Introduction
What are GMOs?
Biotechnology in plant agriculture has come to mean the process of intentionally making a copy of a gene for a desired trait from one plant or organism and using it in another plant. The result is a GMO (genetically modified organism).
From cucumbers and carrots to white rice and wheat, we humans have altered the genes of almost every food we eat. For almost 10,000 years we've been engineering plants by keeping the seeds from the best crops and planting those the next season. Following this practice year after year has resulted in a slow but steady change -- and a substantial cumulative effect. We've been altering the genetic makeup of crops by cross-pollinating, too. About 8,000 years ago, for example, farmers in Central America crossed two mutant strains of a weedy-looking plant called Balsas teosinte and produced the first corn on the cob.
We've had success with the methods mentioned above (especially cross-pollinating), but because they rely on the random mixing of all of a plant's tens of thousands of genes, the odds of producing a crop with a desired trait is akin to winning a lottery. Today scientists can produce a change quickly by selecting a single gene that may result in a desired trait and inserting that gene directly into the chromosome of an organism. Amazingly, genes from organisms as dissimilar as bacteria and plants can be successfully inserted into each other.
Task
Students watch the following DEBATE video and two provided articles from PBS.
Then pick either an opposing side or supporting side.
Write between 400-500 words to support your argument.
Please include at least four different points to support your argument
Turn in to the Homework Bin when completed
Process
GMO DEBATE
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7BHXvX5F-A autoplay:1]
GMO RISKS:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/viewpoints/risks.html
GMO BENEFITS:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/viewpoints/benefits.html