I agree with your criticisms of genetically engineered food. These foods need more testing before we know if they are safe for people and the environment. And they should be labeled. But don’t you think the science of biotechnology has the potential to do incredible good, if properly handled?
Joe
Dear Joe,
That’s a pretty big “if.” This is a technology with truly unimaginable power that is only in its infancy. So far, the signs over how it will be used are not promising. I’ll give you two examples that greatly concern me.
The first is the creation of pathogenic viruses. I do not wish to appear alarmist, but there is the very real possibility that bioterrorists could use biotechnology to create contagious pathogens.
In July, 2002, scientists announced they had created the polio virus using biotechnology. They had built the virus that causes polio from scratch in the lab, using nothing more than genetic sequence information from public databases.
This could conceivably be called the first creation of life in a test tube, although most scientists would say that viruses are not truly living because they cannot reproduce on their own.
The work was financed by the Pentagon, and conducted by scientists at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Aniko Paul, one of the scientists conducting the study, said: “We feel this could be used for ebola, smallpox, just about anything.”
My concern is that bioterrorists might use a similar approach to create devastating diseases without having to gain access to protected viral stocks. Dr. Eckard Wimmer, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Stony Brook and leader of the project, said terrorists might be able to make biological weapons without obtaining a natural virus.
The president of the American Society for Virology, Dr. Robert A. Lamb, stated: “Could someone make a highly pathogenic virus like ebola? Could you in fact make that in a rogue laboratory that doesn’t need more than two skilled workers? My feeling is you probably could.”
Some viruses, including smallpox, have complex genomes, and appear to be out of the reach of current gene splicing technology. But many other dangerous viruses with simpler genomes (like H.I.V. and hepatitis C) could be made this way.
A second example of a use of biotechnology that greatly concerns me is the open air cultivation of crops engineered to produce prescription drugs or industrial chemicals. There are currently more than 300 field trials of genetically engineered biopharmaceutical crops growing in secret locations nationwide. These crops include plants that produce abortion-inducing chemicals, growth hormones, blood clotting agents, and allergenic enzymes. Again, I do not wish to be alarmist, but there is a very real chance these could contaminate the food supply.
“Just one mistake by a biotech company and we’ll be eating other people’s prescription drugs in our corn flakes,” said Larry Bohlen, Director of Health and Environmental Programs at Friends of the Earth.
Corn is the primary crop engineered to produce biopharmaceuticals and chemicals. Yet corn is an open and prolific pollinator, which greatly increases the risk that crops modified by biotechnology to produce chemicals and drugs will cross-pollinate with corn grown for food. Corn plants can produce up to 25 million grains of pollen and blow for miles.
StarLink corn was planted on less than 1% of total U.S. corn acreage, but managed to contaminate hundreds of food products, despite regulations intended to prevent such an occurrence. ProdiGene, the company with the most plantings of drug and chemical-producing plants, predicts that 10% of the U.S. corn crop will be devoted to biopharm corn by 2010.
These are very real and serious concerns, and I do not believe they are acceptable risks. Yes, I agree that the science of biotechnology has the potential to do incredible good, if properly handled. But it also has the potential to do incredible harm in the wrong hands. That’s why I am so concerned. This genie is already out of the bottle, and it’s already in a lot of hands.
With respect for all life and prayers for our world,
