. 2001. 18 Nov. 2003. < http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood.asp> Stone, Brad. The Flavr Savr Arrives, 1994, 18 Nov. 2003, Sutton,Jason. Trasngenetic Crops: An Introductio and Resource Guide, 2002, Traynor,Marty. Hazards of Antibiotic Resistance Genes ni GE Foods, 2002, Wright,Robert. Molrcular Biologists James Watson and Francis Crick, 18 Nov. 2003, http://www.biotechnology.gov.au/biotechnologyOnline/interactives/gene_splicing_interactive.htm