转基因食品
I still remember in my childhood my mother always bought all kinds of food from the fair. She never worried about food safety because she believed her eyes, hands and nose as well as the brands. She said,‘Farmers bring their fresh vegetables, rice and meat directly to cities and fertilize plants in the countryside.’Day by day, my mother seemed very happy when she met those farmers and bought their food at that time. I was wondering why she was so sure of those ordinary things she did everyday. My mother told me that she felt proud when she could cook delicious and nutritious food for our whole family. I did not have the same feeling as my mother had because I believed that everything was OK if I ate something safe and felt well.
However, the situation is totally different now. People have already had two kinds of food in the market. They have genetically modified food and organic food. The price of organic food is always higher than genetically modified food. One of the reasons is that GMF grows faster than organic food, so the former can supply enough food to people when they need.
That means we have choice to decide what kind of food we are going to eat. Actually, some people point out that the GMF is not good for people’s health, but there is still controversy.
As it is said,‘To everything, there is a reason.’
510 million square kilometers covers the surface of the earth of which land takes only 29%, that is 15 million square kilometers. The land is divided by 7 billion people who cover an area of about 20 square meters each. 70% of the barren taken out of account, about 5 square meters of land is feeding a person.
Can the land of 5 square meters feed a person? What will happen?
Admittedly, life is but a breath. As this program from birth to death has been made, both the foolish and the wise can do noting. Most people live day to day; only a few people are worried. Everything naturally happens, of course, and the end seems to be without saying, because you reap as you sow.
However, in life struggling, human beings have been keeping trying to ease the land, grain yield per hectare has also risen up and more and more high-tech plants are meeting the daily need.
On the other hand, the antagonism between the human and the nature never rests. The disappearance of natural plants looks faster than we grow GMO. Four seasons can’t control what Monsanto wanna do.
Why does GM food exist? Why are they being frequently used?
Genetically modified foods have more advantages.They can increase crop yield,reduce the cost of production,make crop resistant against pests and improve the storage of agricultural products.
As for the genetically modified potato, its time of crop development is shortened and its growth and supply aren't influenced by four seasons.
On August 8, 2013, Rob Parker and Mildred Joaquim reported through Africa News Service that scientists worried about whether the world's population was increasing faster than our ability to feed ourselves.
As farmland becomes increasingly scarce, some argue, humanity will come under increasing pressure to meet the demand for food. Some companies use this as a rationale to produce or sell genetically modified food as the solution.
Genetically Modified Organisms were introduced into the market during the mid 1990s and have been a source of controversy ever since. Monsanto, the largest producer of GMO just happened to be the largest distributor of pesticides. What happens to the farmers who have to buy seeds from Monsanto every year, as our traditional foods are replaced by GMO?
Genetically modified food has its disadvantages as well.
The so-called production is not influenced by environmental conditions.At the same time in the process of cultivation, genetically modified crops may evolve into farmland weeds, affect other species through genetic drift and cause diseases.
But due to the fast population growth and food shortage,genetically modified food makes speed. The price is the bottom of the organic food.
GM food will possibly have effect on people’s health and land.
Genetically modified food alters the nature of the food we eat. It has to be tested for human safety in a long time. With so much unknown along the way, we risk harming our health.
GM food will produce unexpected biological mutation,resulting in a higher level of the new toxins in food.
Scientists transplanted characteristics of Brazil nuts to soybean, thus making some people who are allergic to walnuts produce an allergic reaction after the intake of the soy.
GM food also reduces nutritional value or degrades important ingredients.Research data show that in the United States the soybean with the herbicide resistance genes reduces the elements against cancer.
Genetic food of the false novelty confuses consumers. The tomato stored a few weeks keeps shiny and red, but the nutritional value is low.
We can't use the antibiotic resistance gene to identify GM crops. This means that the crops with antibiotic resistance genes affect us by bacteria. British study showed that the mutated gene might result in new diseases. If similar results occur in human and animal body, antibiotics can kill the useful bacteria.
Furthermore, in the soil the genetically modified plant touched, other species are unable to grow, even over the surrounding area.
Kevin Roussel, an anti-GMO campaigner for the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference said new genetically engineered seed known as ‘suicide' or ‘terminator' seeds, which were engineered to be sterile, forced poor farmers to repurchase seed each year from the multinationals who have patented these ‘genetic use restriction technologies'.
On October 17, 2012,Elizabeth Were reported through The Star of All Africa Global Media via COMTEX that civil society groups had petitioned the government to ensure that genetically modified food in the country is labelled to protect consumers.
The activists said research had shown that GM food is harmful to human health.They also demanded a comprehensive review of the Bio Safety Act to align it with the requirements of the new Constitution.The petition also demanded the government to put a 10 year moratorium on GMO so that more facts about them can emerge and undergo scrutiny.
What shall we do with GMF?
As long as the harm of GM products has not been proved, the danger the world faces increases, and the risk of infertility, allergies, chronic poisoning and diseases such as gene mutation may at any time make humankind perish.
Governments should raise their awareness of GMF by reducing the price of organic food to set back GMF.
The biological engineering technology has been widely used in agricultural production.Genetically modified crops exist in more than 10 countries around the world. People are fixing their eyes on the safety of the genetically modified food.
Because GM technology is a kind of new biological engineering technology, on current scientific level,we are difficult to accurately predict that the technology causes the change of crops to impact human health. Evaluation index of genetically modified food safety mainly involves three aspects: one is to implement the security of transgenic technology operators; the second is the safety of the ecological environment; the third is safe to eat. For food safety, there is no unified evaluation method in the world. However, identity is the essence of equality principle, that is, through the detection and technical appraisal, we see the essence between genetically modified food and traditional food. If both are equal, then the security and nutrition issues should be treated equally; if there is a difference in the aspect of substantial equivalence between them, and even they have obvious difference, then the safety and nutrition of GMF may have a problem.
It is necessary for us to deal with the genetically modified (gm) food in advance. On one hand, the introduction of genetically modified species can be treated in strict monitoring. We pay attention to the potential adverse effects; On the other hand, we have to track and detect genetically modified (gm) food, constructing the fire prevention network for common people.