Super Food: Proven Fact of Science Fiction?

In order to get an accurate view of the situation, a person needs to know the background information behind the issue. The process of creating a genetically modified food is not a new idea. I

Opponents of genetically modified (GM) foods believe that until the problems with food allergens in these new types of foods are fixed, these types of foods should not be made available to the public. They argue that by adding foreign genes to plants, there is the possibility of creating food allergens that have never been seen before, which could make these altered foods potentially fatal. Food allergens are proteins, but only a few of these proteins have been discovered. Testing for these allergens is quite simple, but when new proteins are introduced to products, the testing methods are less developed. In 1995, a company came up with a soybean that was infused with a gene from the Brazil nut. The resulting protein then produced allergic reactions to soybeans. Later tests explained this concept. When a gene is passed from one organism to another, the genes maintain their allergic qualities, resulting in contamination of the new byproduct. There is no law requiring that products that are created by cross hybridization be labeled any differently then other products. Also, when genetically modified (or GM) foods are mixed with non GM foods, a label noting the mix is not required, in the U.S. or in foreign countries. This means that a consumer could unintentionally eat a product that they are allergic to, simply because the product’s label didn’t note anything different in the food’s content.(Nelson 65-66, 103-105) (Roller 69-70).

The potential economic benefits of creating GM crops are enough to improve many countries’s economic situations. Right now, only four percent of the world’s population is in the farming industry. These four percent produce one hundred percent of the world’s food. The main reason behind why most people are hesitant to become farmers is because farming is very risky; farmers risk losing everything every year they plant, as a change in weather patterns or insect infestations could destroy everything that they have worked for. By altering foods, profits can be maximized and risks diminished. Scientists have been able to do many things with these foods to help the farming industry. They help farmers increase their profits by reducing the time it takes for the plants to mature, increasing nutrient levels, and improving resistance to decease. By using these technological advances and growing altered crops, farmers would be able to maximize land efficiency by growing crops closer together thus growing more of a crop. Overall, helping out farmers can benefit the world economy. If scientists could take the risks out of farming, more people would be willing to start small farms. This could help out the unemployed and provide a much needed boost to a sagging economy.(McHughen 143-4

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