Environmental Issues
Environmental Issues concerning Plant Advancements via Genetic Engineering
To boldly express genes never expressed by (certain) plants before...
Main concerns of “green” parties: (Reference: "The year of the triffids"
The Economist April 26, 1997, pg.80)
1. The modified plants may make people ill.
example: A gene was transferred from a Brazil nut to a soyabean to
improve the nutritional quality of the soyabean. However, people allergic to
Brazil nuts were also found to be allergic to the modified soyabeans.
2. The modified crop may encourage the spread of dangerous strains of bacteria.
3. The modified crop might become a damaging weed by itself or by hybridizing
with another species to form such a weed.
4. The modified crop may encourage resistance in pests faster than most
pesticides incite resistance naturally.
Fears about toxins:
Reference: “Transgenic plants provoke petition” from Science News,
vol. 152 September 27, 1997, pg. 199.
Organic farmers commonly treat their crops with the bacterium, Bacterium
thuriensis (Bt), which has been registered with EPA as a spray pesticide
since 1961, because its toxins have no known detrimental effect on fish, birds,
or mammals. Bt toxins also degrade readily in the environment, mainly through
exposure to sunlight.
Genetically modified crops, which produce this toxin, have been causing
quite a stir with organic farmers and environmentalists. On September 16,
1997, about 20 groups and individuals filed a petition with the
Environmental Protection Agency to rescind approvals of plants genetically
altered to produce a particular pesticide. Farmers had already planted
those transgenic crops, including corn, cotton, and seed potatoes, on more
than 3 million acres in the United States. Some critics are:
Greenpeace International, the Sierra Club,
and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.
These groups also want to block future approvals of similar plants.
In the petition, they charge the EPA with “wanton destruction” of what
they contend is the world’s most important biological pesticide.
The opponents fear that some insect pests will develop resistance to the
pesticide; in addition, cross-pollination between the transgenic plants
and their wild relatives could produce wild plants containing genes for
the pesticide, possibly leading to resistance in other insects as well.
What is Cosupression amd why
is it an issue?
conclusions...
That's nice. But so what?
Basically, there are still many things we do not understand about genetic
engineering (on plants- as well as other organims), how it specifically works
(for good or bad), and what affects it may have on the natural environment.
The research our group did on the subject was inconclusive. That is because
there is no end to the story of genetic engineering, or genetics, for that
matter. Every answer that science comes up with is met by a new set of
questions.... So the cycle evolves, and continues, with each new generation.
Email: mageelb@miavx1.muohio.edu
