Barbara Kingsolver discusses genetic manipulation through generations of different species in her essay A Fist in the Eye of God. These genetic manipulations occur due to the species acclimating to their environment. Diversity in genes is nature’s survival of the fittest. Only the strongest survive and they pass on their strong traits. With today’s technology, we have the capability of altering genes within a species DNA. This paper examines the detrimental repercussions that GMO 's cause to the environment and insects necessary for the progression of crops. A substantial percentage of the work on the ethics of genetically modified food has primarily centralized on its potentially nocuous effects on human health and on the rights to label …show more content…
In a good year all or most of them will thrive and give you wheat. But in a bad year a spate of high winds may take down the tallest stalks and leave standing at the harvest time only, say, the 10 percent of the crop that had a “shortness” gene. And if that wheat comprises your winter’s supply of bread, plus the only seed you’ll have for next year’s crop, then you’ll be almighty glad to have that small, short harvest. Genetic diversity, in domestic populations as well as wild ones, is nature’s sole insurance policy. Environments change: Wet years are followed by droughts, lakes dry up, volcanoes rumble, ice ages dawn. It’s a big, bad world out there for a little strand of DNA. But a population will persist over time if, deep within the scattered genetics of its ranks, it is literally prepared for anything. When the windy years persist for a decade, the wheat population will be overtaken by a preponderance of shortness, but if the crop maintains its diversity, there will always be recessive aspirations [i.e., recessive genes] for height hiding in there somewhere, waiting to have their day (97-98).
Kingsolver indicated that these wheat crops are undergoing natural selection. More specifically, there are four conditions that must be legitimate for natural selection to engage in a given
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Wheat grown by traditional farming methods assuages the fundamental conditions for natural selection and is thus able to withstand environmental shifts in the future. However, wheat that is genetically uniform doesn’t satisfy the required circumstances for natural selection to occur. Therefore, it cannot survive prospective advancements. It is innate that a genetically diverse crop will be better able to subsist than a genetically engineered uniform crop. Kingsolver’s argument influences beyond intuition to exemplify why genetic diversity is preferable when compared to genetic uniformity with recognition to food
With plants of the genus Brassica importance in the form of vegetables and oilseeds (Wang and Freeling 2013), the results of this experiment offer a view into their inheritance patterns which can in the long term be replicated for different outcomes. Augustine et al. discuss the importance of these plants’ traits in terms of food production by stating that studying the mutations of Brassica may lead to improvement of crops by expressing mutations that are desirable phenotypic traits (2014). Brassica are an important part of the global food supply and if any plants can be genetically altered by selective fertilization then those steps should be taken to produce larger, more efficient, or shorter cycling plants. This experiment has supported the inheritance of traits according to Mendel by examining the inheritance of anthocyanin in B. rapa.
Since the birth of agriculture farmers across the world have been altering the genetic makeup of the crops they grow. Ancient farmers chose only the best looking plants and
The production of wheat is not a new phenomenon. Wheat has been successfully cultivated for thousands of years. Since the industrial revolution, wheat cultivation has taken a dramatic shift. Everything has changed; how we grow wheat, how we process it, the way we store it and even the way we eat it. Yes, a lot has changed.
For years, natural selection has decided how each organism would evolve and which ones would prosper. In order to understand it more thoroughly, we placed 50 dried peas and 50 kidney bean seeds into a paper envelop filled with rice. We then proceeded to pull out seeds without looking from the bag. When analyzing the data we noted that over the generation the population of peas had grown while the kidney beans had vastly diminished. By taking in account the frequency of both seeds in the bag, we concluded that due to the small size of the peas, and the large size of the kidney beans, the peas survived to by blending in with the rice while the beans stood out.
Six weeks previous to the conductance of this lab, Biology 108 section,planted wheat and mustard plants according to table#1 on page 3 of the Principles of Biology 108 Lab Manual . This table depicts all of the total pots and number and type of seeds planted in the pots. It accounts for the experiments of the intraspecific competition and interspecific competition. Replicates of each pot were planted to add precision and more acceptable statistics. Therefore, there were 40 pots, that is, 20 treatments conducted twice(Ciara, 1993).
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
Jamie Pighin, 20 Aug 2006, How genetics is providing new ways to envision agriculture, accessed 27 Feb 2014
We see the fruits of years of genetic research all around us. Genetically modified foods are everywhere. Biotech seeds yield a hefty portion of the corn, tomatoes, soybeans and other agricultural products and derivatives consumed by the American population on an annual basis (2000, Sunstein). Over 70% of the items Americans find on their supermarket shelves contain genetically modified content (1999, Wastell). We did not get to this point without endless hours of research and testing by dedicated scientists and researchers. This technology however is not without its opposition, in Europe genetically modified food products are aggressively regulated and labeled (2000, Sunstein). Papers have been written that allegedly show these crops not only damage the ecosystem as in the case of the Monarch butterfly but also are a danger to the animal or human who would ingest them as cited by Dr. Arpad Puzstai (1999, Lean).
Scientists have been changing genomes of plants and animals by integrating new genes from a different species through genetic engineering, creating a genetically modified organism (GMO). Consumers in America have been eating GMOs since 1996, when they went on the market. There are benefits to genetically modifying crop plants, as it improves the crop quality and increases yield, affecting the economy and developing countries. But there are also negative effects from GMOs. Consumption of GMOs has various health effects on both body systems of animals and humans. GMOs also affect the environment, ecosystems and other animal species. The cons outweigh the pros in the case of GMOs.
Genetically modified foods could cross-pollinate with other plants and create an entirely new species. In addition, there is the danger of biotech-resistant weeds and insects evolving. GMO’s have the potential to alter ecosystems in significant ways. Companies are currently engineering salmon, tilapia, carp, and other fish to promote faster growth or to provide resistance to certain diseases. Aquaculture farms are located in oceans and other bodies of water and the fish escape the nets regularly, ecologists worry that genetically modified fish could breed with natural fish.
The most wonderful activity a human being can experience is new flavors and foods. For example, the first time a person tastes a delicious juicy piece of prime rib or a delightful hamburger with cheese and ham, his world is never the same. However, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of food has been supplemented by science. This has triggered an angry dispute between the people who support the advances of biotechnology and people who love nature. In order to understand the controversy, we have to know the meaning of genetically modified foods. With new technological advances, scientists can modify seeds from a conventional seed to a high tech seed with shorter maturation times and resistance to dryness, cold and heat. This is possible with the implementation of new genes into the DNA of the conventional seed. Once these "transgenes" are transferred, they can create plants with better characteristics (Harris 164-165). The farmers love it not only because it guarantees a good production, but the cost is also reduced. On the other hand, organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of Earth have campaigned against GMO (“Riesgos”) because they think that they are negatively affecting the earth (Gerdes 26). Both the advocates and the opponents of genetically modified foods have excellent arguments.
Vitosh, M. L. "Wheat Fertility and Fertilization." Michigan State University Field Crop Team. Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, n.d. Web. http://fieldcrop.msu.edu/wheat/ 23 Jan. 2014.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are becoming a greatly debated topic in many countries. New Zealand, Switzerland, France, and Japan are just a few of the countries that have decided to ban the use of GMOs. Genetically modified organisms are organisms that have been scientifically altered through their DNA. The controversy arising from the use of GMOs is whether they are safe enough to use long-term. Since GMOs have only recently come into our food supply, not enough long term research has been acquired to determine the effects it has on our society. There are many different views on the disputed topic of genetically modified organisms, but the three main views are to ban GMOs completely, to use GMOs without restriction, and to use GMOs in our food supply but regulate and label them.
Wheat is one of the major food crops in the world, which provides 532 kcal/capita/day (http://faostat.fao.org). World production of wheat is about 670 M tonnes, which is only behind maize (872 M tonnes) and rice (720 M tonnes) (http://faostat.fao.org) whereas the US is the third largest wheat producer in the world (http://faostat.fao.org). Wheat group comprise of 13 diploid and 18 allopolyploid species (12 tetra and 6 hexa) (Feldman et al. 2012), where hexaploid wheat is the most cultivated class throughout the world (Faris 2014). Hexaploid wheat (bread wheat) is known as the allohexaploid (2n=6x=42, BBAADD), because it is derived from the diploid species via convergent evolution (Faris 2014 and Feldman et al. 2012). Hexaploid wheat consist of winter and spring wheat, which mainly differed by vernalization governed by vrn (vrn1, vrn2) genes (Taiz and Zeiger 2002, Doebley et al. 2006).
Genetic engineering is often been known as a crucial part of the solution to the agricultural challenges of the 21st long long ago. One benefit for this is engineered crops have provided benefits in some areas, though these benefits tend to come with problematic tradeoffs. With different plants being put inside different plant genes allows more new plants or stronger plants.