Ethical Issues of Transgenic Plants

The recent media attention directed at Monsanto, a large American Chemical Company, can provide a few of the ethical issues of developing and using transgenic plants. Monsanto had developed a grain crop that contained a terminator gene that prevented the plants from producing fertile seeds. This means that a farmer must buy new seeds every year. One could argue that this infertility is good because it prevents genes from jumping to other plant species. For a farmer from a technologically advanced country such as the United States, this will not create a hardship. But what about a farmer from a Third World Country? In parts of the world where survival is from year to year, people save part of their harvest for seed next year. They could not afford to buy more seed. They would not be able to survive.

• Do you think a corporation should be allowed to genetically engineer a plant that will impose a hardship on specific human populations? Why?

Many of the biotech companies producing genetically engineered plants are also the firms that produce the herbicides and pesticides. Monsanto produces Roundup, a very effective herbicide that you can buy at any local store in your area. Monsanto also has produced a genetically engineered cotton variety, with a gene from the petunia, that is resistant to Roundup.

• Do think it is ethical for a company to produce crops that are only resistant to their herbicides? Why?

Because there is a concern that the genes from a transgenic plant can invade other closely related species, it is possible that weedy species will become resistant

• What other benefits do you think the company can expect if their resistant gene invades a closely related weedy species?

Politics often becomes an issue every time an environmental concern is raised. The use of transgenic plants is not exception.