Genetic Engineering Cons

Genetic engineering is the use of tools of modern biotechnology and molecular biology to specifically introduce or alter characteristics or traits in organisms. Genetic engineering can be applied to any organism. An example of genetic engineering is inserting a gene to a plant that makes it more resistant to pesticides. Many people have debated whether or not the use of genetic enginering poses a risk or not to society. I am against the use of genetic engineering because it negatively impacts humans who eat genetically modified food, genetically engineered animals and plants pose risks to the enviornment, and there is not a comple understanding to genetic engineering yet and the government does little to put restrictions on it. To begin with, genetic
engineering negatively impacts humans who eat genetically modified food. According to http://www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/cses/2000-02/risks.html, " Transgenic crops could bring new allergens into foods that sensitive individuals would not know to avoid." An example of this would be giving carrots a protein found in milk. Individuals who knew they were alergic to milk would avoid milk, but if they ate this genetically engineered carrot they would have an allergic reaction and would probably not know that it came from a genetically engineered carrot.
This is because genetic engineering alone allows transfering a gene to an organism that has no relation to another organism. This is also because in the U.S genetically engineered goods/products are not labled or separated from regular foods. Also, genetic engineered foods have genes that make them resistant to antibiotics. https://www.downtoearth.org/label-gmos/risks-genetic-engineering says," Genetic engineering often uses genes for antibiotic resistance..." Most genetically engineered plant foods have this antibiotic resistance gene. The gene in these plants primarily have two negative effects. Eating these plants/foods that have this gene will lower the effectiveness of antibotics to fight disease when you are taking antibiotics with meals. "Antibiotic-resistance genes produce enzymes that can degrade antibiotics." For example, if you eat a potato with a antibiotic resistance gene at the same time you are taking your antibiotics it could destroy the antibiotic in your stomach." If you are taking antibiotics because you have a serious disease that could kill you and
eating some type of food that has an antibiotic resistance gene you could be killing yourself slowly and not even know it because the food that had that gene destroyed the antibiotic in your stomach every time. The second effect is that the resistance gene could pass to a human or animal pathogen (bacterium,virus,etc) and that certain disease would be forever immune to antibiotics. If this were to happen, this certain disease could end up killing many before scientist could find a cure. To sum things up, genetic engineering can negatively impact humans who eat genetically modified food because genetically modified crops can bring new allergens into foods, and genetic engineering often uses genes in food that have antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, genetically engineered plants and animals pose risks to the enviornment. According to http://nwrage.org/content/10-reasons-oppose-genetic-engineering, "Engineering specific traits into select species threatens the planets biodiversity by upsetting the natural balance." If genetically modified animals and plants are released into the wild, they can potentially disrupt ecosystems and foodchains entirely. Biodiversity is when all species in a ecosystem work together to boost productivity. If a bear was genetically engineered to be stronger it could kill many species in an ecosystem and other bigger animals would not have food. Another example is if a genetically engineered plant was released into the wild, and was an invase species. These genetically engineered plants could exclude other animals and plants and cause them to die out in that specific ecosystem/area.Once you put a genetically engineered animal into the wild there is no taking it back. Another way genetically engineered plants and animas cause risks to the enviornment is resistant weeds, or super weeds. http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/risks-of-genetic-engineering.html#.VsZK0fIrKM8 says,"Millions of acres of U.S. farmland are now infested by weeds that have become resistant to the herbicide glyphosate." A herbicide is a substance that is toxic to plants and used to destroy unwanted vegetation, like weeds. Weeds are not beneficial to growing plants because they grow faster than the native plants and successfully compete for available nutrients, water, space and sunlight. These weeds have this resistance because of the overuse of "Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" trait, which is engineered to tolerate the herbicide..." This has accelerated the development of resistance in several weed species. Because of this, farmers have started to use more powerful, and toxic herbicides on these superweeds. Agricultural buisnesses have also developed new genetically engineered to protect from these older herbicides. This can lead to more weeds having an even stronger resistance to herbicides which will then prompt farmers to use even stronger herbicides. Because of this food production will probably lower, because the weeds will be still be constantly taking the nutrients first, and plants won't grow. All in all, genetically engineered plants and animals surely do pose risks to the enviornment. Lastly, genetic engineering is a part of biotechnology that is not yet fully completed/understood, and the government does little to put restrictions/limits on it. According to http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/genetic-engineering.shtml," Right now, however, there are no specific limits are on genetic engineering." That means with the right tools anyone can genetically modify an organism, whether its for good or bad. Society should understand the risk genetic engineering poses and governments should put a limit on this powerful field of science. There are alot of bad things that could happen if this falls into the hands of dangerous people, like creating a disease that is immune to antibiotics and other drugs/cures that could stop it. https://www.downtoearth.org/label-gmos/risks-genetic-engineering says, "The ability to imagine what might go wrong with a technology is limited by the currently incomplete understanding of physiology, genetics, and nutrition." Genetic engineering is a complicated field of science and many people don't understand the risks it causes to genetically modify something. There are so many things that could go wrong and there are probably even more things not discovered yet. To remind you, genetic engineering is a complicated part of biotechnology that is not completely understood, and the government does little to put restrictions/limits on it. To conclude, I am against the use of genetic engineering because it negatively impacts humans who eat genetically modified food, genetically engineered animals and plants pose risks to the enviornment, and there is not a comple understanding to genetic engineering yet and the government does little to put restrictions on it. Maybe in the future we can lessen the amount of plants and animals that are genetically engineered, and put some restrictions and limits on genetic engineering. As a society we should all know the risks that come from eating genetically engineered foods, and be responsible about using genetic engineering.