Turn to page 108 to choose your role and get ready to present it.

Unit 10. Food Production and Consumption

Lead-in

Exercise 1. Starting up:

1. What is your attitude to genetically modified products?

2. Are you scared to include them in your daily ration? Are such products popular worldwide?

3. Do you think that industry of GM products is now getting more and more support from governments worldwide?

Vocabulary and Reading

Exercise 2. You are going to read the report on GM products. Match English phrases with their Russian equivalents:

1. to be under way	точные модификации
2. a seed market	в долгосрочной перспективе
3. to arouse opposition	городское население
4. urban population	осуществляться
5. in the longer term	отдельные ДНК
6. to approve for commercialisation	вызывать протест
7. to strike fear	предоставлять возможности
8. stray DNA	упругий
9. to provide opportunities	утверждать для коммерческого использования
10. precise modifications	нагнать страху
11. amenable	рынок зерна
12. resilient	подверженный

Exercise 3. Read the report on GM products and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F):

1. China did not give the safety go-ahead to its GM rice variety.

2. Techniques for altering genomes are moving ahead very fast.

3. GM crops are a way for big companies to take over the livelihoods of small farmers.

4. Charities are also funding efforts in various countries to make crops more hardy or nutritious.

Genetically modified food

Attack of the really quite likeable tomatoes

The success of genetically modified crops provides opportunities to win over their cities.

In the 14 years since the first genetically modified crops were planted commercially, their descendants, relatives and remixes have gone forth and multiplied like profitable, high-tech pondweed. A new report shows that 25 countries now grow GM crops, with total area under cultivation now larger than Peru. Three-quarters of the farmland used to grow soya is now sown with genetically modified variant, and the figures for cotton are not that far behind, thanks to its success in India. China recently gave the safety go-ahead to its GM rice variety and a new GM maize that should make better pig feed. More and more plants are having their genomes sequenced: a full sequence for maize was published late last year, the soya genome in January. Techniques for altering genomes are moving ahead almost as fast as the genomes themselves are stacking up, and new crops with more than one added trait are coming to market.

Such stories of success will strike fear into some hearts, and not only in GM-averse Europe; a GM backlash is under way in India, focused on insect-resistant aubergines. Some of these fears are understandable, but lacking supporting evidence they have never been compelling. Gov­ernments need to keep testing and monitoring, but that may be becoming easier. More precise modifications, and better technologies for monitoring stray DNA both within plants and in the environment around them, mean that it is getting easier to be sure that nothing untoward is going on.

Then there is the worry that GM crops are a way for big companies to take over the livelihoods of small farmers. Seen in this light the fact that 90% of the farmers growing GM crops are comparatively poor and in developing countries is sinister, not salutary. It is certainly true that big firms make a lot of money selling GM seeds: the GM seed market was worth $10.5 billion in 2009, and the crops that grew from that seed were worth over $130 billion. But multinationals are not the only game in town. The governments of China (which has increased agricultural research across the board), India and Brazil are also developing new GM crops. In 2009 a GM version of an Indian cotton variety, developed in the public sector, came to market, and a variety engineered by a private Indian firm has been approved for commercialisa­tion. Charities, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are also funding efforts in various countries to make crops more hardy or nutritious. GM seeds that come from govern­ment research bodies, or from local firms, may not arouse quite so much opposition as those from large foreign compa­nies, especially when they provide characteristics that make crops better, not just easier to farm.

Moreover, where the seeds come from is a separate ques­tion from who should pay for them, as Mr Gates points out. As with drugs and vaccines, it is possible to get products that were developed with profit in mind to the people who need them using donor money and clever pricing and licensing deals. In the longer term, if the seeds deliver what the farmers require, the need for such special measures should diminish. After all, the whole idea is not that poor farmers should go on being poor. It is that poor farmers should get a bit richer, be able to in­vest a bit more, and thus increase the food available to a grow­ing and predominantly urban population.

(“The Economist”, February 27^th 2010, page 16)

Exercise 4. Comprehension check. Answer the following questions:

1. When were the first genetically modified crops planted commercially?

2. How many countries are engaged in growing GM crops?

3. How big is the area that GM crops take at present day?

4. What is the reason for partial GM backlash in India?

5. What can precise modifications and better technologies for monitoring stray DNA provide?

6. Do GM seeds that come from government research bodies and from foreign companies arouse the same opposition?

Exercise 5. Study the report again (Exercise 3) and find the adequate English equivalents of the following words and phrases: 1) приятный (привлекательный), 2) засевать, 3) разрешение на дальнейшую работу, 4) менять (изменять), 5) особенность (характеристика), 6) негативная реакция, 7) неблагоприятный, 8) средства к жизни (пропитание), 9) транснациональная компания, 10) уменьшать, 11) преимущественно, 12) потомок.

Listening

Exercise 6. You are going to listen to the end of the report on the problem of GM products. Match the words and phrases with their definitions:

1. preservation	efficient use of the surface of the ground
2. private investment	money of an individual (rather than government) put into sth
3. soil management	a statement of what the weather is likely to be for the next day or few days, usually broadcast on television or radio
4. weather forecast	protection
5. to crowd out	someone's idea, invention, which can be protected by law from being copied by someone else
6. intellectual property	to expel, to drive out

Exercise 7. Listen to the end of the report on GM products and say what dangers of GM technologies expansion are identified there (“The Economist”, February 27^th 2010).

Exercise 8. Listen to the report again and fill in the gaps in the script using the target vocabulary (Exercise 6):

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