The Transgenic Tomato Essay examples -- Science Genetics Papers

The Transgenic TomatoThe Need for Genetic Engineering of Crops For most Americans, fresh vegetables come from the supermarket. one and only(a) only has to walk down an aisle loaded with gleaming red love applees, juicy melons, fresh potatoes, and a plethora of other vegetables and fruits and gather whatever captures ones try for or appetite. A person living in a Westernized culture often takes for granted the hard work, resource usage, and waste that occurs to bring food to him. Tomatoes, for example, shortly follow a long and difficult route to the supermarket. To begin with, field workers must pick the tomatoes by hand epoch they are still green. The young tomatoes are then trucked to facilities where they are gassed with ethylene to artificially induce ripening (Engel 108). Treating green tomatoes with gas to make the red color appear before the tomato ripens allows them to be shipped with less bruising and spoilage because they are still hard, but this practice detracts from their flavor and makes them taste, as some like to say, like cardboard after(prenominal) the tomatoes are gassed, the red (but tough) tomatoes are distributed to the supermarkets. The cardboard tomato problem illustrates a larger problem in agriculture - crop spoilage associated with the predations of insects and fungi and with shipping. We aphorism that picking fruits such as tomatoes while they are green and chemically ripening them is a solution to some of the spoilage problem in crops, while using other chemicals can prevent some damage by pests. However, these chemicals often create environmental hazards in areas where they are used, and pests can often separate resistance to chemicals used to destroy them, making the release of even more pesticides and fungicides int... ...ill form a string, and the tRNA molecules will be released into the cell. When this string of amino acids is completed, it is called a protein. Some proteins provide structure in living things (such as t he protein in muscle tissue), while others can promote certain chemical reactions in cells (such as the breakdown of pectin in tomato cell walls).The above information was taken from Biology, Neil Campbell, et. al., New York Addison Wesley, 1999, p.316.Works CitedCampbell, Neil et. al. (1999). Biology. New York Addison WesleyEngel, Karl-Heinz et al., editors. (1995). Genetically Modified Foods Safety Aspects, Washington, DC American Chemical Society.Nettleton, Joyce. (1999, January). Wedging Science into Public Policy, Food Technology, p. 20.Wilson, Edward O. (1999). The Diversity of Life. New York W. W. Norton & Company.