This assignment was given to her yesterday. The txt book is probably old. This school was given a check from Monsanto last year for $10,000 to be used toward science and agricultural education. ----------------------------------------- This was a lesson given to my best friends 6th grade daughter at an elementary school in western Pennsylvania- KUNMING, China (Achieve3000, December 30, 2008). Zeng Yawens outdoor laboratory on the outskirts of Kunming, China, is brimming with genetic potential. Zeng is a researcher whose experiments include the cultivation of several unusual rice varieties. Some of them thrive in dry soil, and others contain enhanced nutrition. Still others can better tolerate seasonal changes. See these plants? asked Zeng as he walked through fields sown with different GM rice varieties. They can tolerate the cold. We can extract the cold-tolerant gene from this plant and use it in a genetically manipulated variety to improve its cold tolerance. Chinese researchers like Zeng have helped to bring their country to the forefront of a movement to create bioengineered crops. These are crops that have been genetically modified (GM) to possess or improve favorable traits. Government officials in China are promoting this trend as a cost-effective way to boost food production and aid in the battle against world hunger. Other countries, however, question the safety of altering the natural traits of foods. In genetic manipulation, the desirable genes of one plant are inserted into the DNA of another that is naturally lacking those genes. This is done to accelerate beneficial changes. Such changes include making crops resistant to insects and disease or enabling them to tolerate cold weather. The genes of livestock can be similarly altered using the same process. Robert Zeigler is the director of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Asia. According to Zeigler, this form of biotechnology is bound to play a significant role in the agriculture of the future. [Such crops] bring tremendous power and advantages to producers and consumers, he said. Zeigler and other proponents of GM crops list the techniques many advantages. These include the potential to boost the economic fortunes of farmers. Zeigler points out that growing insect-resistant crops would allow farmers to purchase less chemical pesticide and fewer fuel-running tractors to spread those chemicals. Genetic modification does not benefit only farmers. It could also help ease world hunger. Genetic modification enables crops to survive a variety of conditions. Therefore, proponents of the technique say countries will be able to increase harvests. This means that fewer people would go without food. Hunger is a global problem. Surging food costs, population growth, drought, and other challenges are taxing world food supplies. According to estimates by experts at the United Nations, the number of people in the world going hungry has soared to more than 923 million. This number, experts say, could increase by 50 percent by 2030. Spurred by concerns about current food shortages around the world, China has set aside funds to GM research. In July 2008, for example, China endorsed a 13-year, $2.9 billion program to promote the use of GM crops and livestock. I strongly advocate making great efforts to pursue [genetic] engineering, said Chinese official Wen Jiabao. The recent food shortages around the world have further strengthened that belief. Other countries, however, have yet to embrace genetic modification. They remain unconvinced that the technique is an appropriate way to ease world hunger. Many agricultural experts are concerned about the safety of eating genetically modified foods. Due to these concerns, many experts and consumers in many parts of the world, but particularly in Europe, remain wary. They are fighting to keep GM crops out of their fields and supermarkets. Why should we change what nature has given us, when it is everything we need? asked Filippo De Angelis, a resident of Rome. I dont think we can solve the problem of world hunger through genetics. In China, too, some citizens remain cautious. Its impossible to know if its harmful to the body, said Zheng Wencai, a resident of Kunming. There is still a global debate on this, so basically, I dont use it. Despite lingering questions over the safety of GM foods, some countries that had previously resisted importing them and banned the cultivation of such crops are now reconsidering their position. Some have even loosened restrictions. Influential voices around the world are calling for a re-examination of the GM debate, says C.S. Prakash, a professor of plant molecular genetics at Alabamas Tuskegee University. Biotechnology provides such tools to help address food sustainability issues. Dig Deeper When you go to the supermarket, you can most often count on a steady supply of meat, dairy, and produce. These foods come from commercial farmers, who farm large pieces of land using modern equipment and chemicals that help them grow great quantities of food and protect crops from diseases. However, more than half of the worlds population is dependent on subsistence farming. Subsistence farmers grow only enough food for themselves and their families. They may sell what is left over at small markets, but they are very different from commercial farmers. Subsistence farmers mostly live in developing nations, and many are poor, working without the modern equipment that commercial farmers have. In some cases, subsistence farmers rely on farming methods that have been in use for generations. Consider this about Southeast Asia: Much of the rice available to buy around the world is grown in Southeast Asia—the regions warm, humid climate makes it an ideal place to grow rice. Heres what it takes to grow rice: A farmer plows the field, or paddy, using water buffalo or oxen, and then floods the paddy with water from a nearby waterway. After that, the farmer scatters rice seeds across the field, where the seeds are soaked for most of the season through constant irrigation. The farmer must weed the field while the crop is growing, and later, he harvests the rice by hand. The farmer may use the off-season to cultivate other crops, like vegetables. What are some of the challenges a subsistence farmer might face? For one thing, its backbreaking work, so a farmers health is essential. (In developed countries, commercial rice farmers use tractors to plow the land, and they might use an airplane to scatter their seeds.) In addition, a subsistence farmer needs a constant supply of local water—a drought could spell disaster. The farmer needs to be able to plant enough rice to feed his whole family, and there is often just the one small piece of land. Additionally, as with other crops, rice can fall victim to insects and diseases, and some subsistence farmers cannot afford pesticides that help control these problems. Whats the future of subsistence farming? This is a tough question. The worlds population grows every year, which means that there are more mouths to feed. Meanwhile, the amount of land shrinks as cities expand. In Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, producing food is becoming more and more challenging.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:16:22 +0000
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