1, Bill Gates is genetically modified.
Beijing time on the 28th morning news, according to the US "Business Insider" website, Bill Gates, the former world's richest man and founder of Microsoft, said on Tuesday that he not only thought that genetically modified foods were "completely healthy", but also thought that they were a promising tool in the struggle to reduce global hunger.
Gates expressed this view in an interview with "AskMeAnything" on the American website Reddit on Tuesday. He said: "Genetically modified food is completely healthy. If evaluated in the right way, this technology may reduce hunger and malnutrition. I will not stay away from non-GM food, but people always think it is better, which is disappointing. "
Gates' view may cause some people's controversy. Many people think that genetically modified food is dangerous. In recent years, enterprises have submitted more than 35,000 products to Non-GMOProject, a non-profit organization that provides certification for products without genetically modified ingredients. At the same time, the sales of non-GM products are also soaring, with annual sales as high as $654.38+0.6 billion.
But Gates' view is consistent with that of most scientists who study this subject.
The National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the European Commission and other institutions have publicly declared that genetically modified foods are safe to eat. A study on 20 13 found that there was no "significant harm" directly related to the use of genetically modified crops.
Another important fact is that almost all the foods people eat today have been genetically modified to some extent. Dozens of crops, from corn to watermelon, have been selectively cultivated for thousands of years before they have the traits we need, such as a lot of sugar and edible pulp or small seeds.
All insulin is made of genetically modified ingredients. The cotton used to make T-shirts is also likely to be genetically modified.
Some experts believe that "genetically modified" labels will damage products made of genetically modified ingredients. They believe that the genetic modification process is a breeding method-just like other recent advances in agriculture.
2. What is transgenic technology?
Transgenic crops isolate one (or several) genes from organisms through biotechnology, and then implant them into another organism, thus cultivating organisms with new characters. For example, scientists think that a gene in arctic fish has antifreeze effect, so they extract it and implant it into tomatoes to make a new cold-resistant tomato variety, which is a genetically modified organism. Foods containing genetically modified organisms are called genetically modified foods.
Gene crops are organisms that separate one (or several) genes from organisms through biotechnology and then implant them into another organism to obtain new characteristics. For example, Bt transgenic rice refers to the transfer of insect-resistant genes of certain bacteria in soil into rice, so that rice has insect-resistant characteristics. So far, the long-term safety of genetically modified foods to human health is still inconclusive.
Genetically modified organisms have foreign genes, which are brand-new to natural ecosystems. If released into the environment, it will change the competitive relationship between species, destroy the original natural ecological balance, and lead to species extinction and biodiversity loss. Genetically modified organisms will reproduce themselves in nature and cross with their close relatives, so that foreign genes will spread in an uncontrollable way in nature, causing irreparable genetic pollution.
3. Common genetically modified foods
The first category, plant genetically modified food.
There are many genetically modified foods from plants. For example, bread production needs wheat with high protein content, while the current wheat variety protein has low content. Transferring the highly expressed protein gene into wheat will make bread have better baking performance.
Tomato is a kind of fruit and vegetable with rich nutrition and high economic value, but it is not resistant to storage. In order to solve the storage problem of tomatoes and other fruits, researchers found that the enzyme gene that controls the ethylene synthesis of plant aging hormone is an important gene that leads to plant aging. If the expression of this gene can be inhibited by genetic engineering and the biosynthesis of ethylene, an aging hormone, can be controlled, tomatoes will not become soft and rotten easily. Many scientists from the United States, China and other countries have cultivated this new tomato variety through their efforts. This tomato is anti-aging, anti-softening, storage-resistant, and can be transported for a long distance, which can reduce the waste in processing, production and transportation.
The second category is animal genetically modified food.
There are also many kinds of animal genetically modified foods. For example, human genes are transferred to cattle, and the milk produced by cows when they grow up contains genetic drugs, which can be used to treat human diseases after extraction. By transferring the human auxin gene into the genome of pigs, the growth rate of pigs has doubled and the quality of pork has been greatly improved. Now such pork is invited to the table in Australia.
The third category, genetically modified microbial food.
Microorganisms are the most commonly used transformation materials for transgene, so transgenic microorganisms are relatively easy to cultivate and widely used. For example, chymosin used to be extracted only from the stomachs of killed calves. Nowadays, transgenic microorganisms can be produced in large quantities in vitro, which avoids the innocent death of calves and reduces the production cost.
The fourth category, genetically modified special food.
Scientists use biological genetic engineering to turn ordinary crops such as vegetables, fruits and grain into magical "vaccine food", which can prevent diseases. Scientists have cultivated an alfalfa plant that can prevent cholera. Feeding this alfalfa to mice can greatly enhance their disease resistance. Moreover, this cholera antigen can withstand the corrosion of gastric acid without being destroyed, which can stimulate the body's immune ability to cholera. Therefore, more and more disease-resistant genes are transferred to plants, so that people can taste delicious fresh fruits and achieve the purpose of preventing diseases.
The quality of genetic modification is inconclusive for the time being, but now that our economic conditions are good and people have choices, what we need now is more right to know and choose. If you think that eating genetically modified foods is more beneficial to your health, you might as well choose more such foods when you go to the supermarket. If you don't like it, you can choose non-GM food.