Learning about Agricultural Biotechnology

Genetic engineering is one of the hottest topics of current public debate in environmental science. Proponents portray this science as a technological leap that will bestow incalculable benefits on us, while opponents claim this is a slippery slope toward ecological and economic ruin. You will find a plethora of information pro and con about this topic on the Internet. Visit some of the sites listed in "Learning Online" at the beginning of this chapter, or find other sites by conducting a web search for the terms genetic engineering, gene transfer, or genetically modified organisms. Find at least one source on each side of this controversy, and analyze their arguments. Don’t take any single source or study as the last word on a subject. Remember that for every expert or fact there is always an equal and opposite expert or fact.

1. What sources are quoted or what links to other pages are referenced in the information you have found?

2. Are scientific studies quoted as evidence for the authors’ positions? Where were they published? Were the studies peer reviewed? What is the reputation of the journal being quoted?

3. Are the presentations moderate and balanced, or shrill, strident calls to action? Are they attempting to sway your emotions with loaded terms like "Frankenfoods" or "Terminator genes"? Is useful information obscured by technical jargon?

4. Who is responsible for the pages you’ve found? What do you know about the political agendas of these groups? Remember that environmental or social activism groups aren’t necessarily unbiased. They may want to scare you to persuade you to support their cause or to donate money to support their organization.

5. Look for deceptive names of groups that aren’t what they seem. Innocuous-sounding names like Committee for the Environment or the Environmental Health Organization could be industry fronts attempting to push a self-interested agenda.

6. After reviewing the information you found, what is your assessment of biotechnology? What limits—if any—to research and application in this area would you want to see imposed? Should some areas of science be out-of-bounds? Would you, personally, eat genetically modified foods?