GMOs: Safe or Dangerous?

Genetically Modified Organisms defined as “organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in such a way that does not occur naturally.” (GMOs) originated in the 1980s when technological advances made it possible to splice small sections of DNA from one organism to another; an antibiotic resistant tobacco plant was the first successful case. In the 1990’s this plant gene splicing was popular with soybeans in an attempt to make them herbicide resistant. By the year 2000 this procedure expanded with the addition of placing vitamins and minerals into the plant thus nutritionally “enriching” it. For example, a man made combination of genes, including a gene to produce the pesticide Cry1AB protein (commonly known as Bt toxin and originally found in the Bacillus thuringiensis organism), is randomly inserted into the DNA of corn. Critics argue over how scientific this process really is. The scientists using this process believe that it is a precise and exact science; I will leave it up to the reader to decide after I describe how the above insect protected corn plant is engineered. First, some DNA from a bacterial species in the soil, the Bt, is spliced into a viral species, known as the promotor which keeps its insecticide property of the gene turned on 24/7- hoping it will take on the desired effect of total insect resistance. Next, a gun shoots toxins on a plate containing millions of plant cells in hopes of getting these GMO genes into many of them. These are then cloned and used to grow plants that often results in some damage to the DNA, creating even higher levels of the toxin Bt. These scientists assume there are no deleterious consequences to this process that they cannot control and intend to obtain a patent for this engineered plant. Moreover, there is also the assumption that this process can be always be controlled.