What's wrong with genetic engineering?

It's back to speed again. People want results fast. More important is that big companies want to make lots of money out of GE.

Most companies like to make lots of money and they like to make it fast. Some don't care much who or what gets trampled on in the process. That's why I'm frightened about GE in the hands of some of the companies that do it. If they could, they'd really like to make sure everyone everywhere is eating food made from GE plants. Then they'd make huge amounts of money because they own the seeds. Once they have changed plants by GE, companies can patent them. This means that any farmer who wants to sow that seed must pay money to the company which owns the patent. It means that the farmer has to buy new seeds every year... He can't save his own seeds any more as farmers have done since the start of farming. The company, not the farmer, then has control over who grows what food. Many poor farmers won't be able to afford to buy the seed.

Patents on living things has also linked in with a new sort of piracy: biopiracy.

But GE is a risky business and nobody knows - nobody! - what will happen if most people end up eating GE food most of the time. Nor does anybody know what effect growing all these plants with funny genes will have on other plants or animals over time. Maybe nothing will happen - or nothing much. Or maybe people and other living things will get ill and die. Nobody knows for sure.

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