The Positive And Negative Effects Of Genetic Engineering

Since thousands years ago, farmers and other people with an interest in agriculture and livestock have been selectively breeding the plants and animals to possibly achieve exact or similar characteristics that the owner wished for from past generations. The discovery of genetics was do to the extensive experimentation and studies of Gregor Mendel on various pea plants. Decades later after Mendel’s brilliant discovery, scientists continued to learn more about genetics and came to uncover the process of altering genes. This process became widely known as genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the process of altering genes of an organism or mixing the genes of different organisms to create the desired traits in the future. Advances in the …show more content…
In agriculture, scientists take a certain DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) trait from an organism and insert it into another to produce the trait such as drought resistance. On the other hand, this technology has some major downfalls since it has not been around for a while. Scientists do not know what are the effects of genetic engineering. There are some crops that are genetically modified but they have not been in markets because they are still being experimented on and scientists are not sure of the outcome and do not want the public to be affected if the harm was serious. Another harm would be if a new allergy reactions occur because of genetic engineering then it will cost large sums of money and valuable time to figure out a cure. A situation that could cost money and time will affect the economy and it will not be pleasant experience for the people. Crops became able to resist pesticide and killed the targeted insects that were harmful, but “If some target insects become resistant to the toxin, they will survive and breed new strains of hard-to-kill pests” (“Biotech on the Farm…” …show more content…
Particular group of people have different beliefs with genetic engineering such as environmental activists say “That it would upset the laws of nature” (Dudley ed. 197). Numerous religious people believe that it is against God’s creation because we should not change how the animals look. Even though many people accept genetic engineering, there are people that are opposing it because they are not fully informed of the outcome or of the process of genetic engineering. “Although particular instances of genetic engineering of plants and animals have caused some controversy, mostly because of environmental or health concerns, genetic engineering is a generally accepted practice” (Gert