It has the potential for disrupting entire food-chains. It can be eaten by invertebrates, which are in turn eaten, and so forth. If primary foods are inedible or poisonous, then whole food-chains can die off. Assessing the Price For all the advantages claimed for genetic engineering, in the overwhelming number of cases the price seems too high to pay. In order to ensure megaprofits for multinational corporations well into the next century, we will have to mortgage the biosphere, seriously compromise life on the planet, and even risk losing what it means to be a human being.
Genetic engineering poses serious risks to human health and to the environment.
It raises serious ethical questions about the right of human beings to alter life on the planet for the benefit and curiosity of a few. Ron Epstein is Research Professor at the Institute for World Religions in Berkeley, and Lecturer in Philosophy and Religion at San Francisco State University.