Genetically Engineered Food

Genetically Engineered Food

Haronamas Walton

Millions of people all over the planet suffer from poverty and starvation. One very interesting but experimental solution to the problem of world hunger is genetically engineered food. The process involves the crossbreeding of crops in a laboratory with species that are not plant like. Say for example, that a scientist crossed a fish and a potato. The diversity of this gene mixture is supposed to give this hybrid crop special characteristics like resistance to disease, the ability to deal with extreme environmental situations, and much higher crop yields at harvest time.

The production of genetically enhanced food is considered a radical approach to dealing with the world hunger crisis. Critics of gene refined food believe that tampering with the natural order of environmental evolution can be potentially dangerous.

"There is an uncertainty about the effects that chemical experimenting could have on non-target species (http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood/IsGEFoodSafe.asp)."

Meaning that scientists fear that extracting genes that perform an apparently useful function as part of a plant or animal may not have the same effects if inserted into a totally unrelated species. These potentially dangerous mixes could create deformed, mutant like crops and animals. The effects that such altered species could have on the environment and peoples overall health is uncertain.

Though the process has been proven successful in th...

Genetically Engineered Food

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