Food provides nutrients that are consumed by organisms for energy, growth, and survival. Plants and animals are the primary sources of food, with around 2,000 cultivated plant species and meat obtained directly from animal muscle and organs. A lack of sufficient food intake results in the condition of hunger. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been engineered through genetic modification techniques, and are used in research, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture through traits like herbicide resistance or increased nutritional value in crops.

2.  Food is any substance consumed to
provide nutritional support for the body.
It is usually of plant or animal origin, and
contains essential nutrients, such as fats,
proteins, vitamins, or minerals.
 The substance is ingested by an
organism and assimilated by the
organism's cells to provide energy,
maintain life, or stimulate growth.

3.  PLANTS
Many plants and plant
parts are eaten as
food and around
2,000 plant species
which are cultivated
for food. Many of
these plant species
have several distinct
cultivars.
 ANIMALS
Animals are used as
food either directly
or indirectly by the
products they
produce. Meat is an
example of a direct
product taken from
an animal, which
comes from muscle
systems or from
organs.

4.  In politics, humanitarian aid, and social
science, hunger is a condition in which a
person, for a sustained period, is unable
to eat sufficient food to meet basic
nutritional needs.

5.  A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any
organism whose genetic material has been
altered using genetic engineering techniques.
 GMOs are the source of genetically modified
foods and are also widely used in scientific
research and to produce goods other than
food.
 The term GMO is very close to the technical
legal term, 'living modified organism', defined
in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which
regulates international trade in living GMOs
(specifically, "any living organism that possesses
a novel combination of genetic material
obtained through the use of modern
biotechnology").

6.  GMOs are used in biological and medical research,
production of pharmaceutical drugs, experimental
medicine (e.g. gene therapy), and agriculture (e.g.
golden rice, resistance to herbicides).
 The term "genetically modified organism" does not
always imply, but can include, targeted insertions of
genes from one species into another.
 For example, a gene from a jellyfish, encoding a
fluorescent protein called GFP, or green fluorescent
protein, can be physically linked and thus co-
expressed with mammalian genes to identify the
location of the protein encoded by the GFP-tagged
gene in the mammalian cell. Such methods are
useful tools for biologists in many areas of research,
including those who study the mechanisms of human
and other diseases or fundamental biological
processes in eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells.

7.  Bacteria were the first organisms to be
modified in the laboratory, due to their simple
genetics.
 They continue to be important model
organisms for experiments in genetic
engineering. In the field of synthetic biology,
they have been used to test various synthetic
approaches, from synthesizing genomes to
creating novel nucleotides.
 These organisms are now used for several
purposes, and are particularly important in
producing large amounts of pure human
proteins for use in medicine.

8.  Transgenic plants
 Kenyans examining insect-resistant transgenic Bt corn
 Transgenic plants have been engineered for scientific
research, to create new colours in plants, and to
create different crops.
 In research, plants are engineered to help discover
the functions of certain genes. One way to do this is
to knock out the gene of interest and see what
phenotype develops. Another strategy is to attach
the gene to a strong promoter and see what
happens when it is over expressed. A common
technique used to find out where the gene is
expressed is to attach it to GUS or a similar reporter
gene that allows visualisation of the location.

9.  In agriculture, currently marketed genetically
engineered crops have traits such as resistance
to pests, resistance to herbicides, increased
nutritional value, or production of valuable
goods such as drugs (pharming).
 Products under development include crops
that are able to thrive in environmental
conditions outside the species' native range or
in changed conditions in their range (e.g.
drought or salt resistance).
 Products that existed and have been
withdrawn include those with extended
product shelf life, such as the Flavr-savr tomato.

10.  Cisgenesis, sometimes also called
intragenesis, is a product designation for
a category of genetically engineered
plants.
 A variety of classification schemes have
been proposed that order genetically
modified organisms based on the nature
of introduced genotypical changes
rather than the process of genetic
engineering.

11.  Genetically modified mammals are an important
category of genetically modified organisms.
 Ralph L. Brinster and Richard Palmiter developed
the techniques responsible for transgenic mice,
rats, rabbits, sheep, and pigs in the early 1980s, and
established many of the first transgenic models of
human disease, including the first carcinoma
caused by a transgene.
 The process of genetically engineering animals is a
slow, tedious, and expensive process. However,
new technologies are making genetic
modifications easier and more precise.

12. MC DAVIDSON MAYOR
BEED-II