Research Paper on:
Genetic Engineering: A Necessity For Feeding the Masses

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few years of human history. With this possibility comes many ethical, economic, and philosophical considerations (Lampman, 2000). These considerations includes both positive and negative aspects. The balance  between the pros and cons of genetic engineering can best be illustrated by examining the practice in regard to food crops. It is in agriculture, in fact, where genetic  engineering has made the most advancements and consequently met the most resistance. Given the scenario of a constantly growing population and a constantly shrinking land base it becomes obvious  that without genetic engineering it is almost an impossibility to feed the worlds masses. Genetic engineering has been heavily publicized as a way  to feed the increasing population of the world at a time when the world is facing possible reductions in farmland and farmers (Benson, Arax, and Burstein, 1997). Genetic engineering  is not without its critics, however. These critics point to the negative side of genetic engineering, most typically engaging an argument over the ethics of artificially modifying natural organisms,  then of using those genetically altered organisms as a food source (Lampman, 2000). To gain a more balanced view of genetic  engineering it is first important to understand the process itself. Genetic engineering is a new technology. In wasnt until the mid 1970s that scientists discovered a method of  copying and transferring genes from one organism to another (Cone, 1991). It is a technology, however, which was immediately recognized as having a tremendous potential for the agricultural industry.  By 1990 the U.S.D.A. had approved almost one-hundred test plantings of genetically altered crops (Nash, 1990). It has been a slow process from the field to the supermarket, however.