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What Is a Genetically Modified Food- - Instant Egghead #45

Added Dec 10, 2014 •

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in the last several years we've seen some strange genetically organisms pigs that glow in the dark chickens that grow without feathers and even goats that produce spider silk proteins but what really gets all riled up are genetically modified foods the prospect of eating somebody science project turns the stomach of those who aspire to eat so-called hole natural foods but what exactly does genetically modified mean anyways and how are those Foods created to answer these questions we need to go back in time about thousand years that's when people first started domesticating animals and cultivating plants for food by picking organisms with desirable traits and mating time together over and over again people were able to mold species to meet their dietary needs the classic example is corn which started out as a try grass cocktail City with small nearly inedible kernels over thousands of years ancient farmers in Mexico transform the grass to the delicious starchy treat we like to eat today we now know those ancient farmers were manipulating the DNA of detest century plant as few as life changes to its genome the long strands of DNA that code for proteins create the dramatic differences we see between TNT and corn scientist call this process artificial selection and it's made all kinds of unappetizing plants edible from wheat to Rice to almonds and that's what's different about modern genetically modified foods is the speed and precision with which we can make changes now instead of selectively reefer trades we can go directly to the DNA responsible snip it out and Transplant it into newly developing plants and animals if these Snippets come from the same speed these scientists called the new organism cisgenic means the same but if the DNA comes from a completely different plant or animal science is called new organism transgenic trans means to cross those fluorescent pigs they clue green because they contain a gene from a luminescent jellyfish and in the last 20 years we've begun to see the food equivalent corn that makes bacterial toxins poisonous to pass tomatoes that make the proteins from fish and even cows that produce human milk  so you may be wondering if this kind of over manipulation is safe all of the GM foods currently on the market I've been thoroughly tested but the verdict still out on some of the more exotic transgenic pairings personally I'm waiting what's tomato that I can cut in the dark for scientific Americans instant Egghead I'm Eric Wilson

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What Is a Genetically Modified Food- - Instant Egghead #45

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