GE Animals

The generation of transgenic animals is a somewhat simpler, but no less artificial procedure. Fertilised eggs are first removed from the animal of choice. These eggs are then injected with the genes one wishes to engineer into the animal. The DNA injected eggs are then returned to the womb of a surrogate mother where they complete their development and are born in due course. Therefore, in marked contrast to traditional breeding methods, all transgenic plants and animals start life as individual or group of cells growing on a plastic dish in a laboratory.

It is evident from the procedure we just described that with GE there are no holds barred. GE allows the isolation, cutting, joining and transfer of single or multiple genes between totally unrelated organisms circumventing natural species barriers. As a result combinations of genes are produced that would never occur naturally.

Clearly GE represents a great technological advance. However, as we have already discussed, genes have evolved to exist and work in families. Therefore, the claim that reductionist approach of GE which moves one or a few genes between unrelated organisms is a precise technology, is highly questionable. Furthermore, the generation of transgenic plants and animals is currently an imperfect technique. Once injected into the cells of the organism, the introduced gene is randomly incorporated into the DNA of its new plant or animal. In fact the manner in which GE animals and plants are produced always selects for the splicing of the foreign gene into regions of the host DNA where other natural genes are trying to work. Given the interdependence of gene function within any grouping of genes, this random splicing of the foreign gene into the host DNA will always result in a disruption in the normal genetic order in the “string of pearls”. Therefore, GE of animals and especially plants, always result in a loss, to a lesser or greater degree, of the tight genetic control and balanced functioning which is retained through conventional cross breeding. The effects which can occur in host genetic function can produce a totally unpredictable disturbance. The resulting disturbance in biochemical function can unexpectedly produce novel toxins, allergens and reduced nutritional value. The proponents of the use of GE in agriculture argue that mankind has been selecting and manipulating plant and animal food stocks for millennia and that this new technology is simply the next stage in this process. However we have seen:

· Technically speaking, GE and traditional breeding methods bear no resemblance to each other.

· GE plants and animals start out their life in a laboratory culture dish.

· GE employs totally artificial units of genetic material which are introduced into plant or animal cells using chemical, mechanical and bacterial methods.

· GE always results in disruptions to the natural order of genes within the host DNA.

· GE also brings about combinations of genes that would never occur naturally.

Therefore GE foods possess new and unique safety considerations both in terns of health and to the environment. The availability of safe, sustainable, natural methods of breeding and husbandry utilising the many thousands of different varieties of a given food crop, makes the risks associated with GE food simply not worth taking. These risks are even less acceptable when one takes into account the fact that once released into environment, genetic mistakes/pollution cannot be recalled, cleaned up or allowed to decay like agrochemicals or a BSE epidemic, but will be passed on to all future generations independently.

Source: Living Earth. Режим доступа: http://www.psrast.org/mianbree.htm

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