Two different issues (GM and cloning)

Member Name: magpie

Product:	GM and cloning
Date:	28/11/00 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Increased yields of crops

Disadvantages: Environmental damage

Genetic modification (GM) and cloning, previously only in the domain of science fiction, are issues we must deal with in the here and now.

In many ways, they are related: they are part of the brave new world of biotechnology; they affect life; they are to do with genetics. However, I believe they are really two very different issues, each with their own unique problems. I will only discuss GM - this is the issue that I worry most about, and know most about. If people want my opinion on cloning, and genome research, put something in the comments and I'll extend this already too long opinion!

Genetic modification, particularly of food stuffs, is a highly emotive issue. The media start shouting about frankenstein foods, the environmentals talk of cross-pollination, and most of the rest of us fail to understand what it is all really about.

Most food crop genetic modification is for three purposes.

* Increasing crops' insecticide and weedkiller protection
* Increasing crops' disease protection
* Increasing crop yield

If crops have high insecticide and weedkiller tolerance, farmers can spray their crops with more weedkiller and insecticide, hence increasing the productivity of any field. This has huge environmental consequences:

* A reduction in insects, and hence birds and other wildlife
* Pollution of rivers and wild land
* Reduction in biodiversity

In my opinion, genetic modificaion for this aim is a bad thing, because of the environmental damage caused by the chemicals which are subsequently used.

If crops are more disease-resistant, fewer crops will fail, and hence yields will increase. As a GM method for increasing yield, I can't see much wrong with this.

GM to increase yield - increasing the mass of product produced by one plant - again, as a method to increase yield, I don't have a problem with this.

There are other possible environmental effects of gro
wing GM crops however. These crops contain new DNA. It is unknown what effects this DNA will have on wildlife that eats the crops, and on other plants pollinated by the GM crop. The stability of the DNA is also unknown - that is, the ways and effects of mutations on it.

It is these issues that concern many people - there are simply so many unknowns.

It is worth pointing out that gardeners have been doing a 'natural' form of GM for many centuries - breeding plants with certain desirable characteristics - and this has led to the wide range of fruit and vegetables that we now eat.

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