Quiroz 1

Sammy Quiroz
22 February 2016
Honors Chemistry
Mrs. Lyles
Chemistry Honors Project Part 2

For the second part of my honors project, I emailed Ken Swartzel who is a distinguished
professor of food science at NC State University. He has also recently been elected to the
National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Swartzel unfortunately was not available to meet with
me, but gladly answered my questions via email. He did not email me back until February 27th.
I introduced myself to Dr. Swartzel by telling him that I am a tenth grade student at
Heritage High School in Wake Forest, and that I was working on a project for my honors
chemistry project. I politely asked him if he would please take the time to answer my questions
and get back to me.

I prepared five questions for Dr. Swartzel which went as follows:

1. What made you want to pursue a career in food engineering?
2. Do you believe that the long-term effects of genetically modified foods will be more
beneficial or harmful?
3. Is there evidence that GMOs could potentially have negative effects?
4. How do you decide which characteristics are combined to make GMOs?
5. Describe the process of genetic modification.

Dr. Swartzel was very helpful in answering my questions and definitely helped me
further my research on this topic. He answered my first question by saying that he had started out
in Aerospace Engineering. He said, “I had a plan to go into the space field of work. However, in
those days one had to be a pilot. I found out mid way through my degree that, because of my
eyes, I would never become a pilot and thus no space for me. After some searching I found a
new world in food engineering-somewhat strange but many aerospace sciences are used in our
work-heat & mass transfer, fluid mechanics, etc. Think of a particle flowing in a fluid through a
pipeline-these are the same as a plane flying through air-exact same equations control the
outcome.”
In regards to my second question, Dr. Swartzel says that he believes the long-term effects
of genetically modified foods will be much more beneficial. Dr. Swartzel says, “Modified corn---
disease resistant, weed resistant (much less pesticides), are yielding tremendous increase in crop
yields. All of these positives results in less hunger and lower prices, including corn ethanol.
Hundreds of other crops have also provided similar results.The checks and balances-regulations
are unbelievable.”
Dr. Swartzel answered my third question by saying that he believes the issue is more
perception than truth. He said,”I believe it is like organic or range fed. People get sold a bill of
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goods without true facts. Range fed chickens do not produce the best results. Pictures are always
shown with seemingly happy birds in a field of grass. In truth, the birds wipe out all the grass in
a couple of days and then they are in a dirt field-mud at times, laying eggs whenever and
wherever. Some are out in the hot sun and then end up in the grocery store where consumers pay
extra for them. Also, pecking order is a true concept. Weak birds are often pecked to death. In
caged laying houses, birds are paired with compatible birds-no pecking. They get computer
controlled flowing clean water, food, waste removal, and egg removal --all on a conveyer
system. Eggs from these birds go directly into the processing plant. Consumers can not get
fresher eggs. With fresher eggs, refrigerated fast--they are much safer for the consumer. GMOs
are much the same-just consumers who just do not understand the science and the benefits.”
My fourth question was also answered by Dr. Swartzel. He says that basically genes are
identified that by turning them on or off to provide the desired end result, crops that are disease
resistant, weed resistant...etc. He wrote, “We have limited growing land in this world. We have
millions of acres that are too dry, too cold, too salty -whatever. Crops are beginning to be
developed to grow well in these areas-opening up millions and millions of new crop lands all
over the world.”
Dr. Swartzel’s answer to my fifth question was out much more simply. He said, “There
are many ways to manipulate the genetics of an organism. Simply stated, it is manually
modifying the chromosomal DNA of an organism.” He also told me to search the internet if I
needed more information on the specifics of this process.

Works Cited
Swartzel, Kenneth R. "Chemistry Honors Project." E-mail interview. 27 Feb. 2016.