Genetically engineered crops/animals Man has been changing the genetic make-up of plants and animals, in a limited way, for thousands of years–ever since he look to planting seed from those wild grasses that gave the most grain and were easiest to harvest, or started keeping his fattest Cattle and woolliest sheep to breed from. We’ve come a long way since then, and today’s sophisticated breeding techniques have led to such break-through as high-yielding rice and dwarf wheat.
Despite our advances though, our ability to Create new plants and animals is greatly limited by our dependence on the breeding mechanisms that Nature This situation is not going to change straight away. However, recent research indicates that one day, we may be able to take living cells and combine in them the genes from quite different organisms to create new kinds of living things. In fact a few pioneering research teams have already done this with some very simple forms of life–using techniques people are referring to as genetic engineering.
The teams have taken genes derived from higher animals including humans, and transferred them into bacteria so that they produce substances like egg-white protein or specific Of course, an enormous amount of research will be eeded to move from experiments with bacteria to being able to genetically engineer new crop plants or farm animals. Even so, these first gene transfers do have their practical side. One substance produced in this way is a human brain hormone called somatostatin.
At present it costs about $30. 000 per gram extracted from animals. Also. not long ago, a private Californian company called Genentech and university researchers in San Francisco announced that they had constructed a bacterium that makes human insulin. Currently, about 50,000 Australian diabetics have daily injections of nsulin, while about two million such people live in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
At present, people suffering from diabetes depend on insulin extracted from pigs and cattle. This differs slightly from the human hormone and, as a result, causes an allergic reaction in about one in twenty When I look at this I cant help but, love it. If everything goes well I could make so much more money. It is hard being a competing farmer in Iowa there are so many of us. But, this could be bad for me also. What if? What if this genetic stuff kills all of my food that would totally destroy me.
