Transgenic Plants

Transgenic Plants

For thousands of years now, people have been altering the breeding of plants so that they grow a certain way. This type of plant is called a transgenic plant(1). Like everything else, transgenic plants have some good benefits and some bad risks. One benefit of transgenic plants is the fact that we can put a gene in the plant that will enable it to survive cold conditions. This is good for fruit and vegetables because we are able to grow them in colder places because they can now survive the temperature(3). Another benefit of a transgenic plant is we are able to speed up the growth process of plants. We are also able to make better tasting plants like fruit and vegetables. Transgenic plants also may have a greater nutritional value then their original crop(1). However, transgenic plants have risk factors too. One risk is that we might start to see in increase in the number of allergic reactions due to foreign DNA in the plant. Someone may be allergic to this DNA and not know that it is in the food they are eating. This is a risk to the life of person(2). Another risk is that these transgenic crops may spread to nearby weeds and the weeds may now be resistant to herbicides, which means that they will be harder to kill and get rid of(4+2). The biggest risk of transgenic plants is that they will be a huge risk to the life of the ecosystem and it will alter the natural ecology of our planet. As you can see, transgenic plants have some interesting benefits and some concerning risks.

As for me, I believe the use of transgenic plants is a great method used to control breeding. I feel that using select breeding lets us enhance the crop in many ways. With select breeding we are able to make certain crops resistant to different diseases(1). In the article, The Future of Transgenic Crops by the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, we see a tomato plant inoculated with a disease and a tomato plant that is not. The tomato that was inoculated grew up to twice as fast and twice as big. This is because the plant that was inoculated became immune to that disease and was able to grow. The plant that was not inoculated was not immune to the disease and was unable to grow as fast because it had to fight off the disease. This is just one of many reasons that I am all for transgenic crops. Another reason is because they can be inserted with different vitamins and minerals to help the plants grow and help enrich the people that are eating them. Inserted chemicals allow the plant to endure different climate conditions. This allows the plant to last longer and helps farmers around the world with selling fruits and vegetables(3). According to our science book, scientists have injected plants with a gene from a fire fly so that the plant lights up and they can see inside the plant and see it's anatomy. In the end I am for transgenic plants because they better the agriculture industry, help enhance people's diet, and lead to scientific discoveries about different crops.

There are many different sources of information on transgenic plants. Some of these sources are for transgenic plants and some