IGEM:Harvard/2010/Human Practices

Brainstorming

Controversy over GM foods

• "Playing God"
• Safety
  • Whether GM foods safe for consumption (assumption that unnatural things are bad for you)
    • -->are genetically engineered foods "unnatural"? How is synthetic biology different from "traditional" genetic engineering? How are molecular techniques different from "classical" plant breeding technologies? Is there a scale of "naturalness"?
  • Danger of cross-contamination to other crops, spreading the foreign DNA constructs
• Legal - ownership of GM plants and sales (Monsato)
• Sustainability - economically and environmentally.
  • Harming wildlife :: Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae (Nature, Vol 399, No 6733, p 214, May 20, 1999)[[1]] - could be likened to the DDT effect on Bald Eagle eggs exposed in Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
• Outcompeting other plant species (indigenous ones)

Also to consider -

• Public perceptions of genetic engineering (Splice)
  • one thing we are trying to do with this project is to inform the public about genetic engineering and synthetic biology - we want to show them how it is done, rather than letting the media do all the talking. We want to make the processes accessible

Our safety concerns:

• Genetic fence -- preventing cross pollination and spread of the GM plants.
• Consumer safety -- making sure that the plant doesn't require that the consumer uses harmful chemicals, making the process simple and safe.
• Making sure our constructs are not harmful.

From google - a simple overview of GMOs [[2]]

• creating unintended allergens
• unknown effects on human health

Ireland enacts GMO-Free Policy [[3]] "Green" Farming vs. Genetic Modification -- can they work together