Real-Life Communication
Food scientists need to be able to write reports and read information
about their area of study. "The amount of technical writing and reporting
varies [depending] on the type of work you are doing," says Eunice Li-Chan,
a food scientist. "But communication skills need to be polished."
Recently,
concerns have been raised about a new phenomenon called genetically modified
food. People are asking food scientists if the process is harmful. Could it
affect people's health?
You are a food scientist on a panel discussion
to help the public understand just what genetically modified foods are. The
health concerns, and whether genetically modified foods should be labelled
in the supermarket, are still topics for debate.
By reading the paragraph
below, help answer some of the questions about genetically modified foods.
In
the past, foods were genetically modified by breeding two plants to produce
a superior offspring. This process created hardier varieties that produced
more and were more disease-resistant. This process took longer, and was not
as precise as new methods.
Now, there is a new way to modify foods.
Transgenic foods, which are also called genetically engineered or genetically
modified foods, are a major concern for consumers. Consumers wonder what the
altered genes in the food will do to them when they are consumed.
In
genetically modified foods, a small piece of genetic material is inserted
into the food substance. This food crop can be given genes from any number
of sources including rats, fish or bacteria.
In some potatoes, for
example, a gene from a bacterium called bacillus thuringiensis has been inserted.
This is supposed to produce a protein that is toxic to the potato beetle.
Some food scientists argue that this will mean less pesticides and insecticides
having to be sprayed on the food product.
Other foods that are being
genetically altered are corn, soybeans and canola.
Questions
- How were foods modified in the past?
- How are foods genetically modified today?
- What genetic material has been inserted into some potatoes and why?