Want to enjoy delicious, soft, homemade french fries without coating them in grease?  Simply  spread cut fries on a cookie sheet greased with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic just to name a few things.  Cook at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, and then turn them over.  Reseason, if you want, and then cook until they are the desired softness (about 15-20 minutes)  Try these fries with gravy and cheese!  (Skim milk cheese, of course.)

    

Genetically Modified Foods- Good or Bad?

This is my ISU for my Civics class.

Genetically Modified Foods are plants and animals that are altered by manipulating genes.

The purpose is to promote efficiency in the harvest of plants and livestock. However, it has come under criticism by some scientists and the media. Some people think it is wrong to genetically alter things and then eat the finished product. In this essay, I will outline the pros and cons of genetically modified foods.

The first GM food created was a tomato in the 1990s, and it was created so that it wouldn't decompose as quickly. It was put on the market, and some people were quite angry that they had just been eating GM food without being told it was genetically modified! In fact, 90% of consumers would not eat foods knowing they were genetically modified. GM corn is made in laboratory, through means of this process: Cut the desired trait out of an organism. It is cut by special enzymes. Surround the gene with DNA so the corn knows the start and end.

Copy the gene in a plasmid. These copies are inserted into a genome. They then expand into

cell culture

(seeds). They are then used to create new plants.

Some of the good things about genetically modified foods is detailed in the following. Crops can grow faster, making more food available to people. It can make food (and livestock) grow larger, such as salmon that is four times larger than it's predecessor. It can make crops immune to diseases, and it can ward off dangerous beetles. But soon, those dangerous beetles might become resistant to the new strain of crops and will soon be ruining crops again. It can also help increase the productivity of crops, and make them grow faster.

Some of the setbacks with GM foods is as follows. There is actually no proven health risks or advantages. Some people also find it morally wrong to alter animals, just as would be to genetically alter humans. In some parts of South America, they were doing some GM farming. They were genetically modifying a plant, to make it grow faster, better, and stronger. However, they also accidentally modified the weeds around it (pig weed) and now the pig weed is a “Super Weed” that will be much more difficult to destroy.

Some people think that modified plants are all right, but when it gets to animals it is inhumane. Along with the previously mention “super salmon” the GM animals also include pigs that produce less waste and chickens that are immune to the bird flu. Sure, those things are helpful, but perhaps it is going too far. About 17% of cows receive the hormone rBST, which makes calves grow faster and dairy cows to produce more milk. No real health risks were proven, but dairy products altered with rBST were banned in the EU, Japan, Australia and Canada because of risks to humans and animals. One farmer injected his cows with rBST, only to have plenty of them affected with a cow sickness called mastitis. 3 quarters of the farmer's cows died.

There is a rather famous company called Monsanto known for it's GM plants. It's main goal is to keep away weeds and insects that might ruin their crops. However, it has been under criticism by the media for growing such a wide spectrum of GM food. It was found in a study that there was a pesticide called Bt present in the corn, which maybe a contributing factor to diseases and allergies. In India, the Bt pesticide was accidentally spread to livestock, and the livestock got sick and/or died.

In the year 2000, Monsanto had a court quarrel with someone over a field of canola. The man was named Percy Schmeiser, and he lived in Saskatchewan. He would use a Monsanto product called Roundup to kill all the weeds in his field before planting time. He planted his canola as usual, and went about his business. Monsanto developed a new type of canola seed, one that was immune to Roundup so you could spray Roundup keep your fields weed free all year. The following year however, Monsanto found in Mr. Schmeiser's farm the seeds they had developed planted in his field. So, they took him to court. They sued him for using their seeds. However, Mr. Schmeiser sued Monsanto for contaminating his field with their “Roundup Ready” canola, trespassing on his farm and libel. Mr. Schmeiser lost his case, because the judge did not believe how the seeds got from the Monsanto farm to Mr. Schmeiser's. As well, the judge said that seeds that were blown onto another farm was okay to keep, but it was not true with genetically modified seeds. In 2003 Mr. Schmeiser took the case to the Supreme Court, and neither party had to pay anything in the end. Now who is right? It could be an unanswered question.

There is another controversy in the world of GM foods- labelling. Should the GM foods be required to label their food by law? If the food has altered composition, nutritional value, or contains allergens, then yes. But if the food doesn't match that criteria, labelling is optional, up to the person who grows it and puts it in the market. Many people are unhappy about that, because they like to know if the food they are eating is genetically modified. Their are plenty of anti-GM foods activists around, and one group protested outside a grocery store in hazmat suits!

The verdict is in- it is wrong to genetically alter food and animals, because everything was growing fine without it. As well, the weeds and beetles and all the other things they are safeguard against will either become resistant or become modified as well. So the rush of good things coming from GM foods is short lived and the controversy will continue.

 Paris Penny