Shane Gunagan

   This is a good start on the first writing assignment.  
   You have done a good job, for the most part, on the 
   "they say" part.  

   I have made a number of suggestions for rewording
   or rewriting things directly on a printout of the 
   paper.  Ask me what I meant if the markings are not
   clear.

   The most consistent comment I have is that the words
   you choose do not always fit with what I think your
   intended meaning was.  For instance in your second
   sentence, saying "retain" would mean that the modifications
   are being done to keep some trates the way they are now.
   It's actually the opposite: the modifications are done
   to introduce new traits into existing organisms (to make
   plants more pest- or herbicide-resistent, for instance).
   Genetic material is often taken from other plants or
   animals and introduced into the genome of the target
   species to change its properties.  There are several
   other similar things.

   Comment:

   1.  I was really confused by your statement that Tom 
   Laskawy is saying that it is consumers, not the public,
   that should be villainized in the debate over GMOs.  
   Aren't almost all of the people in the public primarily
   consumers?  The proportion of the population involved
   in agriculture in any form is probably smaller now than
   at any point in human history, and almost everyone is
   relying on those few farmers to grow the food to support
   them.  If you look carefully at what Laskawy is saying,
   I think it's pretty clear that he is blaming the big
   agribusiness companies like Monsanto and Syngenta for
   "overhyping" GMO foods and seizing too much control over
   food production by the way they have retained intellectual
   property rights to the GMOs that they market to farmers.
   This is pretty much what you say at the end of the paragraph,
   so I don't understand what you meant in the sentence I
   marked.

   PS:  One of the main points of the Laskawy article
   is that increased resistance to pesticides and herbicides 
   is negating the benefits of GMO crops.  The interesting
   point her is that that resistance develops naturally 
   through evolution.  In effect, the genomes of the
   pests and the weeds are changing in response to 
   our genetic modification of the crops.  Some people
   compare the situation to an arms race where neither
   side can ever gain a decisive advantage.