Genetic Material From A Species - 1293 Words

It’s interesting, all the things which one becomes concerned with when we become adults; All the things that we didn’t have to worry about during our simpler times; Things that we previously never thought about. When you’re a child, you just assume that the way things are is the way they are supposed to be. (If your parents seem okay with it like that, then can it even be any other way?) For example, it wasn’t until just recently that I’ve become concerned with student loans, car insurance, a career, and so forth. Something else that I’ve recently become concerned with is food. If genetic material from another species is added to the host, the resulting organism is called transgenic. If genetic material from the same species or a species†¦show more content†¦I just assumed that my diet of overly-processed, nutrient deficient junk food was completely acceptable. Until I became an adult myself and became more educated, I never gave it a second thought. For much of my life, I have had a particular interest in gourmet food. I am what one might call an epicure. So, full disclosure, I might be slightly biased when it comes to food-related topics. My interest in the topic of food safety and nutrition, specifically, started during my freshman year of college. My first semester at the university, I took a 100-level environmental geography course as part of my liberal studies. One day, about half way through the course, the professor began discussing genetically modified organisms as well as related issues such as pesticide and herbicide usage and artificial growth hormones. After several lectures and supplemental videos, I became quite concerned about what we are being fed. On February 22, 1997, Scottish embryologist Ian Wilmut stunned the world by announcing that he had created an exact copy, a clone, of an adult Dorset sheep (Dahlman, et al. 333). Currently, genetically modified foods are among some of the most contro versial of subjects. However, some consumers, even those that have formed strong opinions about GMOs, are still unsure about what exactly ‘genetically modified’ means. The World Health Organization defines genetically modified food as: â€Å"foods derived from organisms whose genetic