Evolution in Agriculture: Genetically Modified Essay

Total Length: 673 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

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These developments have proven positive for the human species, allowing for greater nutritional variety and varieties of tastes: "Beginning with Mendel's study of peas, knowledge of genetics helped usher in scientific crop development, resulting in high-yielding varieties. Food production increased in every part of the world in the past few decades, including in Africa" (Prakash 2001). The idea humans are tampering with nature in an insidious manner through genetic modification seems more due to superstition than science: using gene transfers to develop GM crops is an extension of older forms of human evolutionary influences on agriculture.

The idea that organic is always inherently better, more natural, and an 'older' form of agriculture likewise seems specious, given how long human beings have been engineering nature to sustain communities in a more salutary fashion. In fact, genetically modified foods permit less use of pesticides, if they are engineered to be more disease and pest-resistant.

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This is a boon to individuals all over the world, but even more so to people in the developing world (Prakash 2001). Even the most controversial moves by genetic engineers of plants have the potential to cure world hunger and malnutrition: "the most important food crop in the developing worldricehas no provitamin A and little iron in its endosperm. This has led to horrific problems, such as blindness among millions of children due to vitamin A deficiency, and iron-deficiency anemia in nearly a billion women dependent on a rice diet. Biotechnology research, far from causing any new food safety problems, has already demonstrated its potential in enhancing the nutritional quality of our food and is also being employed to reduce harmful toxic compounds that exist in our food"(Prakash 2001).

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"Evolution In Agriculture Genetically Modified" (2010, January 06) Retrieved May 7, 2024, from
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"Evolution In Agriculture Genetically Modified" 06 January 2010. Web.7 May. 2024. <
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"Evolution In Agriculture Genetically Modified", 06 January 2010, Accessed.7 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/evolution-agriculture-genetically-modified-15932