The Risks And Consequences Of Genetic Engineering

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Genetic Engineering Genetic Engineering is a very new branch of science that focuses on modifying the DNA structure of different plants, animals, and humans. The modification of food products is the most popular type of Genetic Engineering and over the years it has also become one of the most controversial topics concerning the modification of DNA. The modification of our foods is not good when done on a large scale because it leads to creating on new allergies, unknown disease and other unknown defects on the our agriculture. Genetic engineering is much more efficient than breeding traits because it allows the farmers to focus on individual traits without having to spend years on the crops (Golick). The downside to this is that weeds get …show more content…
The addition of new DNA strands to an organism could lead to a mutation and when a living organism is mutated it reveals new risks or benefits. A mutation could make an organism live longer or reproduce faster. This could either be seen as a good or bad thing because depending on the organism because these new traits can have different effects on the environment. It is believed that “genetic engineering [is] no more likely to produce unintended consequences than conventional breeding” ( Johnson). The problem with such a statement is that traditional breeding takes decades to work. It is a very long process where organisms are crossbreed generations after generation but the part that makes it safer than genetic engineering is that it has been done by farmers for hundreds of years. There are special ways which can help the farmer crossbreed animals, and thanks to these guidelines we can safely control the traits of different organisms without having the need of forcing different genetic strains. Although genetic engineering “eliminates the need for mating and allows the movement of genes between organisms of any species”, it also increases the chances or unintentionally creating and spreading new disease upon our planet ( Golick). Saving a few years through genetic engineering is simply not worth the potential creation of an untreatable virus or …show more content…
Our environment, just like us, can have a very bad reaction towards newly modified organisms. Imagine adding a brand new type of plant or flower to the environment and then having “insects, birds, and wind carry genetically altered pollen to other fields and forests, pollinating plants and randomly creating new species that would carry on the genetic modifications” (Cummins). With a genetically modified plant in the wild, any animal or insect could consume it and this could lead to a lot of problems. Scientists say that they test their new organisms, making sure that humans can safely eat it, but how can they be sure that the animals will be safe. The forests are full of animals that are all a part of the food chain. There are hundreds of different species that are part of this chain, and there is just no way of knowing whether these animals are affected by the genetically modified plants they eat or not. Even the smallest animal, like a mouse, could have a bad reaction to a certain plant, becoming sick or weak. From there on, any predator that eats this mouse will be affected by the newly created disease, spreading it onto other species. The scariest part of this is that ones this process has started, there is just no way of stopping it. A controlled organism, in a lab, could be easily destroyed, but a modified plant in the wild could

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