Dangers of GMOs and Health Effects on Animals: Is It safe?
Aliyah Panizzi
Longwood University DANGERS OF GMOS AND HEALTH EFFECTS ON ANIMALS: IS IT SAFE?
In discussions of GMOs, one controversial issue has been on the dangerous effects GMOs have on animal health. On the one hand, some scholars like Zhang and Shi state in their conclusion that GM plants have no effect on the organisms that consume them. On the other hand, Wiebke Garrels, Zolatan Ivics, and Wilfried A. Kues, agree on the idea that there are some very concerning issues that need to be focused on, but there are still various positive effects. Since GMO testing is still new, scientists are still discovering different effects that GMOs have on the animals being tested. Scholars like M. Greger, Buddiger and Albers may even go on to say that though there may be “road bumps” they believe that without a doubt in the future, human kind will reach biological maximum. These studies suggest a rise of concern on the true effects on the health of animals. Genetic engineering is still fairly new, for the most part scientists are still uncertain of some effects that can be caused by it. Michael Falk et Al. and Wiebke Garrels et al. argue that GMOs do have a positive effect on animal …show more content…
Garrels et al.’s point is that genetic engineering hasn’t been as effective as scientists had hoped it would be. Similarly, Garrels et al, claims that genetic engineering is also expensive. “Trans-genesis in domestic species is still inefficient, expensive, and tainted with low success rates in terms of predictability of the patterns and levels of transgene expression” (Garrels et al., 2012, 386). The essence of Garrels et al.’s argument is that genetic engineering on animals is inefficient at this point in