Genetically Modifying Food Genetic modification of food is becoming a very controversial issue these days. Some scientists believe that genetically modified foods (GMF) can benefit the community in a wide variety of ways, while others believe that they can cause serious harm to the environment and human health. Furthermore, the GMF raises many questions regarding religion, ethics, law and many others. More importantly, what we should be concerned about is whether having the ability to genetically modify species gives us the right to do so. Before we continue, it is extremely important for us to fully understand what exactly genetic modification of food consists of. Humans have been genetically modifying food for thousands of years, but the method they used is different from the genetic modification we use today. In fact, genetic modification is just a new scientific discovery of the 20th century. The ancient method of genetically modifying food is known as “selective breeding,” which in more scientific terms involves crossing hundreds or thousands of genes. Selective breeding has been used for a wide variety of things, from crops to animals. For example, if a farmer needs to grow large potatoes, he or she should first plant a patch of potatoes, select seeds from the larger potatoes, and plant them again to observe their yield. After repeating the same methods several times over a period of time, the farmer eventually ended up with a large variety of potatoes. Using the selective breeding method, people were also able to develop crops...... half of the article ......enes/gm_genie/gm_beginnings/index.shtmlu GM History. 16/03/05.http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/gm_genie/gm_beginnings/gm_history.shtmlu GM Science. 16/03/05.http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/gm_genie/gm_science/index.shtmlu How biotechnology works.10/03/05.http://www.monsanto.co. uk /primer/how.htmlu Earn money. 15/03/05.http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/gm_genie/making_money/index.shtmlu The benefits of biotechnology. 21/03/05.http://www.monsanto.co.uk/primer/benefits.htmlu What are genetically modified (GM) foods? 03/19/05.http://home.howstuffworks.com/question148.htmu Why biotechnology matters. 15/03/05.http://www.monsanto.co.uk/primer/why.htmlu Why genetically modified foods should be labelled. 03/26/05.http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/GEF%20labelling.htm