GM foods: getting students to ask the right questions
I have just returned from a science teacher conference in Adelaide – lovely bunch of people. I ran a professional development workshop for them about GM foods and some of the questions that cropped up were relevent to the last post I made, so I thought I would post an article I wrote for a few science teacher publications that might help. It is written for the science teacher, especially the bit at the bottom explaining a classroom activity to teach this stuff, but it might also give some context for everyone else out there, and hopefully some food for thought.
GM foods: getting students to ask the right questions
Unwanted, untested and unsafe, or solving the looming world food shortage. Genetically modified foods have aroused polarised views among society, and for students trying to construct an informed argument on this topic, these predominant views can obscure their ability to ask the right questions.
Secondary students set assignments about GM foods nearly always focus on these unbalanced viewpoints. This is not a bad thing, but they need to also ask the questions that will allow them to penetrate beneath these sometimes extreme opinions.
Students that contact us at the Gene and NanoTechnology Information Service for information on GM foods nearly all ask the following questions: are GM foods safe; what are the advantages and disadvantages of GM foods; and what are the long-term effects of GM foods? And a concern that is always expressed is that GM crops are unnatural.
Case-by-case
In the first instance, students need to apply these questions on a case-by-case basis. That is, to a single GM crop in a specific environment. This is because each GM crop has been created by a different technology, bringing with it risks and benefits specific to that crop in that environment.
Framing student questions
Equally important, though, are the ethical questions. If a student asks if GM crops are safe, apart from the need to rephrase the question by asking is this GM crop safe, the student needs to define what they mean by safe. How safe does something have to be before they will eat it? What do we know about the safety of a GM food and how does this compare to the known risks of other foods we most likely eat, for example, potatoes, fatty foods, salt, sugar, or acrylamides, which are potential carcinogens found in baked and fried foods such as meats, cakes, roasted nuts and any starchy or high carbohydrate food.
Related to this is the issue of long-term effects. Does their long-term mean 5 years, one generation or 10 generations? Are the long-term consequences of eating conventional foods known? The answer to this and for GM foods is no, but in this context, how do the risks of conventional foods compare those of GM foods.
If a student says that GM crops are unnatural, what do they mean by unnatural, and does unnatural mean it is bad. What are the conventional ways of producing crops and would they be defined as natural or unnatural — or even safe? For example, students should investigate two common and long-used breeding techniques: mutagenesis and embryo rescue, and compare these to the techniques to create a GM crop. (See link to PNAS paper below about how mutagenesis can casue greater expression of untargeted genes than GM technologies.)
So, the overall question is what are the potential risks and benefits of a GM food and are those risks acceptable when compared with the benefits. A secondary question might be when do the risks become acceptable and why? The answers will be different for each person.
More student stuff and class activities
GM food is a complex topic and the issues are far wider than described here. This article has focused only on the main questions asked by students.
Other questions that a student might consider are the following:
- Is the chosen crop grown for research purposes or is it grown commercially?
- What is the crop used for, for example, food, medicine, or clothing? Does the crop’s purpose influence its acceptability?
When assessing the benefits, a student might also think about who benefits from the crop and how do the benefits influence the acceptability or not of the crop when weighed against the risks.
Class activity
Find a few examples of GM crops, include existing and those in the research pipeline.
Clear some space in the classroom so there is a corridor from one end to the other. This space will be your morality line. One end is where people stand if they find a GM crop completely acceptable. The other end is where they stand if they find it completely unacceptable. Or they can position themselves anywhere along the line. With each GM crop example, get your students to position themselves on the line anywhere between acceptable or unacceptable. You should find their position will change depending on the crop and its potential uses. Their reasoning for their position makes an interesting debate. As these are largely ethical issues there is generally no right or wrong answer. The exercise gets students to think about risk, risk assessment and risk acceptability, and how and why these will differ with each person. It gets them to critically analyse other opinions or evidence and reflect on their own opinions.
More info on mutagenesis and embryo rescue
Scoles, G. University of Saskatchewan
http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/glossary/
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/9/3640.full
Jason Major
Manager