Ok, here is the last post I will be doing which gives background on GM. After this I will be focusing on the controversy surrounding it, rather than it itself, and I hope I have given enough background to allow you to make sense of future posts.
In this post I will briefly list the pros and cons of GM from a scientific point of view. Other points of view, such as religious debate, will be covered within my discussions on the controversy.
To start off with, here are the scientific pros of GM technology (some of these will be similar to points listed in the last post):
- The most obvious pro of GM is the potential to improve an organism in some way – for example crops can gain increased pest/disease resistance (therefore requiring less chemicals in the forms f herbicides and pesticides, which in turn lessens the amount of chemicals leaked into the environment), larger fruit, better or added nutritious value, require less water, shorten time before fruit production... the list is massive, just use your imagination!
- Precise control over what, how, where and when a gene is inserted
- Control over undesirable traits – also control methods are used to prevent the movement of traits to non-target species
- Relatively quick process
- Genes can be taken from any organism and added to the organism in question (in traditional breeding, the organisms have to be very closely related)
- Crops may need less land space to produce the same amount of food, or have the ability to grow in land currently unsuitable to most crops
- No current evidence of any health issue from consuming GM food
- Rigorous testing required of all GM organisms, products and food to prove safety before release into the market
Here are some of the cons of GM. Remember, I am only listing the scientific things here, most of the objections raised by those against GM are not scientific, but more ethical/moral.
- Although there is control over the insertion, as we do not know everything there is to know about genetics there is no absolute guarantee for what will happen (hence the rigorous testing)
- Potential to create ‘super weeds’ or ‘super bugs’
- Little research (according to the anti-GM crowd) has been conducted into any area of GM, such as long term heath issues, environmental issues etc
As you can see, the issues surrounding GM from a purely scientific standpoint are few and far between. Believe it or not, but all of these scientific issues can be, and are being, resolved with further research and testing. The list of problems with GM from a non-scientific standpoint is quite impressive, and I will cover these problems when I talk about the controversy itself.
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