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Genetic Engineering: The Environmental Impact Of Genetic Engineering

800 Words4 Pages
While the risks of genetic engineering are often exaggerated or misrepresented, GE crops do have the potential to cause a variety of health problems and environmental impacts. For instance, they may spread undesirable traits to weeds and non-GE crops, produce new allergens and toxins, or harm animals that consume them.
At least one major environmental impact of genetic engineering has already reached critical proportions: overuse of herbicide-tolerant GE crops has spurred an increase in herbicide use and an epidemic of herbicide-resistant "superweeds," which will lead to even more herbicide use.
The process of transferring the genes of one organism into the DNA of another is called genetic engineering. It is a technique used by geneticists to produce desired traits in an organism. Genetic engineering may be used to cure genetic disorders in the future.
Evolution is a scientific theory that explains how organisms have changed over time. People have used selective breeding for years to produce organisms with desired traits and a similar process must occur naturally in nature to produce organisms that can survive or be the strongest in their environment. Unfavorable traits disappear and a species develops favorable traits over a period of time. Some traits are better suited for their environment and these are the traits that we would want to see reproduced in future generations of an organism.
Genetic engineering could be used by geneticists to speed up the process of
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