Such crops, they said, could curtail the need to plow tropical rainforests into marginal farms. Other crops are genetically modified to resist certain pests and diseases, reducing the use of environmentally damaging synthetic chemicals and fertilizers, researchers said. Opponents fear that tinkering with the genes of widely-planted crops will result in unforeseen health and environmental consequences that could upend millions of years of evolution and threaten the survival of already vulnerable species. Its a simmering issue in the United States, where thousands of products on supermarket shelves already contain genetically modified ingredients. In Europe, the debate is boiling over.
Demonstrators block ships from unloading cargo and disrupt trade meetings.
EU officials are considering stringent regulations on genetic modifications. Ironically, the plant gene map might also provide breakthroughs in medicine and evolution, too. Arabidopsis contains numerous genes that are equivalent to human genes involved in aging and disease, including cancer. And it contains master genes controlling basic cell growth and behavior that have been at work since flowering plants appeared more than 125 million years ago. Understanding their functions could be a keyhole into the basic molecular pathways of disease and, perhaps, reveal the roots of evolution of complex organisms.