Guide or seeing-eye dogs truly are man's best friend. They have been used to help blind people now more commonly called the sightless or visually impaired for over eighty-five years. The dogs undergo intense training, and once assigned to a person, exhibit complete loyalty to and concern for their masters. Like so many good ideas, seeing-eye dogs were "discovered" by accident. During World War 1,a German doctor was walking across the grounds of a military hospital with a soldier who had recently been blinded in battle. The doctor's dog accompanied them. The doctor was suddenly called away, so he ordered his dog an Alsatian, or German shepherd to keep an eye on his patient. The dog did such a good job and the doctor was so impressed that he began to train dogs expressly for the purpose of guiding and aiding the sightless. A few years later, an American woman heard of the German doctor's success. She set up a special training center in the United States where dogs are still learning to be the eyes of their owners. In Japan, Shioya Kenichi established a training school for seeing-eye dogs with some of his companions in 1946. He started to train dogs, and about ten years after that, introduced the first domestic guide dog. Now there are nine groups training dogs, and about 960 guide dogs are helping sightless people throughout Japan.
Joe is working on his uncle Dave's farm. Who owns that field across the valley? Ken Smith and his wife. Their crop is GM genetically modified. We hadn't known that until we read about it in the newspaper. By law, they have to tell everybody about their farm. GM? I've never heard about that. Oh,haven't you? GM crops are one of the most serious problems we need to think about now. O.K., I'll ask you a simple question. Is this GM potato, fish or vegetable? A vegetable, of course. Why are you asking me such a thing? Do you know that scientists have put a gene into some potatoes to stop them freezing in winter? The gene comes from a fish that lives in very cold water!
You know! If one of the crops has flowers and its pollen is carried on the wind, that may be a big problem. So basically, all GM crop trials have to be far away from other crops, but their farm is close to ours. I can't see if they are GM crops or not. They look the same. That's the point of this problem. It's necessary for us farmers to strictly separate GM crops from normal ones. But at the same time, consumers should not choose GM crops easily just because they're reasonable. I understand. We have to be more sensitive to the effects food has on our health.