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About Genetically Modified Plants

Effects of Herbicide Resistant Crops on Humans and the Ecosystem

Aug 22, 2009 Uni Blake

The big selling point of genetically engineered crops is their increased resistance to herbicides, pests and pathogens. However, what is the cost to the environment?

Genetically engineered plants that resist herbicides offer an added motivation for farmers to use herbicides. To many farmers these plants are cost-saving as they allow the herbicides to be sprayed at any time during the plants' lifecycle and also allow for wider herbicide choice.

What are Herbicide Resistant Crops?

Weeds compete in agricultural fields for the nutrients that the cultivated crop needs. With an increased number and variety of indigenous weeds it is necessary for farmers to use selective herbicides to rid a field of stubborn weeds and leave the cultivated crops undamaged. Scientists using agricultural biotechnology are creating plants that are resistant to herbicides or “Herbicide Resistant Crops.” The plants are genetically modified to allow them to degrade the ingredients in herbicide rendering the herbicide useless to the plant. These plants allow farmers to apply non-selective herbicides that wide out weeds populations and spare the herbicide resistant cultivated crops.

How Herbicide Resistant Crops are Developed

Weeds and crops are normally killed by non-selective herbicides, but herbicide resistant crops are immune to the effects of the toxins contained in some of the herbicides. In developing herbicide resistant plants, a gene from bacteria that destroys the herbicide in question is inserted into the plants genetic code. The plants cells are then regenerated into plants and allowed to mature. The plants genetic code is decoded naturally it produces the same protein that the original bacteria produced that has the ability to destroy the applied herbicide.

Increase Use of Herbicide Resistant Crops Lead to an Increase in Herbicide Use

Herbicide resistant crops offer a tantalizing option to weed management. Instead of natural weed management strategies, farmers tend to apply non-selective herbicides which can affect the ecology in different ways. Critics wonder about the effects of the over-use of herbicides. They argue that the overuse will create super weeds which will be resistant to herbicides. This they say will have a huge impact on the ecological systems affecting the diversity and number of wild plants in proximity to the herbicide resistant crops.

Human Impact of Consuming Herbicide Resistant Crops

Critics of herbicide resistant crops cite:

  • The possible toxicity associated with consuming the genetic modified crops
  • The potential of the genetically modified plants causing cancer or increasing allergenicity
  • That the consumption of the crops with inserted bacteria genes will lead to increased antibiotic resistance in consumers.

Most criticism is speculative; only time will tell the effects on human health caused by the tampering of a plant’s genetics. Most regulatory agencies base their acceptance of the new technology on risk-benefit analysis with the benefits outweighing the risks.

The copyright of the article About Genetically Modified Plants in Biotech/Pharmaceuticals is owned by Uni Blake. Permission to republish About Genetically Modified Plants in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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