Research Paper on:
Interdisciplinary Perspective on Foods That Are Genetically Engineered

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The technology existed, and the idea just seemed so simple. American producers of sunflower oil were running out of markets for their product. Certainly there were other  crops they could have grown, but the agricultural counterpart of retooling was prohibitively expensive. Besides, sunflower oil is valuable in the commercial food industry, both for value-added processors and  for home use. The problem had been that sunflowers are notorious for taking up heavy metal contamination in the soil, making them excellent  for reclaiming contaminated soil but less than ideal for using for oil production unless grown in pristine environments in which the soil is environmentally clean. Development of an engineered  soybean that did not take up those heavy metal contaminants saved the export side of the US sunflower oil industry, particularly after Germany lifted its ban on the import of  US sunflower oil. That ban went right back in place some time later when concerns over genetically modified foods came to be more  common. The effect has been that production in 2000 was 17 percent lower than in 1999, which was 32 percent lower than in 1998 (USDA announces 2000 sunflower production).  Sunflower oil producers once again are in trouble, and no one knows what effect - if any - that genetically modified foods have on humans or on their ecosystem.  Possible Research Questions Health scientists, plant geneticists and plant seed producers all over the world are investigating whether there is any long  term effect on humans or the environment stemming from the use of genetically modified foods. Basing research questions on whether claims of harm have any biological basis likely are