A Brave New World Argumentative Analysis

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Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, showcased a futuristic utopia where a magical tablet called soma induced joy and solved every problem imaginable. Agricultural genetic engineering is taking a step into the future, to solve tomorrow’s problems today with a different kind of soma—recombinant bovine somatotropin. Recombinant bovine somatotropin, abbreviated rbST, is a synthetic growth hormone commonly injected into dairy cows to have them produce more milk. Recently, the use of the hormone has come under a cloud of controversy, forcing alternate methods of heightening cows’ ability to generate more milk to be found. One possibility is to genetically modify the cow’s genes in order for it to produce more of its own growth hormone, in return producing…show more content…
In the beginning years of rbST hormone use researchers thought that the hormone would just be a catalyst to milk production. After much research, the hormone does deliver its promise of more milk, but it also introduced side effects that were not considered before. Treated cows are efficient in that they are able to continue to reproduce normally, however, one draw back is that it is difficult to determine the cow’s estrus cycle in order to inseminate her and inject her with growth hormone. Producers at this point are looking for a way to have a high yield, but in order to do that; the cow needs to be impregnated to begin lactation. Without successful insemination the cow will not be able to lactate and the producer would not have a chance to inject hormone into the cow. In the scenario that the cow was successfully inseminated, during gestation, the cow needs to be fed a balanced diet of grain and roughage. A problem that arose during studies was that three percent of the time the treated cow would refuse to eat, which lowers that quality of the milk because she is not eating properly. The cow needs to eat a balanced meal, plus more, because she needs to feed not only herself but her calf. She is in actuality feeding three beings: herself, her calf, and us through her…show more content…
The optimists are idealists that hope that nothing will go wrong with the manipulations. However, skeptics analyze the situation more and wait out for more concrete evidence. The altered cow’s milk might not have any side effects at this moment, but it may be dormant until later in life. The milk producers will be able to bring in a high yield of milk annually if the gene manipulation works, however, they will not be able to convince the countless skeptics that genetically altered cows produce a safe product. Instead of profiting from a high yield the producers will lose customers because of their anxiety towards the foreign milk. Hypothetically the producers would have benefited from the advancement, but realistically, nations worldwide would want a guarantee that their people are not going to be harmed. It is natural for people to be scared of change, and the fear of genetically altered food is a prime example of

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