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What Are the PROS & CONS of Transgenic Crops   Trangenic Plants Pages   WHAT are transgenic plants and how are they created?   CAN FLcDNAs help produce safer transgenic plants?   HOW do transgenic plants benefit basic research?   HOW do scientists think about transgenic plants?   WHAT are the pros and cons of transgenic plants?   WHAT are some examples of transgenic plants?   WHO's in charge of regulating transgenic plants in the U.S.?         To weigh the plusses and minuses of genetically engineered plants, one must evaluate a combination of environmental, economic, scientific, and food safety issues. In the following chart, we've coded an issue or argument as involving concerns about:   ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS     [ ENV ]   ECONOMIC IMPACTS     [ ECON ]   SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES     [ SC ]   FOOD-SAFETY     [ FS ]       From the chart, it quickly becomes apparent that the issues are intertwined, making for murky public policy discussions. The table points out the value of case-by-case analysis of specific transgenic plant strategies. The links to the left and in brackets below open a pop-up window with expanded topic descriptions PROS Common Counter-Arguments Development of pest-tolerant plants can increase productivity while reducing pesticide use.   [ ENV ]   [ ECON ] Not enough is known about whether pesticides built into plants are safe for human consumption.  [ FS ]   [ SC ] With plant engineering, it's sometimes possible to develop pest-tolerant plants that safely target specific pests and are safe for human consumption while reducing pesticide use.   ( eg., Bt corn)   [ ENV ]  [ FS ]   Not enough is known about what other organisms might be harmed by a particular transgene.  [ ENV ]   [ SC ] While pesticides can lead to the creation of pest-resistant “super-pests,” pest-tolerant transgenic plants have been shown to reduce the incidence of pesticide resistance.   [ ENV ]   [ ECON ] Not enough is known about whether pesticides built into plants are safe for human consumption.  [ FS ]   [ SC ] Engineered plants have the potential to rapidly improve crop productivity.  [ ECON ] Claims are overblown. Traditional breeding has increased production many-fold without the need for genetic engineering of crops with unknown food safety.   [ ECON ]   [ FS ] Potential improvements in nutritive value of plants, eg. golden rice could safely and inexpensively improve health in poor countries. [ ECON ]  [ FS ] Claims are overblown. Success in producing plants with significantly improved nutritive value has yet to be seen.   [ SC ] Potential to produce medicines inexpensively.  [ ECON ] Risk of accidental ingestion of medicines if raised in food crops.   [ FS ] Potential to improve food safety by removing allergens from plant products.   [ FS ] Claims are overblown. Success in producing plants with significantly reduced allergenicity has yet to be seen.   [ SC ] CONS Common Counter-Arguments The development of highly productive crops with improved nutritive value  could make Third World farmers dependent on international seed companies.   [ ECON ] There are ways to avoid this problem such as developing transgenic plants from local varieties.   [ ECON ] If genes for pharmaceutical products are raised in food crops, they pose a risk of accidental ingestion.   [ FS ] Scientists can use non-edible plants for bio-pharma to avoid this problem.   [ SC ] Potential to inadvertently introduce allergens into foods.   [ FS ] Scientific measures can be taken to avoid this.   [ SC ] There's a risk that genetically engineered genes could be introduced into wild plants, reducing biodiversity and creating super-weeds while reducing pesticide use.   [ ENV ] The risk of gene flow into wild plants is the same for transgenic plants as for traditionally-bred plants.   [ SC ] Not enough is known about whether genetically engineered plants are safe for human consumption.   [ FS ]   [ SC ] Because transgenic food plants are carefully designed to include select genes to produce proteins of known function from other plants, the risks are minimal.   [ FS ]   [ SC ] In the U.S., foods are not labeled to show whether they contain genetically engineered plants.   [ FS ] Because the introduced genes and their protein products are GRAS (generally recognized as safe) food labeling is not necessary.   [ FS ] [ ^ TOP ^ ]

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