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Article: Genetic engineering debate shifting to America
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- September 23, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1998 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Last of three parts
CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- Behind a door marked "closed" to the
thousands of visitors who tour the Monsanto Life Sciences Research
Center here each year, Cindy Clasen fires a DNA-loaded .22-caliber
shell into corn tissue, changing its genetic makeup.
The process, called genetic engineering, allows scientists to
transfer a single gene from any organism -- plant, animal, or microbe
-- into a food crop so it can withstand insects and herbicides, as
well as last longer before spoiling.
"What we do is the same as Mother Nature," says Clasen, a
Monsanto Co. research technician. Genetically engineered, or
transgenic, crops look and taste the same as conventional crops, and
are not ...