Julia Pabafikos
Mr. Ippolito
AP Biology
19 April 2018
Maxmen, Amy. “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-browning-resistant-apple-reaches-u-s-stores/.
The article I decided to read, “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” by Amy Maxen deals with genetically modified organisms and how society has come to benefit larger companies rather than the farmers. The article goes into further detail about a specific product, in this case being an apple that has been modified in order not to brown. The company has been able to figure out how to delete a gene encoding an enzyme that causes plant cells to brown when exposed to oxygen. Therefore, if this apple sells, it will pave the way for others similar products. For example, companies have been engineering a mushroom that resists browning. Maxman mentions that the apple was created with attributes to please consumers due to the fact that apples tend to brown so quickly. However, the creators of this apple haven’t gone far enough in telling consumers how the apple was made. The company does not mention GMOs on the apple bags ; instead, the bags have a QR code which links to online information when it is scanned by a smartphone. It is concerning due to the fact that not everyone has a smartphone, and even if you have one, you aren’t going to check every product’s ingredients with it. “The company has had subsequent surveys of people in America’s top apple-growing states—New York and Washington— which revealed that about 20% were wary of GMOs.” But the company also found that many people changed their minds when told that the apples were engineered to silence browning genes, and then tested for safety. It is important to not repeat the mistakes of the GMO industries in the past, but rather educate people on the product they are purchasing.
This article is relevant to society in that many people are purchasing genetically modified products in supermarkets without even realizing it. Genetically modifying products has become a popular way of expanding the shelf time of products. Many businesses, a firm in New York City that is developing fish fillets from fish stem cells and another business developing hamburgers from stem cells of cows. It is important that people become aware of the products they are purchasing in their local supermarkets and the ingredients on the label may not contain all the information they would have to know.
This article was both informative and very easy to understand. Author Amy Maxman did an amazing job stating facts about the product and giving background information in order to attract her reader. By doing so, Amy was able to make the article more reliable and less biased in order to give the reader the opportunity to formulate their own opinions. However I believe that Amy lacked quotes from the actual scientists and the business representatives and therefore without this information the article became less scientific. I believe with the addition of more quotes and the addition of other experiments and possible negatives of consuming such products would have had a larger impact on the reader and overall would have shown the importance of checking the labels of every product.
Cindy Kwok
ReplyDeleteCurrent Events 23
Maxmen, Amy. “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.”
Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-browning-resistant-apple-reaches-u-s-stores/.
I read Julia’s review on the article “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” Something that was well-done was her summary on the article. Julia explained what the experiment was about, although it could be inferred from the title. I liked how her summary talked about the parts of the experiment that could be concerning such as how these apples do not have a GMO label on them so consumers do not really know what they are buying. I also enjoyed Julia’s explanation of its relevance to humanity. After figuring out the genetic code for most animals and now plants, scientists have been busy figuring out how to incorporate this relatively new science to practical use. By taking certain genes from a specific plant and impanting it into a different aplant, new and certain traits can be produced. In this case, it is an apple that can resistant he browning effect. Julia explained how this could be slightly dangerous since the apple produced does not have a label indicating that it was genetically modified. Many people (20%) are vary of GMOs because of how little is known about it -- although the apples did not have any side-effects that are known (probably due to the short time-span that it has been out), people would still want to known what they are intaking. Lastly, I thought Julia wrote a good summary of the pros and cons to the article. She explained how the lack to quotes limited the article’s “scientific” aspect but still produced a lot of important details.
One thing that the article could do better was explaining about the browning of the apple itself to produce more knowledge of the background an why it was important. I searched online and found that it was due to a reaction between certain enzyme and oxygen which changes the color of the polyphenols to brown. One thing that stuck in my mind was that the browning does not really do anything (less nutritional value, but still edible) so the only concern was that it looks less appetizing. With the GMOs making it so it doesn’t brown, I can't help but wonder if the GMOs also make it retain the nutritional value, or is only the coloring affected (so the apple still has less nutritional value after exposure to oxygen). Lastly, I though Julia could probably talk more about the risks with GMOs in her affect on humanity section which mainly focused on how people don’t know that is in their food.
I chose Julia’s article to read about since I have always been interested in GMOs, especially during my freshman health class where we had to choose a topic to write about the pros and cons of and I chose to do the research on GMOs. One of the main cons is the limited knowledge on how this can affect the fruits and side effects are still not known. Overall, I thought the article could have been better since there have already been fruit such as grapes which have been genetically modified to be seedless so the article should have talked more about GMOs than the browning apples, which isn’t as “new”. In general it was still interesting learning about what types of fruits are now made to be genetically modified.
Robby Scheltick
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
Ippolito
CE 23
Citation: Maxmen, Amy. “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-browning-resistant-apple-reaches-u-s-stores/.
This cycle I read Julia’s review of the article “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores” by the Scientific American. She does a good job summarizing her article, using various skills to inform the viewer. She uses source material from the article such as, “The company has had subsequent surveys of people in America’s top apple-growing states—New York and Washington— which revealed that about 20% were wary of GMOs.” to provide statistical evidence for her claims, as well as help give the viewer a better sense of the article. She used short and easy vocabulary, allowing her article to be read by a larger audience. Finally, she does a good job keeping the attention of the reader, which is important for any science article, and she keeps it fun with her casual tone.
She could improve a few things in her article to make it a more enjoyable read. She keeps her tone friendly, but uses very official words in her descriptions and explanations, such as in her GMO relevance paragraph. Being very casual but also using modern references to foods would help keep the reader engaged. Maybe bringing up some popular cereals and discussing how GMO corn/ other products is a big aspect of foods you may not know you’re eating. I would also recommend running a grammar checkers after writing her piece, as there were some obvious and some subtle errors that could distract the reader from the main point of the article.
I chose to read this article because, as an athlete, I eat a lot of food daily to fuel by body, and I think that it is important to eat mostly the right foods. With all the investigation into the food industry these days, it is important to keep spreading the word to people and reaching a bigger audience with the message to beware malpractice in the industry. This article and her review achieve that through their various creative skills.
Kirsten Ircha 4/28/18
ReplyDeleteAP Biology E/F Even Current Event #23
Citation:
Maxmen, Amy. “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.”
Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-browning-resistant-apple-reaches-u-s-stores/.
My fellow colleague wrote an insightful review on the article “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores” by Amy Maxen. To begin, Julia does an amazing job of giving a summary of the original article. Through these descriptions it becomes clear how genetically modified apples are being created to appeal to the consumer. However, many consumers are unaware that these apples are created in a very artificial environment and can negatively affect smaller more local farmers. As these ideas are stated in a very simple way, the readers are able to have a full understanding of the topic and the original article. Furthermore, Julia gives quotes from the initial article stating, “The company has had subsequent surveys of people in America’s top apple-growing states—New York and Washington— which revealed that about 20% were wary of GMOs.” By providing these quotes Julia’s review feels far more legitimate and credible. This also allows the reader to understand that Julia has a full grasp of the information she is speaking about. I also feel that Julia uses very simple and easy to comprehend vocabulary and word choice. This allows the piece to be geared towards a greater array of age groups and educational levels.
Although I enjoyed the review, I feel a couple of areas could be easily improved in order to enhance the review. One of the main concerns I have is that a few of the ideas are stated and restated multiple times. This allows the work to feel somewhat repetitive and less concise. In the future Julia should make sure to consolidate her thoughts and have a single sentence to represent an idea rather than multiple sentences. Although a smaller issue, Julia also uses personal pronouns throughout the review. As this is a more academic piece Julia should makes sure to take out any personal pronouns in any future pieces to maintain a sophisticated tone.
What shocked me most is when Julia writes, “This article is relevant to society in that many people are purchasing genetically modified products in supermarkets without even realizing it...It is important that people become aware of the products they are purchasing in their local supermarkets and the ingredients on the label may not contain all the information they would have to know.” This ideas is so surprising as I often go grocery shopping for my family and put little thought into how the food in which we eat is being produced. Additionally, I am most likely consuming genetically modified food everyday without even realising it. This issue will change my life as I am deeply interested in the topic and will continue to follow update in the future.
Charlie Gay
ReplyDelete4/28/18
Mr. Ippolito
AP Biology
Current Events 23
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-browning-resistant-apple-reaches-u-s-stores/
Maxmen, Amy. “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.”Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2017.
I really enjoyed reading Julia’s review on the article “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” One thing that she did very well in her review is she provided quantitative data. For example, she wrote “revealed that about 20% were wary of GMOs.” Providing numbers makes it impossible to poke holes in her argument and allows the reader to form their own opinion on what the data means. Another thing that she does well is she summarized her article very well. She did not just quote the article to summarize it, but rather made a scientific article very easy to understand. She used language that an everyday person would be able to understand, not just a scientist. Lastly, another thing that Julia does well is she included a quote from the article. She wrote “The company has had subsequent surveys of people in America’s top apple-growing states—New York and Washington— which revealed that about 20% were wary of GMOs.” Although I said earlier that I liked that she created her own summary and did not just quote the article, it is important to quote the article at least once. Quoting the article adds to the credibility of the review.
Although Julia’s review was very well written, there are some aspects that she could improve upon. One thing she could have done better is she could have provided some background information on who the author was. She never told the reader why we should be listening to this women or why we should believe the information that she is presenting. Another thing that she could have done better is she could have told us who said or wrote the quote that she included. I assume that the author is the one that wrote the quote, but it is impossible to tell for sure.
I chose this article because of its title. I have many apples in my house and eat a lot of apples. I probably have apples in my house that are browning. This article is on a topic that is very relevant to me. I also chose this article because GMO’s is always a controversial topic that I am very interested in. I found it very interesting to learn that an apple could be genetically modified so it does not brown. I wish that this article went more in depth of how this process is done. I had no idea that people are buying genetically modified foods in the supermarket without even realizing it. This is definitely a problem that must be solved.