Study Guide GMOs and Feeding the World 1 What are the ethical concerns regarding GMOs in the food industry God Nature in my view makes all things good man meddles with them and they become evil Jean Jacques Rousseau philosopher 1770 An ecosystem you can always intervene and change something in it but there s no way of knowing what all the downstream effects will be Dr Richard Lewontin Professor of Genetics Harvard University The controversy surrounding genetically modified organisms has real importance for society there are complex scientific and logical issues to sort through and the topic is rife with misinformation and motivated reasoning Dr Novella academic neurologist Yale University School of Medicine Remember the first step in ethical problem solving and policy decision making should first involve ascertaining the facts Facts by themselves however only tell us what is they do not tell us what ought to be Resolving an ethical issue also requires an appeal to values Before tackling the GMO debate let s review the five different approaches philosophers have developed to deal with moral issues After learning the science and obtaining facts keep philosophical approaches in mind when tackling the GMO issues 2 1 Utilitarian Approach action produce and which alternative will lead to the best overall consequences What benefits and what harms will each course of 2 Rights Approach course of action best respects those rights What moral rights do the affected parties have and which 3 Fairness or Justice Approach Which course of action treats everyone the same except where there is a morally justifiable reason not to and does not show favoritism or discrimination 4 Common Good Approach Which course of action advances the common good 5 Virtue Approach Which course of action develops moral virtues 3 So what is the GMO debate really about 1 The GMO Controversy GMO critics despise corporate control and greed and fear the unnatural while GMO advocates see this technology as an example of the triumph of human ingenuity and science http theness com neurologicablog index php the gmo controversy 1 Beliefs concerning GMOs tend to be dominated by two opposing narratives What are they GMO critics despise corporate control and greed and fear the unnatural while GMO advocates see this technology as an example of the triumph of human ingenuity and science 2 GMO advocates point out that pretty much all food that is consumed by humans has already been extensively modified by human activity True or False True 3 What was corn cultivated from Teosinte which looks nothing like modern corn 4 Cultivation uses a combination of what two basic processes to create countless varieties of common plants cross pollination and artificial selection 5 What is artificial selection Saving the best plants from one year s crop to provide the seeds for 6 What is cross pollination Creating a hybrid species in an attempt to get the best traits from 7 Orange carrots are not the result of a mutation True or False False 8 What is mutation breeding Exposing plants to chemicals or to radiation that increases the 9 How many mutagenic plant varietals were released between 1930 and 2007 2540 10 What are the two basic types of GMOs transgenic and cisgenic 11 What is the difference between the two types of GMOs Cisgenic involves inserting genes from closely related species ones that could potentially cross breed with the target species Transgenic refers to inserting genes from distant species even from different kingdoms of life such as putting a gene from a bacterium into a plant the following year closely related species mutation rate 4 12 What are the four types of GM plants currently approved for use Herbicide tolerance insecticide production altered fatty acid composition for canola oil and virus resistance 13 Contamination of genes from other kingdoms occurs even in nature True or False True through horizontal gene transfer 14 According to the American Association for the Advancement of science GM crops are the most extensively tested crops ever added to our food supply True or False 15 According to the article studies comparing GM and non GM potatoes soy rice corn and triticale found that the GM and their non GM counterparts are NOT nutritionally equivalent True or False 16 The National Academies of Science states that To date no adverse health effects attributed to genetic engineering have been documented in the human population True or False 17 What does the World Health Organization say about GM foods GM foods currently traded on the international market have passed risk assessments in several countries and are not likely nor have been shown to present risks for human health 18 Plants that are produced through hybridization which can chaotically mix in hundreds of genes and plants resulting from mutagenic breeding do not require the same safety testing currently required of GMOs True or False 19 What are the advantages of herbicide resistant plants The advantages of herbicide tolerant crops are that they are less labor intensive and they save money They also reduce the use of soil tillage which is bad for the soil and releases CO2 into the environment 20 What are the disadvantages of herbicide resistant plants The disadvantage of herbicide tolerant crops is that they increase herbicide use which gets into the environment and which encourages the development of resistant weeds 21 What are the advantages of pest resistant crops The advantages of Bt crops is that they are pest resistant and they reduce insecticide spraying 22 What are the disadvantages of pest resistant crops The disadvantage is that over reliance on this one strategy results in pests becoming resistant to Bt 23 According to the article GM crops with insect and herbicide resistance can be useful and even protect the environment but they have to be used as part of what type of strategy overall sustainable strategy 24 What are the three major seed companies Monsanto DuPont and Syngenta 25 What are some of the claims made against Monsanto that according to the article are not true 26 According to the article the big seed companies have overhyped their own products and encouraged overreliance on their GMOs as a single solution to farming s complex issues True or False 27 Why are Monocultures counterproductive Because it is inviting the inevitable blight or pest to destroy the entire crop 28 According to the article Seed companies should be encouraged to not just
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