|
One
of most important GE GE is short for Genetically Engineered, remember
crops is soybeans. "I don't eat those. Yuk!"
you probably think. But you'd be surprised because
you find them - or stuff made from them - in
most foods from bread to hamburgers. Maize
or corn is the other most important crop. And there are , mostly not important yet. But what's different about these GE
crops if they don't taste different or look different? For the moment, there
are two main differences: many of these GMOs GMOa GMO is a Genetically Modified Organism
are made to be resistant to the weedkilling chemicals. That means farmers
can spray their GE crops with weedkillers (herbicides) which will kill every
single plant except the crop. The other GMO crops have been engineered to
make a poison which kills insect pests. These sound like a good idea --
but are they?
Problems
with weedkiller-safe crops
Farmers like tidy fields and weeds
compete with crop plants meaning that the farmer gets less crop and less
money.
So making sure no weeds grow by spraying herbicide seems
to make sense
but not for the other creatures and
plants that live in the area. By killing everything but
his crop, the farmer is making the landscape into a desert
for other life. No birds will be there because there are
no weed seeds or insects to eat. There will be no flowers.
Just miles of identical GE plants.
 |
|

|
|
 |
| home |
|
back
to 'Why the rush?' & 'It's the same
stuff!' |
|
forward
to 'Poisonous plants: good or bad?' |
|