Tanto en las partes de speaking como de writing de los exámenes a partir del nivel B2 los temas relacionados con la alimentación y los alimentos modificados genéticamente suelen caer. En este post aprenderás nociones básicas sobre qué es un GMO o cómo funcionan. Además, aprenderás a debatir sobre alimentación natural y artificial, cuáles son sus beneficios y perjuicios o qué es la seguridad alimentaria.
Si quieres más información sobre cómo redactar, échale un vistazo a este post sobre Cómo Hacer un Writing Avanzado.
En este post he usado mucho idioms, tal y como deberás hacer tú en un writing avanzado. Aquí puedes consultar todos los que quieras. Si tienes dudas sobre el vocabulario de esta lección, puedes consultar Food Safety & GMOs Vocabulary.
Para realizar un un writing o speaking sobre alimentación transgénica, podemos empezar con unas nociones básicas: hablamos de cómo son estos alimentos y las preguntas que nos plantean. Podemos señalar sus beneficios y perjuicios y luego, dar ideas para solucionar esas partes negativas. Aporta siempre tu opinión en este tema.
Otros recursos que puedes usar son ponerte totalmente en uno de los lados del debate: totalmente a favor de la alimentación transgénica o totalmente en contra. Te resultará mucho más fácil desarrollar tu texto si no te viene la inspiración.
Vamos a empezar por tener claros los principales conceptos e ideas sobre la seguridad alimentaria y los transgénicos.
What is a GMO?
A GMO is a genetically modified organism, one that has been modified through the process of genetic engineering. According to this essay from Harvard, genetic engineering must involve scientists working directly on the genome of an organism. Therefore, selective breeding is out.
Selective breeding consists on choosing which animals or plants should mate in the hope that the wished features of the parents are inherited by the offspring. Gene modification by selective breeding is a shot in the dark. However, it has been a constant in human history. By breeding different species of animals together, like a donkey and a mare, we obtained new species; in this case, a mule.
The same goes down for the plant kingdom. The best crops were carefully selected every harvest to be used as the seeds for the following season: crops that were bigger, tasted better or were more resistant when faced with droughts, weeds and pests.
GMOs made in labs have great advantages over traditional breeding. You don’t need to wait generations to see the results and you can target specific genetic traits, allowing for the new organism to be the same plus one extra trait, not a whole new unforeseeable creature.
Yet it would be unfair not to remember that these improvements and overabundance in the food supply driven by selective breeding were game changers, real milestones in the evolution of human society. They fueled us towards industrialization. Will we allow GMOs to take us into the era that is about to start?
How are GMOs created?
Let’s watch the process followed by a simple seed that will soon become part of the GMO club.
First, a group of farmers in a heavenly tropical island face an agricultural need. Their pineapples are dying because there is a new pest that is decimating this scrumptious fruit. The once blooming pineapple exports are now in danger. Our gentle farmers are hopeless. Fear not noble farmers because genetic engineering comes to your rescue.
A team of brainy scientists start to look up in their files, then suss out their options, drink a lot of coffee and finally, one day, they find a similar plant that is resistant to this pest. They have just identified the genetic trait they want to implant into the ill pineapples. They don’t beat around the bush and get some seeds ready in a heartbeat.
After combining DNA from both plants, they wait for the hybrid baby to grow up. This new species of pineapple will be immune to the pest. Farmers will now be able to save their harvest and increase the production. The designers of this new super pineapple are praised and also pineapple prices drop, so anyone can enjoy it. Everybody is happy. It is a win win, right?
Well, not everybody is complaisant. GMO foes maintain that they haven’t been tested enough. It is not sufficient with the data from lab experiments. Before flooding the supply chain with modified products, some people must have aged first having GMOs regularly to learn about the long term effects on the human body.
The Debate
Thousands of years of DNA tampering seem to have accustomed us to mules, all sorts of dog breeds, eerie tulips and other «mutants» of the like. We all wow before a photo depicting a cute baby mule and nobody has ever been heard complaining over cheaper bread.
So, why most people would turn their heads if presented with some of the techniques used in the food industry? Why do we feel so unwelcome just with the idea of looking at labels in our favourite food? In a nutshell: why are modern GMOs received with such an upheaval?
One could easily point a judgmental finger to many directions. The food industry is considered by some the new tobacco industry because of the practices, secrecy and uncooperative behaviour equally shown by both. It went horribly for the tobacco giants. Will the food industry reap what they are sawing?
The bad reputation often associated with the food industry comes straight from GMOs yet their food safety practices can also be accountable. Few people dare to undertake the eye-opening experience of tracing their food back to the origin. The image of the kind of farms where we raise cheap meat is simply too bitter to swallow.
GMOs popular unpopularity comes directly from the Petri dishes, needles and microscopes used to give birth to them. Nothing remotely connected to that level of chemistry is delicious or regarded as healthy. Your main contact with people working in labs and wearing white robs is at hospitals. Food and hospitals are the ulterior opposite in the health spectrum.
What is more, gene modification is known to be feasible on humans and real mutant and clone animals have been presented for the public. It almost seems they were conducting a test on us to learn how we feel about it. Anyway, this only makes GMOs creepier by association.
GMO advocates pray their past and future ability to feed humanity better and want us to see the whole picture under a new light. Science is good and helps us live longer and better. Science applied to animals and plants creates better, safer food. A simple mantra to try to bend the spectrum towards their views that is gaining supporters every day.
Despite all the debate, consumers find common ground on one thing: labelling. Every now and then, we see the news go frenzy over whether labelling GMOs as such should become the norm. In addition to a safety and health concern, our rights as customers are compromised. This is one of the points GMOs advocates find harder to shut down. If GMOs are so good and reliable, why all the fuss about getting people to know better and choose accordingly?
They also claim that GMOs will speed up the end of worldwide hunger. Obviously, they weight their words when discussing this point on their agenda but who could blame them for trying to make famines a thing of the past? Sadly, it is common knowledge that it will take more than just «more food» to end this tragedy.
photo creadit: illuminating9_11