Humans really do like to mess with things for some reason. We mess with everything we can from agricultural resources to the emotions of tiny children. Our agricultural industry has been modified to fit the needs of the consumers increase in demand for convenience. This leads to taking some short cuts in the industry so that the company does not end up going bankrupt while it strives to keep its customers happy and by doing slightly chunky in the process. This is because of the slight genetic modifications that the companies have to do. This does not mean that the next time you buy chicken nuggets from THE happy clown you have to worry about it being an artificial blob of crunchy goodness, but companies do have to do something to keep up with the demand of its customers. Let’s use KFC as an example. If they were not to resort to the genetic modification of their chicken, they would have to produce a hefty armada to keep up with the order of hungry North America as well as the rest of the world. So what they would do is alter the chickens (real chickens) slightly by doing things like increasing the breast size or even how much skin is present on the chicken. Either way, the chickens are still chickens, just a bit more scary. The problem is that, the alterations that the companies use may have dangerous effects on the health of its consumers.
Humans can do this by a process called artificial selection. It is a process where beings are being bred for certain traits intentionally. While this process happens naturally, for example; in the case of coral snakes and king snakes. The coral snake is a dangerously venomous snake with the black, red, and yellow patterns on its scales. The scarlet king snake mimics this snake’s camouflage pattern to scare away predators. It’s when humans take over this process, where problems start to arise. The biggest danger of natural selection is that it creates a greater risk of genetic problems and health risks across blood lines. Artificial selection can also pose great risks in mutations. These mutations can lead to resistance and of course, affecting their ability to evolve naturally.
The artificial procedures that humans have done to plants have created super weeds which are weeds that are resistant to the normal herbicides. They were made over time, as humans used more and more chemicals. This resistant the weeds now wield pose great problems to farmers and their crops.
Cheap meat...plz
Now, this does not mean that all artificial selections are all bad for the world and its inhabitants. Artificial selection does have a positive impact on the food that we eat. Humans need food to survive, and most of us don’t want to be paying top dollar for food that shouldn’t be. I mean, who would pay $20 for a carrot. Artificial selection allows for off season fruits and vegetables to be produced as well as mass produced. This adds up in the reduction of costs while trading off the loss of some vitamins. This also affects the animals as well. People know what they want in the food that they eat and demand it from the grocers. We want fat, juicy cuts of beef, pork, chicken and anything else that moves, but obviously, God did not create all the animals in the world to fulfil the selfish food needs of the human race. Then again, we wouldn’t be doing our part as humans if we followed all of God’s work to his intentions, THEN AGAIN, who said it wasn’t his intentions for us to manipulate his creatures? I mean, how come he’s still letting us continue? Back to my point, to obtain these succulent cuts of meat, one must pick the prime animals to harvest its internal glory. This would obviously make the price of the cut higher, and less accessible to the normal working person. So, farmers would then breed the most delectable male (taste-wise) to the most delectable female (taste-wise) to create tasty children. Then these children will continue to have tasty babies and the cycle continues, and becomes the wise economical choice for the masses. Now that $50 piece of 12oz steak is now reduced to $30 because there is plenty more where that came from.
Here we go again
As with everything, it’s the ethical reasons, which seem to weigh down everything. Not that ethics are a bad thing. It’s what keeps us human; err... humane. Some say that this practice of breeding animals to serve our purpose is cruel to animals. They seem to become objects to serve us humans, but the way I see it is that, if we don’t resort to this, I think more people will complain due to the rising prices in the grocery store. We already do complain when it has a small increase, but think about the major controversy it will cause when it will cost and arm or a leg for a chicken wing. I’m not saying I am all for it, but I understand it, and I guess I accept it. I know about all the things I’ve said about genetic modification, but this is different. I believe that the benefits may actually outweigh the cons of artificial selection in the short term. This is a totally different thing in the long run. That’s where we run in to the genetic and evolutionary problems. So the ethical reasons for me depend on the way you look at the situation.
To conclude, artificial selection along with other natural manipulators of the world can be a good and beneficial thing to humanity if used correctly, that is; if you put aside ethics for a while. As long as people don’t abuse this and only take the food that we need, then the need for artificially selecting our live stock will drop. The best thing to do is really to just stick with natural selection, but that’s nothing but a pipe dream after considering human nature. How about everyone who read’s this tries to consider chewing on something organic? Or not? Well, let’s rephrase that, how about everyone who read’s this considers the effects and the foot prints that we all leave on our earth. We were instructed by God to be stewards of our wonderful planet, so the least we can do is at least think about our responsibilities. Yay earth! (That was a bit corny...)
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-artificial-selection.htm
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/camoresearch.htm
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19980707024648data_trunc_sys.shtml
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/consumer_culture/66048
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2997033871_4a58bcdce6_o.jpg
