Genetic Engineering: Monsatos Roundup Ready Soybeans :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Roundup Ready Soybean (RRS) is "an intelligent solution in favor of the environment," claims Monsanto, the agricultural chemical company that makes genetically engineered RRS (Greenpeace). Likewise, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims "it [Roundup Ready Soybean] does not require premarket approval" and "the special labeling [of it] is inappropriate" (Whitmore). Nowadays we can find information about genetically modified food anywhere. However, many people have been poorly informed about genetic engineering. This is because developers of genetically engineering and the U.S. government put pressure on public information. In other words, they only give good information to the public and hide unpleasant facts. It seems that genetically engineered foods have nothing different from natural ones, and are not harmful. However, genetically engineering is dangerous. Because more than half the farmers will no longer be able to make their living; secondly, the very merits of genetical ly engineering are dangerous; lastly, there are no laws which protect our right. First, I am opposed to genetically engineered food because half the world's farmers can no longer make their living. This is because they will not be able to afford to buy seeds (Edwards 22). Up to the present, farmers could gather seeds up from the crop and replant them next year. However, many genetically engineered seeds are made to grow only one growing season. Melvin Oliver, who works in the USDA's (US Department of Agriculture) laboratory in Lubbock, Texas, and invented genetically engineered seeds, claims that genetically engineered seed is "a way of self-policing the unauthorized use of American technology" (Edwards 22). Monsanto also insists that "because Roundup Ready Soybeans are patented, their responsible use is different from that of other [ general ] soybeans" (Monsanto). But these claims only show one-way thinking which mainly aims at the profit of companies. If farmers have to buy the seeds every year, poorer farmers will no longer be able to buy them. What is worse, this might be dangerous with regards to the environment. If most of the farmers buy these seeds, natural seeds will disappear. What if companies go bankrupt and can not make the seeds that cannot be replanted next year? Farmers will not be able to make crop and we will surely have nothing to eat. Developers cannot assure that this will never happen. Moreover, the price of genetically engineered seeds will become higher. At first, these seeds will be cheaper than general ones to encourage poorer farmers to buy them.