Modified viruses could cause famine by destroying crops or cause human and animal diseases of tremendous power. Genes related to human cancer such as the human metalothionen gene were introduced into Canola among among a number of crops and into Poplar trees. That gene is amplified like a cancer gene in human cancers of breast and testicle. Consumption of quantities in tumorus organs or crops is most unwise. Interestingly, Ontario environment officials encouraged consumption of the cancerous Pickerel caught in the Detroit River.
New evidence suggests that such genes can be taken up after being eaten.
The antibiotic tolerance genes used in most crops to facilitate an early stage of engineering are retained by the crops even though they serve no purpose in the crop in the field. Such tolerance genes can be integrated into bacteria in the animal gut thus spreading antibiotic resistant disease bacteria. Resistant forms of a number of human diseases from Cholera to Tuberculosis have begun to cause major outbreaks and epidemics. Finally, it is clear that tinkered genes in crops such as Canola readily escape to weedy relatives. Such escaped genes have begun to drastically alter the biodiversity of the prairie croplands causing tragic impacts on both plant and animal species.