GM Food -Plants A first look GM Food~Plants

What is GM Food? GM food stands for Genetically Modified Food Organisms are made up of cells containing genes, the hereditary material which is DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in nature GM food is food with genes modified. Genes can be transplanted by taking out useful pieces of DNA from one organism and merging them with the DNA in another organism. GM Food~Plants

Common GM Food Maize Tomato Cabbage Pasta GM Food~Plants

Why produce GM food? To improve the quality of food To improve food production to feed the world To strengthen the resistance against herb and pests To cope better with climatic changes To minimize the cost of production To minimize loss during transport and storage GM Food~Plants

Herbicide Resistance Herbicides, like glyphosate and glufosinate, are used to eliminate weeds to maintain nutrient content in the soil but they decrease the yield. Scientists insert the herbicide resistance genes via agrobacterium into food plants so that they will not be affected by the herbicide. This reduces the excessive use of herbicide. GM Food~Plants

Pest resistance Scientists insert the toxin producing gene from Bacillus thuringienus, a kind of soil bacterium, into maize. Destructive insects will be killed when eating the crop. The loss due to destructive insects is greatly reduced. GM Food~Plants

Is GM food harmful? Will it affect our health? Will it affect the eco-system? Will it have harmful side-effects? Will it reduce consumer choices? GM Food~Plants

Will GM food incur Health Problems? Will we suffer from toxins produced? Will we inherit the toxin-producing genes? Will it cause allergic reactions? GM Food~Plants

Will GM food incur Health Problems? GM food is consumed as DNA molecules. As human body has been coping perfectly well with foreign DNA for millions years. No harm is proved at this moment. GM Food~Plants

Harmful to eco-system? Will it affect the growth of other plants? Will living things lose their living environment? Will it create strange species? GM Food~Plants

Any side-effects? Will genes used to modify crops jump the species barrier? Can the possible DNA mutation be controlled? GM Food~Plants

Religion and choice? What happens if vegetarians eat food which is genetically engineered with an animal gene? Will it repel choice of food? GM Food~Plants

Solutions… Add labels to the packages Improve genetic modification technology Food tests GM Food~Plants

For further reference, please go to our website: The End For further reference, please go to our website: http://library.thinkquest.org/C004033 GM Food~Plants