WEIRD SCIENCE: GMOs, Science, and Ethics

VegNews Magazine May/June 2005

by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

“Transgenic” is the term given to a plant or animal that is the product of genetic engineering. Such research, which has no bounds, is justified not in terms of medical advancements for human benefit but also simply to satisfy human consumption.

Whether or not transgenic plants and animals make it to market, the very fact that science has reached the point where laboratory pursuits far outweigh basic ethics is most disturbing. Though we are fed the occasional hype that surrounds such stories as the cloned sheep named Dolly, we are kept ignorant about all the failed experiments, the thousands of animal fatalities, the inevitable disfigurations, and the untold suffering the animals endure.

Despite the human health concerns, potential to wreak havoc on eco-systems, and ethical dilemmas of producing genetically modified plants and animals, the macabre experiments continue.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, more than 40 genetically modified crops are currently allowed in commerce in the U.S. Many of the products allowed on the market are not, as far as we know, actually being sold in commerce.

Genetic manipulation involves the insertion of a foreign gene into a different species. Most genetically modified foods are plants, because it is much easier to manipulate plant genes as compared to animal genes. Nonetheless, foreign genes inserted into plants may originate from either plants or animals, including human animals.

Several major universities in the country have successfully transplanted human and other genes into pigs, sheep, cattle, and fish. Although the work has not been perfected to the point that genetically engineered meat and fish will appear in butcher shops this year, they are definitely on the way.

After working for several years in the late 1990s, researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada succeeded in 2001 in creating a genetically modified pig, called the Enviropig™, which is an official trademark of Ontario pork producers. These pigs carry an extra gene, made from E. coli bacteria and mouse genes, enabling them to digest the phosphorus in their feed instead of excreting it, which means less of this pollutant winds up in rivers and streams. Safety tests have not yet been developed to determine whether the pigs will be safe for human consumption.

In 1987, researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture set out to create a new kind of “low-fat” pig by injecting human growth hormones into pig embryos. Tragically, the pigs in the experiment were cross-eyed, blind, and crippled with arthritis. Despite this horrific failure, similar work continues all around the globe.

Besides food animals, the U.S. government and several corporations are also patenting and field-testing numerous food plants with unique genetic combinations. Among these new creations are potatoes with chicken and wax moth genes, tomatoes with flounder and tobacco genes, corn with firefly genes, and rice with pea genes. Despite aggressive public relations campaigns asserting GM foods benefit human health, the vast majority of these plants have been genetically altered to increase their shelf life or appearance.

In 1991, researchers at DNA Plant Technology developed an experimental genetically engineered variety of tomato that contained a gene identified in an Arctic flounder. The goal was to develop tomato plants that could withstand frost in the field and fruits that resist cold damage in storage. This particular experiment, however, was a failure and did not produce frost-resistant plants.

“Our technology is light years ahead of our morality”

~From the Alain Resnais film, Hiroshima, mon amour

“A new species would bless me as its creator.”

~From Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein

"Man," I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!"

~From Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein