The GM potato issue: A health concern
2011
Jha, Anamika | Jha, Sanjay | Gautam, Hemant K.
One of the goals of plant genetic engineering has been to create crops that are tailored to provide better nutrition for humans and their domestic animals. Though the enhancement of desired traits has traditionally been undertaken through conventional plant breeding since time immemorial but Genetic engineering has created plants with the desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy. Potato (Solanum tuberosum) has one of the richest genetic resources of any cultivated plant. Most wild species can be crossed directly with the common potato and, are therefore, useful for the enrichment of cultivars. These plants possess a broad spectrum of resistances to pests and diseases, tolerances to frost and drought and many other valuable traits. Despite the importance of the potato as a world food crop, the genetics and inheritance of many important qualitative and quantitative agronomic traits is poorly understood. It is expected that genome-based approaches will lead to a major breakthrough in isolation, characterization and application of genes involved in such traits. On the whole, with the exception of possible allerogenicity, scientists believe that GM (genetically modified) foods do not present a risk to human health. There is no unequivocal evidence that genetically modified crops harm our health or the environment-yet there is an intense debate about their value and safety. Farmers have embraced the new biotechnology. Yet there are many challenges ahead for governments, especially in the areas of safety testing, regulation, international policy and food labeling.
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