FREE ESSAY ON EFFECTS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING ON AGRICULTURE

EFFECTS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING ON AGRICULTURE

The Effects of Genetic Engineering on Agriculture
Agribiotechnology is the study of making altered agricultural products. Agribusiness is
trying to alter the genes of already existing products to try to enhance the
biocompetitiveness and adaptability of crops by enhancing plant resistance to drought,
salinity, disease, pests and herbicides. They are going to try to enhance their growth,
productivity, nutrient value, and chemical composition. The old way of doing this was
through selective breeding, special fertilizer, and hormones. This seems now somewhat
outdated with today's technology.
Genetic engineering comes with many downfalls. Increased production through genetic
engineering could exhaust nonrenewable resources more rapidly and fail to feed a larger
and more dependent human population. In Africa, and South and Central America, super
breeds of crops, irrigation and hydroelectric dams, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and
agripoisons exported to less developed countries produced great short-term profits but
destroyed already existing, more regenerative, traditional farming practices, ultimately
destroying the communities and fragile land. Natural deserts, swamps and salt marshes
need to be preserved to protect biodiversity and the integrity of the Earth's ecology.
Introducing genetically engineered organisms into the environment means that these areas
could be invaded by these new species therefore furthering loss of natural ecosystems.
A major concern of farmers and scientists regarding engineered crops is that they are
afraid that these new plants which would be resistant to herbicides and other chemicals
would breed with a nearby weedy relative and thus creating a superweed that would be
resistant to herbicides. These plants would then choke out the crops. Another example of
this would be with Pseudomonas syringae. This is a common bacterium on plants that causes
frost to form on them. The lipoprotein coating of this bacterium is blown from the plants
and soil into the atmosphere. Once in the upper atmospheric regions, these particles act
as nuclei around which water collects and freezes to form ice. Some scientists consider
this process absolutely essential for rain to fall. Genetic engineers are working on a
strain of P. syringae that would not form frost on plants. Some scientists are concerned
that these strains could conceivably cause serious climatic perturbations that inhibit
rainfall and cause drought.
Farmer's fields are not the only places that are threatened. Scientists are looking for a
way to destroy lignin, an organic substance that makes trees rigid, by use of a
genetically engineered enzyme. They believe that it would be of use to clean up the
effluent form paper mills or for decomposing biological material for energy. This poses a
threat to forests because it could destroy massive amounts of them by eating away their
lignin. We could end up with no trees. Engineers could try to create organisms with a
"suicide" gene so they only live for a very short time, but they would be alive long
enough to do damage.
These engineers and businesses, like Pioneer, Sandoz, Imperial Chemical Industries, Dow,
Ciba-Geigy, Monsanto, Upjohn, Elanco, and Pitman-Moore to name the leading corporations
in agribiotechnology, don't understand the impact that these engineered organisms can
have on the existing fragile ecosystems. It is clear that the biotechnology industry is
potentially one of the most serious threats to the biodiversity and ecological integrity
of planet Earth. The threat will become a reality if this technology is applied with the
same values and attitude toward life and the biosphere that sanctioned and promoted the
wholesale application of pesticides and the development of capital-intensive monoculture
farming and forestry. But this is not to say that this new technology could not be used
appropriately. For example, it could be used to engineer plants to help halt the spread
of deserts; to develop microorganisms and plants to synthesize essential biologics, such
as insulin and antibodies; to help in water treatment to remove pesticides
(bioremidiation), heavy metals, and other industrial and agrochemical poisons.
Scientists must be extremely cautious about releasing genetically engineered organisms
into the environment. The deliberate and accidental release of exotic, nonindigenous
plant and animal species has caused considerable harm to the ecosystem already. Modern
agriculture operates so close to the edge of disaster that the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Research Service spent $23.5 million in 1991 on biological control programs.
Exotic foreign weeds, such as the field star thistle, and bugs such as the Russian wheat
aphid, accidentally imported in contaminated agricultural produce and seeds, along with
indigenous agricultural pests such as grasshoppers and medflies, are a serious and costly
problem. The rationale of using high-risk "biological controls"- such as releasing
Australian wasps to control grasshoppers- as an alternative to more costly pesticides is
the same rationale that the biotech industry is employing to justify the use of various
genetically engineered products as alternatives to chemical pesticides.
The plethora of "biological immigrants"- exotic plant and insect pests that are a threat
to agriculture and are responsible for millions of dollars of crop damage and loss in the
United States every year- should serve as a warning to those who see no problems in
releasing new genetically engineered life forms into the environment. Some of these
biological immigrants include the blue water hyacinth and hydrilla that are now clogging
Florida's waterways; the Eurasian carp and other deliberately introduced foreign fish
species that have decimated indigenous fish species across the United States; and the
Middle East sweet potato whitefly. Other ecologically harmful exotics include Eurasian
Kentucky bluegrass, the Africanized honeybee, Chinese kudzu, the Asian tiger mosquito,
European purple loosestrife, the European starling, and the zebra mussel. Although many
exotics have been deliberately introduced, many come in accidentally in agricultural
produce and imported plants and seeds. And estimated 10 percent of established immigrants
have major adverse ecological consequences, but there is a new urgency because of the
"homogenization of the world" via import and export of agricultural commodities and
deliberate introduction of new plant and animal species. 
The biotech industry is also trying to promote the idea that genetic engineering is good
for all life because it can help increase the Earth's biodiversity. This is absurd. A
biotechnology - supported livestock industry that expands to meet the public demand for
meat and dairy products as dietary staples, coupled with more people on the planet, will
lead to a loss of natural biodiversity as more and more wildlands and wildlife are
obliterated. More trees will be cut down, more swamps drained and more dams built to
convert more land into pasture and cropland.
Pesticides and fertilizers from genetically engineered pest-killing and nitrogen-fixing
bacteria, along with crops that produce their own pesticides, herbicide- and
disease-resistant seeds and feed-efficient, disease-resistant livestock, will cause the
displacement and extinction of wild plant and animal species. It is vital that ecosystems
be saved from loggers, dam builders, monoculture foresters, and cattle and sheep
ranchers, since recent studies have shown that large areas of natural habitat must be
preserved in order to prevent a decline in species diversity.
In addition to the displacement of wildlife and destruction of natural habitats by the
expansion of agribiotechnologies, the long-term rebound effects on remaining wildlife
populations and habitats need to be considered. If you have a large acreage of herbicide
and disease-resistant trees, what would happen to the insects and their predators? They
could be forced to find new niches and compete in other ways with indigenous creatures in
adjacent, foreign land.
Because living organisms are highly complex, genetic engineers cannot possibly predict
all of the effects of introducing new genes into them. This is the case for even the
simplest bacterium, not to mention more complex plants and animals. This is because the
introduced gene may act differently when working within its new host, the original
genetic intelligence of the host will be disrupted, the new combination of the host genes
and the introduced gene will have unpredictable effects and therefore there is no way of
knowing the overall, long-term effect of genetically engineered foods on the health of
those who eat them.
Unnatural gene transfers from one species to another are dangerous. Biotechnology
companies erroneously claim that their manipulations are similar to natural genetic
changes or traditional breeding techniques. However, the cross-species transfers being
made, such as between fish and tomatoes, or between other unrelated species, would not
happen in nature and may create new toxins, diseases, and weaknesses.
Biotechnology companies also claim their methods are precise and sophisticated. In fact,
the process of inserting genes is quite random and can damage normal genes. Genetic
research shows that many weaknesses in plants, animals, and humans have their origin in
tiny imperfections in the genetic code. Therefore, the random damage resulting from gene
insertion will inevitably result in side effects and accidents.
When genetic engineers insert a new gene into any organism there are "position effects"
which can lead to unpredictable changes in the pattern of gene expression and genetic
function. The protein product of the inserted gene may carry out unexpected reactions and
produce potentially toxic products. There is also serious concern about the dangers of
using genetically engineered viruses as delivery vehicles in the generation of transgenic
plants and animals. This could destabilize the genome, and also possibly create new
viruses, and thus dangerous new disease.
Genetically engineered products also carry more risks than traditional foods. The process
of genetic engineering can thus introduce dangerous new allergens and toxins into foods
that were previously naturally safe. Already, one genetically engineered soybean was
found to cause serious allergic reactions, and bacteria genetically engineered to produce
large amounts of the food supplement, tryptophan, have been suspected to produce toxic
contaminants that killed 37 people and permanently disabled 1,500 more.
Genetically Engineered foods will also lead to and increase in pollution of food and
water supply. More than 50% of the crops developed by biotechnology companies have been
engineered to be resistant to herbicides. Use of herbicide-resistant crops will lead to a
threefold increase in the use of herbicides, resulting in even greater pollution of our
food and water with toxic agrochemicals.
In my opinion, genetically modified organisms pose a serious risk to human health and to
the environment. More research needs to be done to determine all the consequences of
releasing genetically modified organisms into the natural environment.