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Hassan Al Labbad

Ms. Knudson

UWRT 1104

Oct 26, 2017

Annotated Bibliography: Is Genetically Modified Food Good for Humanity?

Evenson, Robert Eugene, and Vittorio Santaniello. Consumer Acceptance of Genetically

Modified Foods: CABI Publishing, 2004

The Consumer acceptance of genetically modified foods book contains several studies

about consumer attitudes towards GM food. The studies are sorted in accordance to the different

methods of research and types of evidence. The book contains five parts. The first part covers

studies that utilized price and expenditure data. And the second chapter covers studies utilizing

experimental methods. The third part includes studies utilizing willingness-to-pay methods to

determine consumer acceptance. The fourth part look at studies consumer acceptance using

market survey and general survey methods. And lastly, the part five covers studies of economic

consequences.

The book contains a wide scope of scientific research towards the subject of consumer

acceptance to GM food. The authors rationalize their book by stating the importance of

consumer acceptance when it comes to food by stating that even though the same technology is

used in medicine for years, it has only caught controversy when it is used in food. The book is

sponsored by CEIS - University of Rome and Economic Growth Center at Yale university which

means that the authors are unlikely to be biased towards or against GM food.
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Farrant, Jill. How We Can Make Crops Survive without Water. TED, Dec. 2015,

www.ted.com/talks/jill_farrant_how_we_can_make_crops_survive_without_water.

In her TED talk professor Jill Farrant shares her teams discovery of developing drought-

tolerant crops by studying resurrection plants to ensure food security in the world. She starts of

by explaining what makes resurrection plants special. Resurrection plants can survive extreme

draughts and look almost dead but when they get water they green up and starts growing again.

She suggests that drought-tolerant crops are important for food security because it is predicted

that we need 70 percent increase in agricultural growth in order to provide food to the expanded

populations in 2050 in addition climate change that will increase aridity. In her talk she showed

how by modifying the maize crops using genes taking from resurrection plants the maize crops

survived for longer periods without water in comparison to normal crops.

In the TED talk the presenter use videos and photos to show her discovery and to explain

the whole process. Jill Farrant is a professor of molecular and cell biology and in her talk, she

referenced multiple studies and collaborations with other research groups. My only gripe at the

talk is the fact that she did not actually show how the modification actually impacted the maize

yields. While she showed increase drought survival she did not talk about other impacts in the

plant. I also found her methods not clear since she mentioned that the gens are already present in

most plants but turned off she also said that they used genes from resurrection plants.

Landry, H. Challenging Evolution: How GMOs Can Influence Genetic Diversity. Science in

the News, 12 Aug. 2015, sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/challenging-evolution-how-

gmos-can-influence-genetic-diversity/.

In her article Landry discuss the influence of genetically modified food towards the

genetic diversity of the crops. When biotechnology researchers successfully engineer seeds that
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have better yields due to their resilience for example, these seeds get widely adopted over

traditional seeds which can cause a lack of diversity in crops. And the reason diversity is

important is because different species have their different defense mechanism and can survive

different conditions which helps food security. But when there is only one kind of a corps one

disease can get it extinct. She mentions the potato famine problem that affected Ireland in the

mid-1800s where they planted sections of the potatoes instead of growing them from seeds

which eventually led to one Fungai being able to wipe all the potatoes. Finishes her writing by

suggesting several ways to protect the genetic diversity.

Her article is well written and thoughtful. While it is a blog post it is published at Harvard

University website. The author studied at the Harvard Medical School genetics department, but

she is not considered an expert in the field. One thing I did not like about the article is that it does

not conclusively answer the thesis of how does genetic modification influence diversity.

Q&A: Genetically Modified Food. World Health Organization, World Health Organization,

May 2014, www.who.int/foodsafety/areas_work/food-technology/faq-genetically-

modified-food/en/.

In this website, the World Health Organization addresses nineteen commonly asked

questions regarding Genetically Modified Food. The website first defines genetically modified

organisms and GM food and explains why GM food is produced. The website also explains in

depth how the GM food safety is assessed differently in comparison to conventional foods since

GM food gets extra attention and more assessments from most national authorities. The website

mentions three main concerns to human health allergenicity of the food, gene transfer and out

crossing. The website also covers the environmental impact of GM food. The website also

mentions the politics and ethics of GM food. I think the main take away from this page is that
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GM food is not all the same and it needs to be regulated in order to gain its benefits and avoid it

risks.

Since this is the official World Health Organization website I think that is a trustworthy

authority and that is unlikely to be biased. There is a lot of information in this page that can be

used in my article. With its Q&A format I can also suggest to the readers of my essay to read

website since its language target the general audience. The answers they are providing are very

detailed and transparent. And since it does not take a side with or against GM food it would be

great to support multiple points in my argument.

Qaim, M, and D Zilberman. Yield Effects of Genetically Modified Crops in Developing

Countries. Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 299, no. 5608, 2003, pp. 9002.

This field report paper was written by Matin Qaim and David Zilberman covering an

experiment of genetically modified cotton seeds that are pest resistance taken place in India.

Previous reports from the United States showed insignificant positive effects or even negative

effects in some cases. The researchers alleged the lack of yield improvement in the US to the fact

that pest is not really affecting the yields and that such seeds are more needed in places that

suffer from yield losses due to pests. Their experiment consisted of three study groups one using

a conventional seed, another using a hybrid seed and the last one having a genetically modified

hybrid seed. The experiment showed significant yield increase for the genetically modified

cotton seeds.

This report is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in

a periodic magazine. Both authors are PhD degree holders and are experienced in the field. The

report is including statistical numbers and graphs to demonstrate their discovery. All the claims

in the paper are refenced and or cited. The fact that the authors are focusing in one case to prove
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their point makes me a little bit hesitant to include their argument in my paper but since they also

mentioned other cases where GMOs were not effective makes it more appropriate.