June 2013
GENETIC FOOD
What is the largest producer of genetically modified seeds?
For answer look below.
This is the“ Flavr Saver” tomato which was the first genetically modified food to hit the markets.
Pretty cool, huh?
SO HOW DOES GENETIC ENGINEERING WORK?
They edit the DNA. I am guessing though you would like more information on it so read on.
Genetic engineering is a simple concept but very hard to do. It is simple because all you do is edit the genetics of something. Now the ways of doing that are very complicated. There are two ways to genetically modify food. Probably the simplest way is to take the bacterium Agrobacterium Tumefaciens, which injects it’ s DNA into plants to create plant tumors. You remove the tumor causing trait that floats around freely in the cytoplasm and you replace it with the DNA( genes) that you want. Then it injects it’ s DNA into the plant. The other way is to use a tool called a gene gun. This is a gun that
injects fibers coated with DNA into a plant to replace the old DNA. There is a diagram on the next page that shows the production of recombinant DNA. Now that you know how genetically modified food is made what do you think some environmental problems may be?
Did you ever realize how large these
companies where? Just to give an idea“ The top 10 seed companies account for
$ 14,785 million – or two-thirds( 67 %) of the global proprietary seed
market.”( page 12 of Who Owns Nature? Corporate Power and the Final Frontier in the Commodification of Life. By the etc group.)
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