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This technology enables us to
increase the supply of food and
improve the quality with a much
lower cost. Also, farming requires
vast areas to grow food, but with
GMOs smaller spaces could be
sufficient. Furthermore, GMO crops
are environmentally friendly as
they require less environmental
resources such as water and
fertilizer. On the other hand, GMOs
might cause several disadvantages.
For instance, it might lead to certain
allergies. The biggest risk would be
the occurrence of some unwanted
or unexpected, yet, harmful genetic
changes.
Interviewers: That sounds a little
alarming. It is crucial to be very
cautious in spite of the efficiency of
the GMO crops on both the financial
and the environmental level. Our last
question, indeed, is how to do more
for the environment and how should
TED, as an educational organization,
become a green leader?
Işık Turcan: TED has already
contributed to numerous
environmental activities, I can cite
some of our own school’s events such
as planting trees, collecting garbage
on the coastline, abandoning plastic
cups and protesting about climate
change and Global Warming. But
there is always more to be done.
I, personally, think that we should
recycle more. We haven’t got enough
recycle bins to reuse our plastic, paper,
and metal waste. To go further, as an
educational organization, we have to
teach the meaning and the value of
carbon footprint to our students and
raise awareness as much as we can
about the necessity of being ecofriendly.
Interviewers: It is also our
responsibility to be proactive and
take the initiative before it’s too late
to save our planet.
Regarding changing the children’s
genomes, it could be ethically
permissible for medical reasons
but extremely dangerous and
unpredictable if it deviates to other
purposes such as the pursuit of
perfect physical appearance or the
mere boost in strength and human
capacities. And most importantly,
she helped us realize what a
great risk it is to make all of our
crops GMO based, even though it
allows us to preserve and use our
resources in a much better way, it
can still engender a disaster in case
a situation gets out of hand and
there will be no coming back. And
finally, to preserve our planet and
our home for the next generations,
our prestigious organization can
take a few more steps further and
implement greater procedures
towards recycling.