Free Range ''Googs'' - 21

Many people are uncomfortable with genetically altered tomatoes that stay red and firm for a month, and potatoes that have been altered to produce their own pesticide against common pests that attack them. Can we be sure such foods do not have side effects that we are currently unaware of? (Reflect on ''Cost Benefit Analysis'').

Many people differentiate a product on ''ethical'' grounds. ''Free range'' eggs come from chickens raised in a more traditional farming method than do ''battery'' eggs, who are raised in ''hi tech'' pens and cages, never allowed to forage in the fields, but kept inside all their lives. Nutritional analysis says there is little if any difference, in the eggs produced by either method.

Placing eggs on a conveyer belt prior to washing and packing at Golden Egg Farms Western Australia Image copyright: Golden Egg Farms www.goldeneggs.com.au

Yet many consumers will swear that ''free range'' eggs are ''better'', and they will be willing to pay a higher price for such eggs. (And they do. Twenty years ago, ''free range'' eggs were unheard of).

(A ''goog'' is an egg, if you haven't heard of the term before!).