please be specific.
2007-02-12 16:59:13 · 6 answers · asked by ferial 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Botany
I happen to think genetic engineering is cool. We should be using it more. Who cares if we'll irreparably change our environment; change is good! Glow-in-the-dark rabbits and smart mice with healing factors are awesome! Cheetahs going extinct? We need to crossbreed them with super-cheetahs!
Seriously though, we have a growing population. We're going to need drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant food crops to grow in formerly uninhabitable wastes. We'll need fruit at the grocery store that doesn't get dented, yet tastes decent at the same time. If genetic engineering has a solution to those problems, I'm all for it.
The way it works is they insert one or a few genes from one organism---sometimes another plant, sometimes a bacterium, animal, or whatever---that codes for a protein. That protein does something that changes the plant. They're not going to spontaneously create new allergens, or make the plants poisonous or devoid of nutrition. If anything, they'll make the plants more nutritious, since they can design all the vitamins into it that they want.
2007-02-12 17:06:11 · answer #1 · answered by Rachel R 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
How many years will it take to find out that the newly created plant is really a carcenogen and deadly to other plantlife?...
How about this.. YOU grow corn.. and you have been growing corn on your farm for 3 or 4 generations... now some company develops a new kind of corn that produces larger kernals and the wind blows the pollen from it to your fields.. and they sue you for selling your corn that has been pollenated by their corn (they have a patent on the DNA and they can tell that your corn was pollenated by theirs)... so you can no longer grow corn on your land...
Can't happen? it HAS HAPPENED!!! And we still don't know the effect of eating that genetically modified corn.. will it make people in the USA fatter? (or maybe it already HAS!).. or will it cause cancer?...
What is the responsibility of the company that developed it? do they have to tell their consumers that the corn has been genetically altered?...
ok.. I'll go to sleep now.. have a good night.
2007-02-13 01:11:16 · answer #2 · answered by ♥Tom♥ 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
1) Given that many people suffer food allergies, I think it is irresponsible that genetically engineered foods be sold without proper notification to the consumer as to what genes are contained within the GMO. For example, there are GM tomatoes that contain fish genes.
2) Genetic engineering is ecologically devestating as it promotes the cultivation of monocrops and prevents genetic diversity within agricultural crops.
3) Small communites rely on local agriculture and not big agro- businesses which divert money to foreign markets supported by GE.
see this web site about a farmer who had his livliehood destroyed by Monsanto:
http://www.percyschmeiser.com/
2007-02-13 01:35:25 · answer #3 · answered by plant freak 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Corn grown today is sterile,they took out the propagation aspect of the seeds to protect their patients.If the system collapse,we will have no food to grow.
2007-02-15 18:46:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have no idea but some say its against religion
tomatoes a wal mart are engineered
2007-02-16 23:48:38 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've always wanted a 6-foot tall daisy
2007-02-13 01:02:30 · answer #6 · answered by Smeather 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋