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8 Genetic modification: Food Analysis: GM food statistics a) Analyse the tables and graphs below and create a mind map of the most striking aspects. b) Compare your notes with those of a partner and agree on three major issues. Which information is new to you? Has anything surprised you? Rank/Country Area* Biotech crops 1. USA 70.9 Maize, soybean, cotton, canola, sugar beet, alfalfa, papaya, squash, potato 2. Brazil 44.2 Soybean, maize, cotton 3. Argentina 24.5 Soybean, maize, cotton 4. India 11.6 Cotton 5. Canada 11.0 Canola, maize, soybean, sugar beet 6. China 3.7 Cotton, papaya, poplar 7. Paraguay 3.6 Soybean, maize, cotton 8. Pakistan 2.9 Cotton 12. Australia 0.7 Cotton, canola * Million hectares (ISAAA, Clive James, 2015) On buying food Answer these questions and write your answers down. • What is the most important information on food labels for you? • Do you think food containing GM ingredients should be labelled? Why or why not? • What amount of GM material in food would you find acceptable? • To what extent do you think attitudes depend on time, geography and culture? Writing: Organic farming As healthy nutrition matters to you a lot you have decided to write an article for the website of a group that wants to promote organic farming. Use the table and graph above as well as your notes from the previous tasks. In your article you should: • present the development in recent years • explain the reasons for organic farming • discuss possible future developments Give your article a title . Write around 250/400 words . 1 Fact file Genetically engineered foods or genetically modified (GM) foods have had foreign genes inserted into their genetic codes. For thou- sands of years, farmers have bred plants as well as animals in order to select and pass on desired traits. Selective breeding, however, depends on fickle nature to produce the desired gene. Only then could humans breed animals or produce plants containing that gene in an attempt to make the related characteristics more common or more pronounced. Genetic engineering speeds up this process by moving desired genes from one plant into another – or even from an animal to a plant or vice versa. A more general term is genetically modified organism (GMO ), which is applied to all genetically engineered plants, animals or microbes. For exam- ple, bacteria were modified to produce insulin for medical purposes as soon as 1978. F Word bank Analysing statistics The table/graph shows … . • It provides information about … . • more/less/fewer than • compared with • to rise/fall/grow/increase/ decrease • percentage/amount/ number/majority/minority • to lead to • as a result of W Source: International Food Information Council Foundation There is a diversity of opinions about the use of biotechnology to produce food products. What is your overall impression of using biotechnology (“GMO”) to produce food products? Would you say you are … ? Very favourable Not very favourable Not at all favourable Somewhat favourable Neither favourable nor unfavourable Don’t know enough about it to form an opinion 26% 14% 15% 25% 16% 6% 2 3 96 Science and technology Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv