Site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/

Should we Grow GM Crops?

Instructions: Read the page and click YES or NO, reach the next...click YES or NO...etc until you’ve read all the arguments -- You will need to do this 12 times in order for your votes to be tallied. Navigate the site, each of the bold headings below are links within the site.

1. What is a GM Crop.
A GM Crop is a genetically modified crop that can withstand pesticides, herbicides, or may even have spliced genes.

2. List 2 arguments FOR the growing of GM crops.
1 argument for the growing of GM crops would be that pests and weeds can't survive because the crops have a resistance to herbicides and pesticides, allowing them the be safe while the weeds and pests are sprayed with those chemicals. Another argument is how GM crops have a longer shelf life. There are low calorie beets and even oils with less saturated fat content.

3. List 2 arguments AGAINST the growing of GM crops.
One argument talked about how children may be exposed to new allergens, or food with allergens that other foods hold, such as splicing peanuts and soybeans. Soybeans would have the peanut allergy in them. Another argument is how Monsanto was suing small farmers for growing their GM crops when the seeds from the crops blew over to their farm.

*Read some of the reader’s responses.

Engineer a Crop

4. Practice this simulation until you get the largest ears of corn. How many times did it take you?
It took me two times, and on the third, I got the largest ears of corn.

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.

Potatoes are being modified to absorb less oil so that, when fried, the potatoes are less fattening and pose less of a health risk.

Scientists are also modifying cheese and adding rennet, an extract that is dried to curdle milk to make cheese, so that the cheese making process speeds up.

Viewpoints

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

Do you think food should be labeled if it has been genetically modified? Why or Why not?

I believe that GM foods should be labeled so that consumers can find out what type of food they are eating, and what the foods have been modified with. I personally would not like to eat a strawberry with flounder genes in it, even though you may not be able to taste any difference. It is mainly because of morals, and people prefer natural foods because that is what nature intended to have formed.