Genetically Modified Foods In Africa
...uld not be an option at all. The following are the commonly raised concerns about the possible implications for the human health: · Inherit toxicity of the novel genes and their products · Potential to express novel antigenic proteins or alter levels of existing protein allergens · The potential unintended effects resulting from alterations of host metabolic pathways or over expressions of inherently toxic or pharmacologically active substances · The potential for nutrient composition in the new food occur differing significantly from a conventional counterpart. Possible allergies The potential consequences of food allergies for some people that can be serious and specific points relating to allegenicity include: · The possibility that genes from known allergens may be inserted into crops not typically associated with allergenicity · The possibility of creating new, unknown allergens by either inserting novel genes into crops or changing the expression level of indigenous proteins · The adequacy of screening methods to detect the creation of new allergens in transgenic crops Advantages There are a couple of advantages that I think could come out of these foods and stop or decrease the starvation in Africa: Since these foods do not rely on the weather or the climatic conditions of an area to grow there are no uncertainties of no harvests at the end of the season The people can plan their lives accordingly and they are sure that they will receive food There are no risks for subsistent farmers on product failures Besides there is scientific proof that biotechnologically produced foods are as safe and nutritious as conventional counterparts “current genetically engineered foods are likely to be equivalent to that of traditional foods.” Other possible relief measures There are other alternatives that the Southern Africa government could use but I personally I think that the other measures would be as effective as biotechnology in respect of the quantity of foods that biotechnology could produce and also reliability of the other measures is not as reliable as biotechnology could be if given the chance. The following measures could also be considered: The World Food Program and a number of NGOs could be consulted for assistance · The Red cross · Save the children These are just a few of the organizations that could be consulted for help but will their appeals to these organizations be successful and that is one of the reasons why these organizations are unreliable. AND SO THE DEBATES CONTINUE… Kerry Sakko in her research came to the conclusion that these foods can be engineered to prevent diseases. She gave the following possibilities that biotechnology could offer to the world and the different things that we could build into the foods to fit our needs and different lifestyles: · Rice with built in vitamin A can prevent blindness. · A tomato that softens more slowly can also be made. · Potatoes that absorb less fat when fried. · Strawberry crops that can survive frost. · An apple with a vaccine against a virus that causes childhood pneumonia. CONVENTIONAL BREEDING VERSUS GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS CONVENTIONAL BREEDING · This breeding method is slow · Intensive labour is needed · The farmer is never sure that he will get the desired results for the product that he produces GM CROPS This method is in complete contrast with the conventional breeding method but we need to improve our testing methods to insure that the food produced will be of no harm to anybody or anything. ECONOMICAL BENEFITS In general farmers will earn higher profit mark ups if they do decide to grow GM crops. If a farmer decides to grow these crops the this means that he will need highly skilled labour, specialized machinery and he will also need to spend more money on the necessary chemicals that are needed to grow these crops. This could be a problem in Africa because most of the farmers here will not be able to afford all of the necessary changes that would be needed to grow these crops. There would also be a problem of highly skilled labour because there is no supply of this labor in Africa. The governments would have to subsidies the farmers and this would mean they would have to subsidies almost all the farmers in Africa, which would be impossible for the African governments to do because of the state of the economy on Africa and great leadership would also be needed and it is clear that there is a shortage of that too in the African countries. ENVIRONMENTAL...