English Exercises: GM Food

Downloadable worksheets:

Board game - General culture (globalisation, developed and developing countries, environmental problems, democracy, human rights, European Union, etc)
Level: advanced
Age: 14-17
Downloads: 349

GM Food
Level: advanced
Age: 14-17
Downloads: 183

BUSINESS ETHICS
Level: intermediate
Age: 14-17
Downloads: 187

GM_Salmon_Test
Level: intermediate
Age: 14-17
Downloads: 91

Writing an argumentative text on GM Food
Level: advanced
Age: 14-17
Downloads: 72

GM Food: are we playing God? 90 minutes lesson plan
Level: advanced
Age: 16-100
Downloads: 49

GM food

�Before watching the video, pay attention to the following words (you will hear them in the documentary):

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a bug / pest�	crops (corn ...)	drought	genetic engineering	to reap	3 test tubes > 3 samples	weeds

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Over the past hundred years our food supply has greatly improved through traditional . Now we are beginning to �the first fruits of the harvests. �is moving fast and many people find it hard to decide whether �plants are .

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Novel food regulations require GM food and all other foods new to the market to go through extensive �procedures to make sure they do not contain �that might cause �or �reactions.

In some tests thousands of� are analyzed and compared based on their �and� composition. Other tests make use of� rather than� comparisons between GM and non GM food. This way it is possible to see to what extent foods vary in their composition. -resistant and� spray tolerant crops, for example, have been approved this way to make food for us to eat.

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Dr. Jim Murray (President, European Consumers Organization, Brussels):

�If one was just to look at the issue as a purely� issue and nothing else, we have reasons to be far more concerned about many other things that are in our food than about GM food as such. But again the question of GM food has become much wider than one purely of , it has become an �issue, a �issue, a �issue, and inevitably has been linked to concerns about or against �and really has become very much a multifactored issue.�

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Environmentalists have three main concerns. The GM crops will create �and� or reduce , but above all, they worry about the� of GM crop releases.

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Mr. Benedikt Haerlin (Coordinator, GMO World Wide Campaign Greenpeace):

��Our concern is basically just the release of� into the . We are not opposed to using genetic engineering in contained facilities, and that�s a different story.�

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In the open �pollen from� crops could pollinate another related plant. If they� with their� relatives, there could be the danger of creating . And if they �with non GM crops on� farms for examples, the farmers could not .

The first commercial products of genetic engineering were . It�s mainly the� that �the benefits. Now� in Europe and many other parts of the world are developing new products designed to be of direct benefit to the . Many of these research advances will be used in� where there are potentially large enough markets for the new products.

For� priorities depend on� and are often a question of� rather than . Areas and active research include plants that are resistant to high� content in the soil or to . Great efforts are going into creating foods designed to be positively good for you. For example, tests are under way on a GM� designed to increase levels of� in the human body.

One problem for decision makers is that there are no� for assessing the of GM crops and GM food. Different countries base their judgments on different sets of questions and not all countries have access to good testing facilities. In North America decisions are based primarily on� judgements about safety. This approach means GM crop developments are moving ahead quite fast but, if something goes wrong, the guilty parties could be sued. Europe�s� principle tries to avoid unexpected consequences. It allows decision makers to proceed cautiously with GM crops. Their decisions are based on� considerations as well as the available �evidence. Without an� on standards food producers face real problems in� and� GM products to countries in other parts of the world. And even if� could be agreed on, there is no� to� them. This is now the� for the decision makers.