SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF GENETIC ENGINEERING - BIOLOGY - 2025

The social, economic and environmental impact of genetic engineering can be observed in genetic diversity, environmental quality or food sovereignty. Although this technology has been widely discussed, it is becoming more widespread and is the basis for solving various problems in the future.

Genetic engineering is a science based on the direct manipulation of DNA, through the application of modern biotechnology, to generate organisms with a new desired phenotypic characteristics. These genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are achieved through the isolation of a gene, which is inserted into the DNA of a different species.

Representation of DNA. Source: www.pixabay.com

Another form of genetic engineering, emerged from the synergy of biological sciences with nanotechnology and bioinformatics, is synthetic biology. Its objective is the creation of DNA, to produce algae and microbes capable of synthesizing a great diversity of products such as fuels, chemicals, plastics, fibers, drugs and food.

Genetic engineering has been used in the industrial agriculture of crops tolerant to herbicides or resistant to pests and diseases. In medicine, it has been applied to diagnose diseases, improve treatments, and produce vaccines and drugs.

The applications of synthetic biology extend to the pharmaceutical, food, textile, energy, cosmetics and even the military industry.

Environmental impacts

The application of genetic engineering in agriculture has important environmental impacts related to the cultivation of genetically modified or transgenic organisms.

Transgenic crops are part of an industrial agriculture scheme that requires large areas of flat land, irrigation, machinery, energy, and agrochemicals.

This agriculture is highly predatory on the environment, threatening biodiversity and contributing to the destruction of native ecosystems by expanding the agricultural frontier, degradation and contamination of soils and waters.

Potato monoculture. Source: NightThree

On genetic diversity

Genetically modified organisms constitute a danger to biodiversity, due to their potential as genetic pollutants of species and autochthonous varieties of agrobiodiversity.

When released into the environment, GMOs can interbreed with local varieties and related wild species, undermining genetic diversity.

Threat to corn diversity in Mexico

Corn diversity. Source: www.pixabay.com

Mexico is the center of origin and diversification of corn. It currently has 64 breeds and thousands of local varieties of this cereal.

The germplasm of these varieties and their wild relatives, the teocintes, has been cared for and produced for hundreds of years by indigenous and Mexican peasants.

It is now known that many varieties have been contaminated with genes from transgenic corn, which threatens this important genetic diversity.

Threat to natural forests

Genetically manipulated tree plantations are a threat to native forests. Contamination with insect resistance could affect vulnerable insect populations and therefore bird populations.

The escape of genes for rapid growth would generate more competitive trees for light, water and nutrients, leading to soil degradation and desertification.

On environmental quality

Soya monoculture RR. Source: www.pixabay.com

Genetic engineering has generated herbicide resistant genetically modified crops.

Roundup Ready soybeans (RR soybeans) express a glyphosate resistance gene isolated from Agrobacterium sp, a soil bacterium. Its cultivation admits the application of large amounts of glyphosate, commonly applied with airplanes, consecutively on large spatial and temporal scales.

Glyphosate kills all secondary plants, whether harmful, beneficial or harmless to the central crop. They also generate a decrease in plant coverage around the crop that impacts the habitat of various species and ecological processes.

Furthermore, glyphosate decreases the survival of different arthropod species and affects the microbial flora. Its permanent use in transgenic crops alters trophic webs, reduces diversity in agroecosystems, alters the balance of the soil and decreases its fertility.

Some plants, known as superweeds, have created resistance to glyphosate by the appearance of new mutations. To control them, producers must increase the doses of herbicide, so the amounts of glyphosate applied to these crops are increasing.

Cases have also been described in which wild relatives acquire the herbicide resistance gene.

The consequences of the application of several million liters of glyphosate in the environment is expressed in the contamination of soils, surface and underground waters. Glyphosate has also been detected in the rain in regions where this product is used, and even in remote places.

Socio-economic impacts

About health

Effects of glyphosate

Aerial spraying of crops. Source: Péter Czégény

Food produced from GM crops is contaminated with pesticides. Glyphosate residues have been detected in wheat, soybeans, corn, sugar, and other foods. The presence of glyphosate in water for human consumption and in rain has also been determined.

A large number of studies indicate that glyphosate is toxic, even at concentrations up to 400 times lower than those detectable in vegetables grown with this herbicide.

It contributes to the development of diseases through DNA damage, cytotoxic effects, interference in the action of liver enzymes and the generation of hormonal problems in the androgen and estrogen receptors.

Antibiotic resistance

On the other hand, genetic engineering uses genes for antibiotic resistance as markers in the production process of genetically modified organisms for the identification of cells that have taken up the foreign genes. These genes continue to be expressed in plant tissues and are maintained in most foods.

Eating these foods could reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics to fight disease. Furthermore, resistance genes could be transferred to human or animal pathogens, making them resistant to antibiotics.

Gene therapy

The application of genetic engineering in medicine could also have negative impacts.

The introduction of functional genes into the human body through viral vectors has been carried out with the aim that these replace mutated genes. However, it is unknown where these functional genes are housed, and may replace important genes, instead of mutated genes.

This type of therapy could generate other types of diseases in humans or susceptibility to the virus or any form of disease.

Additionally, accidents or releases into the environment of a virus or bacteria could result in a stronger type, which could cause serious epidemics.

On food sovereignty

The seeds of all local varieties have been saved and preserved for thousands of years by the peasant peoples of the world.

African peasant. Source: CIAT

This right of farmers has been violated by the corporate control of seeds through the creation of patents on local varieties that have been genetically modified.

This privatization of the seed restricts its use, control and reproduction to an oligopoly of transnational companies, led by Monsanto and Bayer.

Another way to control the seed is through terminator technology. This consists of genetic manipulation aimed at the production of seeds programmed to produce fruits with sterile seeds, forcing the producer to buy the seed again.

These seeds constitute a great threat, both to indigenous varieties and wild relatives, as well as to farmers.

On local economies

Synthetic engineering has focused primarily on the biosynthesis of low-volume, high-cost products, such as flavorings, fragrances, and cosmetic ingredients.

These have been the items traditionally produced by peasants, indigenous people and farmers around the world, so there is a significant threat to these local economies.

Currently, the flavors and fragrances industry requires approximately 250 agricultural items from around the world. 95% are cultivated and harvested by more than 20 million farmers.

The impact of a growing industry that has already begun to replace and commercialize these items will have serious effects on the ways of life, the economy and the culture of the communities involved in their production.

References

1. ETC Group. 2007. Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology.
2. ETC Group. 2008. Whose nature is it? Corporate power and the final frontier in the commodification of life.
3. ETC Group. 2011. Who will control the green economy ?.
4. Massieu Trigo, YC (2009). GM crops and foods in Mexico. The debate, the actors and the socio-political forces. Arguments, 22 (59): 217-243.
5. Patra S and Andrew AA (2015). Human, Social, and Environmental Impacts of Human Genetic Engineering, 4 (2): 14-16.
6. Patra S and Andrew AA (2015). Effects of Genetic Engineering - The Ethical and Social Implications. Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Research, 3 (1): 5-6.
7. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Global Outlook on Biological Diversity 3. Montreal, 2010. 94 pages