Grains of Hope
Genetically engineered crops could revolutionize farming. Protesters fear they could also destroy the ecosystem．You decide.
By J．Madeleine Nash小屁孩日记2
1 At first，the grains of rice that Ingo Potrykus held in his fmgers did not em at all special, but inside, the grains were not white, as ordinary rice is, but a very pale yellow—thanks to beta-carotene, a building block for vitamin A.
英语专业的出路
2 Potrykus was elated. For more than a decade he had dreamed of creating a golden rice that could improve the lives of millions of the poorest people in the world, strengthening their eyesight and their resistance to dia.
3 He saw his rice as the start of a new green revolution in which ancient food crops would gain all sorts of uful properties: bananas that wouldn’t rot on the way to market; corn that could supply its own fertilizer; wheat that could grow even during a drought.hey stephen
looke4 But imagining golden rice was one thing and creating one quite another. Year after year, Potrykus and his colleagues ran into one obstacle after another until success finally came in the spring of 1999.
5 At that point，he tackled an even greater challenge. The golden grains contained pieces of DNA borrowed from bacteria and flowers. It was what some would call Frankenfoodsmn是什么, a product of genetic engineering. As such, it was caught in a web of hopes and fears.
6 Golden grain has brought attention to a growing public debate. Are genetically modified crops (GM crops) a technological leap forward that will have extraordinary benefits for the world and its people? Or do they reprent a dangerous step towards ecological and agricultural ruin? Is genetic engineering just a more efficient way of doing traditional crossbreeding? Or does the ability to mix the genes of any species—even plants and animals—give humans more power than they should have?
网站本地化
7 The debate began the moment genetically engineered crops were first sold in the 1990
fos
s and it has escalated ever since. First to start major protests against biotechnology were European environmentalists and consumer-advocacy groups. They were soon followed by their U.S. counterparts.
pandemic什么意思
8 The hostility is understandable. Most of the GM crops introduced so far have been developed for one of two purpos: either to produce a plant resistant to inct pests or a plant resistant to the chemicals that farmers u to kill weeds in their fields. The genetically engineered crops are often sold by the same large, multinational corporations that produce and ll the weed killing chemicals that farmers spray on their fields. Consumers have become suspicious. Why u a strange new technology that might cau ecological damages, they ask when the benefits of doing so em small?
9 The benefits did em small until golden rice was developed. It is the first strong example of a GM crop that may benefit not just the farmers who grow it but also the consumers who eat it. In this ca, the consumers include at least a million children who die every year becau they are weakened by vitamin A deficiency and an additional 350,000 who go blind.
10 Many people worried about poverty and hunger look at golden rice and e it as evidence that GM crops can be made to rve the greater public good. They e a critical role for GM crops in feeding the world's ever-increasing population. As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter put it, “Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is.”
灵格斯在线翻译11 Indeed by the year 2020, the demand for grain is projected to go up by nearly half, while the amount of land available for farming will probably decrea. A1so, there will be a greater need to conrve water and reduce polluting chemicals. The challenges are enormous.
12 In order to meet them，believes Gordon Conway, the agricultural ecologist who heads the Rockefeller Foundation, 21st century farmers will have to take advantage of everything available to them to produce more food, including genetic engineering. And contrary to what the public believes he says, tho who have the least to lo and the most to gain are not well-fed Americans and Europeans but hungry citizens of the developing world．
Weighing the Perils
13 Even proponents of agricultural biotechnology agree, though, that there are a number of real concerns about GM foods．First, all foods, including GM foods, are potential sources of allergens. That’s becau genes transferred in the process of making GM foods contain instructions for making proteins. Some—tho in peanuts, for example—are well known for causing allergic reactions．To many, the possibility that golden rice might cau such a problem ems extremely unlikely, but it still needs to be considered．
