“Genetically Transgenic Crops”In today’s society, farming has become far more complicated than one could imagine. In farming, the procedure involves a lot more than the raising of cattle and the planting of specific seeds into the soil or land fields. Yes, there is a lot more to worry about besides just the physical aspect of it. There are also decisions which have to be made in order to begin farming correctly and safely. Decisions which pose the question of should, and will the transgenic crops process be followed through nationwide? Our population may not even realize it; but the much needed decisions as this that will determine the fate of our world as we know it. At the cutting edge of technology and science, there seems to be a large debate about whether or not commercial plantings of transgenic crops are allowed. This is the issue at hand. One of the countries facing this conflict is Britain. The situation in Britain is just like the article written by Jim Giles which is titled, “Damned if they do damned if they don’t”. This article basically states that there is a huge problem with the idea of genetically modified crops being supported. I feel that his opinion on the subject matters, just as my scientific opinion does, because it is the population of the people that truly matters. The government wants to support the biotech industry, but on the other hand, it also wants to appease its closest ally, which happens to be the United States. Commercial cultivation of genetically, modified crops is an argument that is said to have been played out in Britain over any other country. In Britain, the government has prepared for decision time by conducting the largest trial of genetically modified crops ever, and they are looking forward to gathering as much evidenceabout their impact on biodiversity as possible. The outcome is bound to influence the debate inother countries where similar skirmishes are taking place. In the developing world, there are some areas that are for transgenic crops; such as sub-Saharan Africa which is emerging as an important new battleground. Other’s are not sure if they are for it or not; and a few are India and China. As a matter of fact, they are not even really concerned about this issue, but more concerned about whether or not the transgenic technologies will be from agribiotech or home-grown. All over the world this issue is at hand, but there is still no sure winner. There are many, many different opinions about the matter, but there still can only be one conclusion; “youare either for it or not for it”. Will our nation profit from the decision made in the future?Environmental groups and the organic farming movement view the trials in a very different light. In fact, they are very much opposed to any GM plantings, commercial or experimental, and they see the trials as an effort by the agribiotech industry to help the introduction of its new products to flow better. These trials which are spoken of, involve farmers growing one or more of the GM crops alongside it’s non-GM counterpart. For example: for beet and maize, the trial would involve between 60 and 75 plantings of the GM crops, each of about ten hectares in area, grown alongside matching plots of a non-GM variety. This process will end up breaking down to about 20 farms per crop, growing plots in successiveyears over the course of the study. Also, environmental groups have questioned the decision not to monitor bird populations directly, and this is just one of the many different objections that have been raised. First, they pointed out that the chosen plots were not monitored correctly for biodiversity for several years before the trial began, which gave no baseline data against which to track the changes caused by GM farming. This is jus one of many complaints.But scientists involved in the farm-scale trials argue that most of these objectives have already been taken care of, and that the lack of baseline is not a real serious issue. They also argue thatas the careful matching of experimental and control plots will ensure that meaningful comparisons can be made during the process. The companies have also argued that the GM technology will allow farmers to avoid tilling the soil at the beginning of every season (which is a practice meant to destroy weeds), but which is also thought to diminish biodiversity by reducing soil moistures and nutrients, and even increasing the risk of erosion. Worldwide, this seems to be a public opinion issue. In my opinion, it seems like this debate will never be solved, because it is one’s feelings on the matter against the other. Like any and every debate; someone has to be for the process, while the other is against it. I truly fell (after reading about transgenically modified crops) that it is very dangerous to our population, and I don’t agree with this process taking place. Thus, there must be scientific testing done in order to test each possible hypothesis, such as observing how the main country affected by this scenario actually handles the news. As my conclusion, genetically modified or transgenic crops should not be used as a part of mainstream farming anywhere. If the possibility of this happening is stirring up this much controversy, then apparently it is very unsafe for us (the people) and our environment. Only time will tell which side shall
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