Pros And Cons Of Gmo Breedinging

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GMO's are genetically modified plants or animals in which their DNA has been altered using special engineering techniques. There has been lots of controversy in recent years over the health and safety of GMO's. America is the largest producer of GMO crops, and the rest of the world is slowly catching on. GMO's are relatively untested, but yield both positive and negative results. The future of GMO's is an uncertain one (ABC News, Obama signs bill mandating GMO labeling,2016).
DNA alteration is the key to GMO's, and there are two different ways in which this can be achieved. Selective breeding is a form of genetic modification, which doesn't involve the addition of any foreign genetic material into the organism. Rather, it is the selection for desirable traits that is then used for breeding of the next …show more content…

It was a bacterium used to dissolve oil after a crude oil spill. Since then many other modified plants and animal patents had been awarded. Humulin, patented in 1982, is used to create insulin. It is derived from a genetically modified strain of the e coli virus. One of the most prevalent and controversial genetically altered gene is nicknamed Bt toxin. Its derived from a bacterium call "Bacillus Thuringiensis". The gene from this bacterium creates crystals in the host plant that when eaten by insects, paralyzes the digestive system; the insect will eventually starve to death. It was first used in 1995, on potato plants; the next year they started using it in corn seeds. The plants resists the larvae of insects and are able to grow with greatly lessened damage. Research in Canada, 2011, shows the Bt toxin in detectable amounts within the blood of pregnant women. There is a fear that it could cause permeant damage to unborn children. Less than a decade after they started using Bt, insects are found to show a resistance to the genetically engineered crops (GMO timeline: A history of genetically modified foods,

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