However, on the other hand, as stated by the interviewee B, the transgenic technology in medicine has achieved a lot. However, in agriculture it has gone wrong. The commercialization of genetically modified crops are designed mainly for farmers’ need, they reduce the labor intensity of the farmers, reduce the cost of farming and increase the profits of agriculture.
For consumers, that is, ordinary people who all eat food, genetically modified crops is more like an invisible monster, no one can tell where it merits lie in, nor why should farmers grow it. No wonder there are a considerable number of people who are opposed to genetically modified crops. That might be attributed to that fact most people think that technology does not aim to serve them. There is a large number of students from various countries that would not like to see the genetically food on their plates.
The interviewee A insists that most people lack expertise, and they only turned to look at the opinion of a few leaders, media workers, and experts. So, a few experts and scholars stand out to raise questions about genetically modified agriculture and service objects and service efficiency, claiming that genetically modified technology is a tool for large companies to make money and the potential hazard remains unseen. However, such skeptical opinions are untenable.
Nevertheless, another voice stated that with the development of the science and technology, the genetically modified crop is not a new thing to ordinary people, and the genetically modified products are not limited to the crops, but other products, including the oil we eat everyday, the popcorn we eat while watching movies in the cinema, the French fries we eat at McDonald, etc. As to the poor land that could not yield much crops, the crops would be imported from other countries where the land is rich to produce the crops.
And the use of the genetically modified crops should be banned and kicked out from the dinner tables. As interviewee B said that the negative impact of the genetically modified crops on the land is really very serious and tough, which he has listed as below. For one thing, genetically modified crops may evolve into farmland weeds. Due to the import of exogenous genes, genetically modified crops could enhance the competition for survival and reproductive capacity, and its growth potential, tolerance of winter, seed production, etc. , are stronger than parental or wild species.
If the cultivation have been promoted, particularly those that released into the environment would quickly become the new dominant populations, which may evolve into farmland weeds because those wild plants are not resistant to that newly-emerged species. For example, the Canadian commercial cultivation of genetically modified oilseed only a few years after, the land has the herbicide-resistant and self-seeding features. The experts predict that that weed of genetically modified oilseed would do the most serious harm to the Canadian prairie region. For another, the genetically modified product might affect other species via drift.
Under natural conditions, cultivation of different species might lead to the gene flow. For example, Mexican corn contamination incident once caused widespread concern, which refers to contamination of the wild corn by the genetically modified maize DNA fragments in the remote mountainous areas of Mexico, and the contamination ratio of up to 35%. The genetically modified crops have the resistance to herbicides, pesticides and virus resistance genes, which is likely to transfer to other species through channels such as pollen, resulting in more damage.
As to the perception of the negative impact on the nature of the genetically modified crops, different students have different opinions as well. In the statement of the interviewee A, that the civilization of human beings would to a large extent at the expense of the nature. That has been widely accepted and in a long term, the development of the modernization and science and technology would exert impact on the nature both in a positive and a negative way. However, the success of the genetically modified crops mainly lies in the fact it really improve the storage of the crops worldwide.
The starvation in some countries have already been reduced. As to the interviewee B, the negative impact on the nature is emphasized. The power of nature could not be overlooked no matter how advanced the development of science and technology would be. The natural development of the plant and humans is based upon a certain harmonious system. That is what ordinary people know, i. e. , the ecosystem. In addition every creature in the world has its own natural development process and they are closely linked to one another, and each of them constitutes the harmonious and balanced development of the chain.
However, the genetically modified crops break that chain, resulting in certain breaks that could not be fill, and those breaks would lead to the imbalance of the universe as a whole. There are mainly two interests of the questionnaire, the one is to which degree the students are agree with the viewpoint that the genetically modified crops are often presented as scientists meddling with nature; the other is to which degree the students are agree with the perspective that the genetically modified crops are often presented as important for poor agricultural land. The scoring sheets are listed as below.