Promiscuity, Pollination, and Genes.

• Author: Schmitz, Sonja
• Position: Genetic engineering

Gold beads blast from the barrel of a gun at 1000 mph. Their target--soft plant tissue nestled in a sterile petri dish. The golden bullets blast their way through thick cell walls, membranes, and cytoplasm of the plant cells. Finally, they penetrate the nuclear membrane and deliver the information with which they have been coated--cloned genes that insert themselves randomly along the chromosomes. Only a fraction of the cells will survive the bombardment. Only one in a million will express the new genetic information correctly. That cell will be grown to maturity and eventually, after years of nurturing in the hands of plant breeders, it will produce fields of genetically engineered plants. Vandana Shiva, the director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in India, describes the genetic engineering of plants as the latest manifestation of colonization: this time, invasion of the seed. Since the process of colonization uses weapons to exploit other cultures, the gene gu n (bioblaster) symbolizes the weapon of biotechnology. To many scientists it represents a technological advance that will revolutionize agriculture.

Many genetically engineered organisms (GEOs) contain genes from the same species--altered in some way. For instance, the Flavr Savr tomato has a cloned tomato gene put in backwards.

This prevents the tomato from making the enzyme that causes the fruit to ripen--Hence you get a tomato that has a longer shelf life. Cloning also allows scientists to mix genes between organisms; bacterial genes in plants, fish genes in tomatoes, pea genes in corn. This aspect of genetic engineering disturbs many people who believe that mixing genes between animals, plants, and bacteria violates the natural integrity of living things. Even if this doesn't bother you, the safety of consuming foods that are genetically engineered is another concern. For environmentally minded folks, the ecological risks of releasing GEOs are significant.

The gene revolution of the 1990s is transforming agriculture. Forty-five million acres of genetically engineered crops were grown in the US during 1998. To the agricultural industry these events herald a revolution in biotechnology. But not everyone is impressed. During the summer of 1998, groups in England, France, and Germany targeted test plots of GEO plants and pulled them out of the ground in protest. In the USA, overwhelming public objection to inclusion of GEOs as part of...