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Genetically Engineered Food Essay

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Genetically Engineered Food

As Scientists commence the unraveling of genetic mysteries the food we eat is undergoing significant changes. From supermarket produce, milk and eggs to tofu, sprouts and garden burgers most have genetically altered ingredients. As with all new products tests are necessary. Guinea pigs, used in those tests, show the effects of the Genetically Engineered (GE) feed. So far the tests have shown elevated breast cancer from ingesting milk from cows consuming (GE) hormones. Others tests have shown possible deadly allergic reactions to foods altered with proteins from peanuts or shellfish. Most dramatically in 1989 and 1990, a (GE) brand of L-tryptophan, a common dietary supplement, killed more than thirty. Animal …show more content…

These plants produce a sterile seed unable to reproduce itself. By flipping on a couple of genes a plant, "is forced to make a toxic protein that will sterilize its seeds after it is fully grown . . . sterile-seed technology quickly became a potent symbol for how genetically modified crops could cause a break in nature. Worse than that, such seeds could threaten more than a billion poor people throughout the developing world, for whom saving harvested seeds is essential." (Specter 62) In the past the best seeds were set aside by farmers. The best quality apples become the next generation of trees. The best of this year's crop becomes next year's seed and through the millennia farmers progressively produced a better crop. Farmers worked within plant and animal breeds improving quality. Now scientists armed with the tools of modern genetics are taking on nature's secrets. This new technology breaks down not only genetic barriers between species but between humans, animals and plants. In the markets throughout the U. S. grocers sell tomatoes that have both the genes of the tomato itself with those of the pacific salmon. To the consumer that might not make sense but to the retailer it is extremely important. The fused salmon genes cause tomatoes to be resistant to bruising which extends shelf life. This gene fusing is not limited to the foods we eat but is branching out into the field of medicine. Swine are having human genes fused with their own in an attempt to raise

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