Harvest o' Fear

1. What is a GM Crop? A GM or genetically modified crop is a crop that in anyway is has been modified from the original product or process.



2. List 2 arguments FOR the growing of GM crops.

2a. GM crops can promise many health benefits. the have longer shelf life, and GM crops have less sugar and oil then traditional crops.

2b. GM crops can n help farmers financially. Pesticides often kill many plants each year, and GM crops are resistant to the pesticides.





3. List 2 arguments AGAINST the growing of GM crops.

3a. GM crops could harm the environment. MAny scientists think that the GM revolution is an uncontrolled experiment with unknown results.

3b. GM foods are not as rigorously tested because so much is being produced at a very fast rate. The FDA has called GM food substantially equivalent to regular foods, and are not subject to the FDA regulations.




Engineer a Crop

4. Practice this simulation until you get the largest ears of corn. How many times did it take you? 3.



What’s for Dinner?

*Click on the foods on the table to see what research is being done to bioenginner the foods.

5. List two foods and desribe how they are being modified.

5a. Coffee. BIotech companies are looking at engineering coffee beans for lower caffeine content, so that eventually they coffee can be grown decaffeinated instead of decaffeinating after the harvest.

5b. Fries. Bioengineers are also working to make high performance cooking oils for healthier fried foods with fewer saturated fats.


Viewpoints

*Read the article titled “Are GM Food Sufficiently Regulated in the US?”

Do you think food should be labeled if it has been genetically modified?
GM food shouldn't be modified because of public panic. Because of certain episodes in the US and around the world, many people are down right afraid of genetically modified food. I think if food was labeled, that business or manufacture would go out of business because of fear. It would be a huge hit to the food industry, and public opinion of this food would hit rock bottom.







Finished? Go to www.yahooligans.com and type "genetic engineering" in the search field. Browse some of the sites that pop up.

(Yahooligans is better than yahoo, the sites tend to be picked for education rather than for scientists and universities, you'll find more understandable and interesting sites on yahooligans than you will with Yahoo)

Write down any of the sites you visited below.