The latest shot was fired Monday by the British Medical Association, which called for labels on all gene-altered products. The group didn't claim the foods were unsafe, but said consumers may want to avoid them until more research is done. Those fears are considered irrational by many U.S. scientists, including Brian Larkins, a plant geneticist at the University of Arizona. He's working on ways to put genes into corn that boost its nutritional value. Genetic engineering, he says, is not fundamentally different from conventional plant breeding to bring out desirable characteristics, only more efficient.
Genetic engineering is safe and highly productive.
When the world's population doubles, we will need new ways to increase food production, and conventional agriculture can't do it. Ralph Backhaus, professor of plant biology at Arizona State University, agrees the new technology shouldn't be feared. You'll see hybrids of different species with far more genetic combinations than the soybeans being grown today. He cautioned, however, that genetic manipulation could have a dark side. For example, addictive neuropeptides could conceivably be spliced into a fruit, and consumers could develop an artificial craving for it.