Genetically Modified Foods (1)

Genetically Modified Foods
The Battle for Biotic Foods

Genetic engineering of crops and animals through the manipulation of DNA is producing a food production. It is also starting a battle between those who believe in its promise and critics who doubt and fear it. The potential to improve the quality and nutritional value of the vegetables and animals we eat seems unlimited. Such potential benefits notwithstanding, critics fear that genetically engineered products, so called biotic foods, I’ve been rushed to market before their affect are fully understood.

What Exactly are Biotech Foods?

Biotic foods are produced from animals that have been genetically altered. Genetic alteration is nothing new. Humans have been altering the genetic traits of plants for thousands of years by keeping seeds from the best crops and planting them in following years, and by breeding varieties to make them taste sweeter, grow bigger, or last longer. In this way, we’ve transformed the wild tomato from a fruit the size of a small stone to the giant ones we have today. On the other hand, the techniques of genetic engineering are new, and quite different from conventional breeding. Conventional breeders always used plants or animals that were related, or genetically similar. In so doing, they transferred tens of thousands of genes. By contrast, today’s genetic engineers can transfer just a few things at a time between species that are distantly related or not related at all. There are surprising examples: Rat genes have been inserted into lettuce plants to make a plant that produces vitamin C, and moth genes have been inserted into apple trees to add disease resistance. The purpose of conventional modern techniques is the same—to insert a gene or genes from an organism that carries a desired trait into an organism that does not have a trait. Several dozen biotic food crops are currently on the market, among them varieties of corn, soy beans, and cotton. Most of these crops are engineered to help farmers with age-old farming problems: weeds, insects, and disease.

Are Biotech Foods Safe for Humans?

As far as we know. So far, problems have been few. In fact, according to the Steve L. Taylor, of the Department of Food Sociece and Technology at the University of the Nebraska, “ None of the current biotech products have been implicated in allergic reaction or any other healthcare problem in people.” Some biotech foods might even be safer than conventional varieties. Corn damaged by insects often contains high levels of fumonisins, toxins that are carried on the backs of insects and that grow in the wounds of the damaged corn. Lab tests have linked fumonisins with cancer in animals. Studies shows that most corn modified for insect resistance has lower levels of fumonisins than conventional corn damaged by insects.

Vocabulary
nutritional adj.营养的
notwithstanding prep.尽管
trait n.特点
conventional adj.依照惯例的
allergic adj.过敏的