Genetic Engineering

The altered corn was introduced in the late 90's and now makes up more then one-quarter of the nation's corn crop. Scientists are worried because these butterflies as well as other animals that eat these crops and die may be put on the endangered species list (Weiss 606).
             Europeans are not sure about the idea. From one end to the other, consumers are in revolt over the prospect of a future in which nature has somehow been altered by people holding test tubes. Throughout the world, more than 30 million acres of commercial farmland were planted with genetically modified seeds. But not any of the acres was in the 15 countries of the European Union.(Specter 608). .
             The debate to unleash the most powerful tools of modern biology says much about the differences between Europe and America. Europeans do see genetic engineering in the pursuit of better medicine. The European controversy might have come from the 19th century philosophy that "nature is as wise as man.".
             Klusmann 3.
             The biotechnology giant Monsanto said that it would make no effort to market seeds that produce crop plants that are infertile. Seed sterility could be a very valuable trait for the major biotechnology companies, which have created plants with traits like resistance to insects or the ability to withstand spraying with weed killers (Feder 609). Critics call the technology an example of a drive by agribusiness to make farmers dependent on them and the chemicals many of them produce. According to the New York Times Oct.99 issue scientists in the United States have been surprised by growing public resistance at home and abroad to bioengineered foods.
             To what extent should genetic engineering be applied to animals? A Jesuit priest and a geneticist cautioned that people might not understand clones. A clone would be an identical, but much younger, twin of the adult. The geneticist said that a clone of a human being would have a different environment than the person whose DNA it carried and so it would have to be a different person.