Genetically Modified Foods

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Genetically Modified Foods

• Student Created

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What are Genetically Modified Foods?

• Genetically modified foods are plants that have
  been modified in a laboratory to enhance desired
  traits.
• Examples of desired traits are increased
  resistance to herbicides and improved nutritional
  content.

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How do They do it?

• Biologists are able to
• isolate certain genes
• and insert them into
• organisms. This allows
• an organism to possess
• the gene and pass it
• down to its offspring.

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Advantages to Genetically Modified Foods

• Resistance to pests will help farmers keep their
  crops healthy and edible. Also eliminates need
  for pesticides, which may taint the crops and
  scare away customers.
• Being able to add nutrients to crops will
  decrease malnutrition and can help lead to ending
  world hunger.
• Disease resistant plants will reduce the risk of
  obtaining e-coli or salmonella from crops.

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First Genetically Modified Crop

• The first ever crop to be
• modified was the tomato,
• which was modified to ripen
• without softening.
• Consumers accepted this
• and even paid more to
• purchase these tomatoes.

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Harmful or Helpful?

• There has been much debate as to whether
  genetically modified foods are good or bad.

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Criticism

• Some studies show that genetically modified foods
  can have a harmful effect on other organisms. For
  example, the mortality rate of monarch
  caterpillars has increased due to pollen from
  B.t. corn, a genetically modified plant.
• Critics are also afraid insects will become
  resistant to genetically modified foods, just
  like they can become resistant to pesticides.
• Lastly, critics are afraid of allergies affecting
  consumers, and other unknown diseases.

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Other concerns

• Scientists also claim that there is plenty of
  food on the earth, it is just not evenly
  distributed. Therefore, production has nothing to
  do with world hunger, and we should not be
  putting peoples health at risk for nothing.

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Two Types

• There are two main types of GM foods
• Ones that tolerate herbicides
• These crops will not die off from herbicides and
  will have less competition over nutrients and
  sunlight.
• Ones that are toxic to certain pests.
• Pests will not bother the plant and allow it to
  grow freely.

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Common GM foods

• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Sugar cane

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Sources

• http//www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview
  .php
• http//www.geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk/what-are
  -common-gm-foods.html

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