Today we are still modifying and messing with genes. What you might ask? Well currently scientists are trying to break the genetic code for the potatoes. It sounds so simply but it is one of the hardest tasks scientists have faced. The potato has 840 million DNA base pairs, while humans have 3 billion DNA pairs. In other words potatoes are pretty sophisticated. Breaking this code is really important. Potatoes are the world’s third most important crop under wheat and rice. If we can break the code we can make it resistant against droughts and diseases. Also the cost of potatoes will go down.
Another very important issue we are debating is engineering animals as food. The government is saying that we are close to allowing genetically modified animals as food. So we would put in a gene from another animal to elicit a certain trait. For example the might add in a gene to a fish so it can grow faster. This being said the government also says that this meat will not be labeled. So you might get a genetically modified piece of meat and you do not even know it. Jean Halloran, the director of food policy for Consumers Union had this to say, "They are talking about pigs that are going to have mouse genes in them, and this is not going to be labeled?” Can the government really exploit the public like that? Unless we do something about this we might as well eat mouse genes.
3 comments:
Yuck! Pigs with mouse genes? This is the kind of stuff that freaks me out and why I try to eat mostly local and organic food so I know what people are giving me!
Wow i really like your topic im really interested in science and how advance we have gotten in that field. You should talk more about how they can genetically engine human cells to make a person how they want them to look when they grow up. I also think thats its wrong what they are doing to animals!
I really like your topic because I really like Science, but I think that it is really wrong what they are doing to the poor animals.
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