As a scientist I've never really understood the objections to the genetic engineering of organisms. We do it with bacteria all the time in the laboratory so that we can use them to study the biology of many different organisms including plants, animals, etc. Furthermore, genetic manipulation of bacteria is widely used in industry for the production of drugs and other compounds such as enzymes, vitamins, etc. It is cheaper and more efficient to use the bacteria to do the work, rather than extracting (or synthesizing) these molecules from their native hosts. So why are some people so upset about the modification of genes? I always thought that they just didn't understand science. I always wondered why they cared so much about GM food but not about the GM drug prescriptions they were filling. The hypocrisy was irritating to me. I finally hit the tipping point when I read in a rural newsletter about the "dangers" of GM crops. I was fed up and wanted to understand the opposition, so I bought a few books. One of these books was obviously anti-GM, the other was very much pro-GM, and the third book was sort of a mediator, providing evidence for the good and the bad.
After reading these three books, I've completely changed my mind about the usefulness of genetic modification. I am still not opposed to genetic manipulation in principle, but am mostly opposed to it in practice. I will go into more detail in future blog posts.
One of the reasons I am most interested in this debate is that I am worried about the future of microbial ecology research and the ways in which this could affect treatments of diseases. I envision a day where people are given a bacterial species as medicine to help cure intestinal problems (e.g., Crohn's disease). In fact this is already happening with probiotic supplements, and the amount of research going into other microbial treatments is staggering. But the delivery of these treatments needs to be done in a way that helps educate the public rather than scare them, as has been done with the GM debacle. Hopefully I can help out with this public education endeavor. Any suggestions?
