Gentic Engineering

Perfectly round tomatoes all exactly the same size, long straight cucumbers and big fat chickens are now a normal part of our diets. They are made that way by genetic engineering – not by nature. Their genes have been changed. Every living thing has genes. They are passed on from generation to generation. They make sure that humans give birth humans and cows give birth to cows. They also make sure that a dog cannot give birth to a frog or an elephant to a horse. Genetic engineers take genes from one species and transfer them to another. In this way a new life form is created. Genetic engineers put duck genes into chickens to make the chickens bigger. They put hormones into cows to make them produce more milk. They put genes from flowers into soya beans and from scorpions into corn. This does not make them cheaper, tastier or healthier. It makes them easier and faster for the farmer to grow. The effects of genetic engineering on our health are not know. Many of the genes which are used are not part of uor diet so we do not know how dangerous they might be. The effects of genetic engineering on the natural world may be disastrous. The engineers may create life forms that we cannot control. The effects of these experiments can often be cruel. In America pigs were given human genes to make them bigger and less fatty. The pigs became very ill and began to lose their eyesight.