I am generally sceptical when it comes to genetically modified organisms. There are several reasons for this.
Firstly I believe that whilst they have tremendous potential to ease to suffering of hundreds of millions of people the pursuit of profit by the biotech companies that produce them will mean that research funds will be directed away from those products that could help the most people to those with the greatest profit potential. In many ways this mimics what has happened in the pharmaceutical industry where drugs that could save millions of lives are not developed because their target market is the developing world without the funds to pay for them.
Secondly what has happened in the United States is that the process of development and approval has failed to provided adequate testing of the impact of these products on the environment as a whole and on the organisms that consume them, be they human or otherwise. Essentially the American population is one big laboratory now but as there is no real means of knowing who has consumed what the experiment is wasted when the results pour in ten or twenty years from now.
Thirdly it is clear that, once again in the US, the protocols and safety standards supposedly in place for what testing is done are either woefully inadequate, nonexistent or blatantly disregarded. You need look no farther than the two recent instances of widespread contamination of American rice by unlicensed and unapproved GM strains. The predictable reaction of the Bush administration to these scandals has simply been to license the products after the fact and declare them safe. The European reaction has been, fortunately in my opinion, to ban the imports of all American rice.
In light of all of these misgivings I confess I cautiously welcome the news that scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland have developed a GM mosquito that cannot pass on malaria. The disease still affects millions of people in the developing world, largely in tropical and sub-tropical regions but the changes in the Earth's climate is driving its spread into what had been more temperate areas. Of course, in order for the insect to affect the spread of the disease it will have to be released into the wild in large numbers. This should only be undertaken with great caution and after extensive and adequate testing.
Should the pest's release go forward I hope it proves to be effective.
Firstly I believe that whilst they have tremendous potential to ease to suffering of hundreds of millions of people the pursuit of profit by the biotech companies that produce them will mean that research funds will be directed away from those products that could help the most people to those with the greatest profit potential. In many ways this mimics what has happened in the pharmaceutical industry where drugs that could save millions of lives are not developed because their target market is the developing world without the funds to pay for them.
Secondly what has happened in the United States is that the process of development and approval has failed to provided adequate testing of the impact of these products on the environment as a whole and on the organisms that consume them, be they human or otherwise. Essentially the American population is one big laboratory now but as there is no real means of knowing who has consumed what the experiment is wasted when the results pour in ten or twenty years from now.
Thirdly it is clear that, once again in the US, the protocols and safety standards supposedly in place for what testing is done are either woefully inadequate, nonexistent or blatantly disregarded. You need look no farther than the two recent instances of widespread contamination of American rice by unlicensed and unapproved GM strains. The predictable reaction of the Bush administration to these scandals has simply been to license the products after the fact and declare them safe. The European reaction has been, fortunately in my opinion, to ban the imports of all American rice.
In light of all of these misgivings I confess I cautiously welcome the news that scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland have developed a GM mosquito that cannot pass on malaria. The disease still affects millions of people in the developing world, largely in tropical and sub-tropical regions but the changes in the Earth's climate is driving its spread into what had been more temperate areas. Of course, in order for the insect to affect the spread of the disease it will have to be released into the wild in large numbers. This should only be undertaken with great caution and after extensive and adequate testing.
Should the pest's release go forward I hope it proves to be effective.
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