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WHAT ARE GENETIC ENGINEERING AND GMO?

Just as the twentieth century was a golden age of computing, the twenty-first century is the DNA age. The innovations of the computer revolution helped bring about the current genetic revolution, which promises to do for life what computing did for information. We are on the verge of being able to transform, manipulate, and create organisms for any number of productive purposes. Technology is rapid and new ways of manipulation and experimentation are being made. Also it can be applied to the human species. Biotechnology, specifically genetic engineering, is already a beneficial resource, employed in medicine, manufacturing, and agriculture. Genetic engineering is considered special because often the techniques involve manipulating genes in a way that is not expected to occur ordinarily in nature, allowing characters to be changed, not just between the species but also between kingdoms. We have begun reaping the practical rewards of genetic engineering such as new medical therapies and increased crop yields and so far only a few instances of measurable harm have resulted. Genetic engineering has the potential to improve our health and well-being dramatically, revolutionize our manner of living, help us to conserve limited resources, and produce new wealth.

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification is the process of recombining DNA, but does not include traditional animal and plant breeding or mutagenesis. Any organism that is generated using these techniques is considered to be a genetically modified organism (GMO). The first organisms genetically engineered were bacteria in 1973 and then mice in 1974. Insulin producing bacteria were commercialized in 1982 and genetically modified food has been sold since 1994.

Producing genetically modified organisms is a multi-step process. However, the process is not so simple as precisely cutting out one gene and putting it into another place in the DNA, since genes are surrounded by other sequences in the DNA that determine whether or not a gene from one organism can function in another organism. So a careful study of the GMO is needed to be sure of its safety.

Various industries have been successfully applying genetic engineering techniques for more than ten years. Medicines such as insulin and human growth hormone are now produced in bacteria, experimental mice such as the oncomouse and the knockout mouse are being used for research purposes and insect resistant or herbicide tolerant crops have been commercialized.

Scientists are currently developing plants that contain drugs and vaccines, animals with beneficial proteins in their milk and stress tolerant crops. Genetic engineering also holds the promise of creating new, more productive strains of farm animals for meat and milk production. These new strains may be more resistant to infections, reducing the need for large, unhealthy doses of antibiotics. They may also be engineered to produce more meat, so we need not slaughter as many animals, or they may produce milk or other products with vital nutrients otherwise not found in those products, ensuring a healthier source of such nutrients, animal variants used as food sources might even be engineered without anything more than an autonomous nervous system, arguably eradicating many of the ethical concerns involved with the wholesale slaughter of large mammals for food.

Genetic engineering has been particularly successfully used and applied in food and agriculture to produce genetically modified food. Much of the so-called “green revolution” of the past few decades has been fueled by standard chemical technologies. New pesticides and remote sensing have already enabled reductions in the amount of hazardous chemicals entering the ecosystem, and allowed farmers faced with an ever-expanding human population to meet the food needs of a planet. Nonetheless, insects and fungi, through evolutionary dynamics, are developing resistance to pesticides. Moreover, even the best modern pesticides enter the food chain and the ecosystem, harming generations of humans and animals alike.

It is a sophisticated technology and needs developed laboratory facilities and particular environmental conditions that require investment.

However, there are reasons to doubt and fear. The novelty of the technology is one of the reasons why people think there are many ethical issues, as they have concerns about health impacts and other potential dangers. In addition, there are concerns about the centralization of economic control over living things, such as the patenting of life. Of course, we need to assess our actions in light of both short and long-term consequences to the biosphere. Although the scientific consensus is that genetic engineering poses few, if any, short-term threats to the environment, long-term threats, known and unknown, must be considered as we move forward with research and genetic technologies.

http://www.evolutionary-metaphysics.net/advancing_technology.html

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