I was browsing some older posts from Matt’s blog, and I came across this.
In fact this is something I’ve known for a while, and coincidentally sent Matt an email about the other day, but I’ve never posted here on the subject.
It’s just a fact, the science of genetic engineering (GE) is quickly moving out of the laboratory and into the home. Not just in our ability to buy products that are themselves a result of GE, but also in our own ability to make GE organisms.
Already, if you have a well equiped home, it’s possible to do an awful lot. The cost of this equipment is within the budgets of many people, it’s only getting cheaper and it’s accuracy increasing.
The amount of publicly available data that can assist GE is also increasing at a dramatic rate; including things like decoded genomes and cataloges of marker genes (a fancy term that just means genes with a known trait). All of this applies to plants, microorganisms, animals and even humans.
So while the debate now often centers on the latest Roundup ready gene Monsanto inserted into our soybeans, tomorrow it could be the latest accident caused by a teenager or the mess intentionally caused by someone knowledgeable.
I often compare GE to abortions. I don’t really think it makes sense for anyone to be for or against abortions. An abortion is just a medical procedure. You can argue if it’s immoral, talk about it in terms of legal or illegal, safe or unsafe, early or late, but you can never deny the existence of the procedure itself.
This is really where we are now with GE. It doesn’t make sense to call it good or bad. The genie is out of the bottle. Now it’s time to start learning as much as possible as quickly as possible about the science, and to focus honestly and diligently on what the real risks are.
In the meantime, this crap doesn’t belong in our food or the environment, until we’ve had a chance to honestly research and learn more about it!
Genetic Engineering is just one of a suite of techniques which can be used to create new organisms, crops or whatever. It is merely a continuation of technical innovations that plant breeders have used for decades – colchicine, irradiation, protoplast fusion etc.
As Matt pointed out in his original post, companies such as Monsanto are subject to considerable scrutiny when they engage in breeding new GE crops. Amateurs are not. That sounds like the victory of David over the Goliath of Big Government, but it is perhaps a little optimistic to hope that some elements of the populace will be able to control themselves in a responsible manner. As is usual, technological advances are way ahead of legislation.
Creating a cold tolerant squash by inserting genes from Ecballium into Cucurbita might be pretty harmless and would help growers in marginal climates. Sounds like a worthy objective, whether or not you approve or disapprove of GE. Maybe an amateur could come up with that.
I might not not feel quite so happy about a maverick plant breeder trying to develop, say, a crystal meth synthesizing alga, to be grown in the privacy of his bedroom fish tank. I have no idea whether it’s possible, but I bet someone, right now, is at least thinking about it.
Any tool, in the hands of an idiot, is potentially harmful. We live in interesting times.
It hadn’t even crossed my mind. Scary. Certainly makes Roundup Readiness pale into insignificance in a certain sense.
Oops! I didn’t get your email bc that yahoo account is my junk spam account I never check. If you still have a question for me, just comment on one of my posts.
Matt,
In order for me to be able to leave a comment you need to enable ‘anonymous’ commenting. I don’t have a login for any of the commercial services necessary to be allowed to comment on your blog.
Since you don’t publish an email address you can be reached at, there are probably others like me who have no real way of contacting you.
Ok I fixed that. Thanks!