As human civilization has evolved over the centuries, the ways we produce our food has changed and grown right along beside it. There are many terms for describing this process such as food biotechnology or genetic engineering, but the most common one is genetically modified organisms or GMO. GMO can be used for other things besides crops, though this particular area is the one this paper will be focusing on. There have been many opinions and misconceptions about this subject but in reality it has been used in one form or another since humans began farming and will continue into the future, not only out of curiosity but of necessity. Humans began using the abilities of altering their food since nearly ten thousand years ago when we began to domesticate animals and kept plants …show more content…
These two programs, Talens and Crispr-Cas9, are DNA editing tools that are much more precise and can not only “cut and paste” genomes, but can also “modify even a few nucleotides or insert and delete a gene exactly where they want on the chromosome, making the change far more predictable and effective” (Rotman). This is invaluable when the necessity for healthy plants that provide proteins, vitamins and carbohydrates are growing every year. Crispr takes it one step further in using proteins found in RNA called Cas-9s for cutting DNA. They have proven effective enough to have “rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion on an ever-warmer planet” (Maxmen 58). But the more advanced and specific the technology, the greater the risk and concerns over the ethics of how it is used. Crispr has the potential to solve these problems, but it also can create devastation on a global scale. Depending on who you ask, these can either be a boon for the planet or a Pandora’s Box waiting to