Letter to the people that shop

Dear Shoppers,

Before you get that piece of meat take a minute to think where it really came from and if it was the real animal or just something engineered by humans. Many people just get what they want without actually knowing what it really is. That’s why I am writing to you today shopper, so you can start thinking what you are actually eating. Many people say” you are what you eat” so what are we?

Today many of our meats and other foods are genetically engineered. This means that you might think that you are eating beef but in reality you are eating beef with pig gene in it. Is that what you would like? I personally would not. People need to be aware what they are eating since most of the general store is constituted of genetically modified food. The FDA recently said that more genetically modified food would be in the market. The bad news is that that meat will not be labeled. So how is person going to know if it is modified? One way you can prevent that is by buying organic meats and cheese. This is degenerating our way of living and it should be changed.

I hope now most shoppers will open up their eyes to the truth and realize what they are eating. We have messed with our food source, how will that affect us in the future? We still do not know but when that day comes it might be too late.

Sincerely,

Alan Felix

Graph

Key: The spares is the people that think that both benefits and harmful effects are equal. The triangle are the people that the harmful results will outweigh the benefits of genetic engineering. The diamonds are the people that think that the benefits will out weigh the harmful results.


Most people would think that it would be easy to find a graph for my topic but it was really hard. The only one I found is a little old and I bet that the data has changed in the years. The graph shows what people think about genetic engineering. From 1985-2001 is the years that they got this data. This graph shows the way people change their mind over years. In 1985 46% of the people in the US believed that the benefits of genetic engineering were more important than the harmful results. In 2001, that percentage dropped to 40%. People that thought that the harmful results were more important only made a 38% and after 16 years it dropped to 33%. The only one that when up was the people that thought that both benefits and harmful effects were equal. One thing I didn’t know was that more people think that the benefits will outweigh the harmful effects. The data is somewhat reliable since it came for a college. This data is important because you can look were people stand on this topic. It was very interesting to see this.

The new article

As I was looking though articles I stubbed across The Boston Globe. In there I found an article called “Gene-altered animals and food safety,” by Rick Weiss. This article talks about what is happening recently in the genetic engineering world. Thanks to the recession many people were not informed about this.

The article starts of by talking about food. As many people already know some of our meats, milk, and cheese come from cloned cows or from their babies. In January the FDA said cloned meat was safe to eat. Now recently the FDA also said that genetically modified animals can also be sold in the market. Would you like a genetically modify steak for dinner? I personally would not. They have added genes in salmon so it can grow faster. Also, they have added a bacterial gene in pigs so they can be a little more environmentally friendly. In cows they have added fish genes to get omega-3 fatty acids. A good hypothetical question Rick asked was “what happens when gene-enhanced salmon escape their offshore cages and mate with their wild cousins?” We may not find out but in all this there is good news. The FDA has strict rules and restriction for the genetically modified food to get to the market. The bad news is that if it approved most details and data will be hidden. They call this “confidential business information.” I mean we all do not know about genetically modified foods and we need information. One thing the FDA can improve on is labeling the modified foods and posting information. Like Rick Weiss said in this article “The United States needs a system for approving some gene-altered animals.”

This article helps you realize all the things the government does behind our back and we do not even know it. I have even learned things that I did not know. For example, I did not know that now it is permitted to sell modified foods. Where has this world gone to?

Movie-Jurassic Park

“Run!” yelled Dr. Grant as the giant T-Rex broke out of its cage. This scene is from Jurassic Park, one of the best classics we ever had. The director Steven Spielberg made this movie realistic and most of all he entertained so many people. He has won three Oscars and has been nominated over 70 times. Spielberg is a famous director and producer. Other movies that he has produced are Saving Private Ryan, E.T., and Sherk. The actors in Jurassic Park help the viewers feel the same pain they felt. The cast members were Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards. All of them helped in one form or another. The genre of the movie was Science-Fiction. In other words the movie is very hypothetical.

I think Jurassic Park is a must see because it is constitutes of action and a good story line. The story starts of in a small isolated island. There some scientist clone and genetically engineered dinosaurs for an amusement park. Some thing bad happens and the dinosaurs break out and over run the island. One of the best scenes in the movie is the part when the T-Rex broke out and is chasing the rest of the people. There is a lot action to explain it all so I recommend watching it.

The writer did know about genetic engineering thanks to his education in Harvard. He had this to say “I believe that science is a wonderfully powerful, but distinctly limited tool.” I completely agree with him due to the fact that science helps us in some places but we have to be careful in others.