Genetically modified organisms are not new. According to theUSDA, in 2009, 93 percent of soy, 93 percent of cotton and 86perfect of corn grown in the United States was GMO. However, in2010, life on earth as we currently understand it, changed. Byinserting computer-designed genetic material into a bacterial cell,scientist created an entirely new strain of bacteria, a new lifeform, the world's first synthetic cell. In annoucing his creation,scientist Craig Venter called if the first life on earth \"whoseparent was a computer.\"
1. Do you favor the creation of GMO crops? Defend youranswer.
2. Do all GMO products need to be labeled as such?
3. Are we really ready for a life form whose parent is acomputer?
4. What precautions would you like to see put in place-perhaps asuicide gene implanted in these new life forms to assure us thatthey cannot survive outside the lab?
