Any progress in technology brings with it potential danger for the human race. With genetically modified foods, the world now faces a potent technology ‘more powerful even than atomic energy’. This technology is being released all over the world, which may even cause adverse effects to the environment. We are leaving our future generations with more problems then any prior generation had to ever face.
Genetic modification of animals and plants is not a new concept. In fact, man has been ‘altering the genetic make-up of animals and plants’ for centuries. This method has been adopted for various reasons: to increase yields, modify the food quality and content (starch, protein or lipid) and to confer resistance to disease.
The process of Genetic modification in the laboratory was first reported in the early 1970s. Since then a wide range of applications in agriculture: Herbicide tolerant crops, insect resistant crops, virus resistant crops; medicine: Insulin to treat diabetic mellitus, production of human growth hormone, the treatment of cystic fibrosis; the environment: Environmental clean up of soil spills, treatment of contaminated land and water, manufacture of useful chemicals such as enzymes, plants providing renewable sources of industrial chemicals; food production, the manufacturing industry and research have been developed.
Between 1997 and 1999, in most processed foods, especially in the US, a gene-modified (genetically modified) ingredient was added. A Supreme Court ruling allowed this food alteration to take place. ‘It allowed, for the first time, the patenting of life forms for commercialization.’ This opened a way for thousands of other patents to be filed with the US Patent Office alone. And within a span of three years a larger area of American agricultural land, almost 1/4th or 70-80 million acres of land was being used to cater to the planting of genetically modified crops. (May, 1999)............
