Genetically Foods Essay
Genetically-modified food (GM foods) have made a major splash in the news recently.
European environmental organizations and public interest groups had been actively protesting against GENERAL MOTORS foods for months, and recent controversial studies about the effects of genetically-modified corn pollen on monarch butterfly caterpillars1, 2 possess brought the void of genetic engineering to the cutting edge of the community consciousness in the U. T. In response for the upswelling of public matter, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) organised three available meetings in Chicago, Washington, D. C., and Oakland, California to solicit open public opinions and start the process of building a new regulatory procedure for authorities approval of GM foods3. I attended the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION meeting saved in November 99 in Wa, D. C., and here Let me attempt to summarize the issues included and explain the U. S. government’s present position in managing GM food.
What are genetically-modified foods? The definition of GM food or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) is most widely used to refer to crop plant life created for man or dog consumption using the latest molecular biology methods. These plant life have been customized in the lab to enhance wanted traits such as increased capacity herbicides or improved dietary content. The enhancement of desired attributes has usually been undertaken through reproduction, but typical plant mating methods can be quite time consuming and are often not so accurate. Genetic engineering, however, can make plants while using exact ideal trait very rapidly and with superb accuracy.
For instance , plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene in a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will gain drought tolerance too. Not only can genes always be transferred from a single plant to another, but family genes from non-plant organisms may also be used.
The very best known sort of this is the utilization of B. capital t. genes in corn and also other crops. M. t., or perhaps Bacillus thuringiensis, is a natural bacterium that produces ravenscroft proteins which might be lethal to insect larvae. B. capital t. crystal protein genes have been completely transferred into corn, enabling the corn to produce its very own pesticides against insects like the European corn borer.
For two informative overviews of a few of the techniques associated with creating GMC foods, visit Biotech Principles (sponsored by simply Monsanto) http://www. biotechknowledge. monsanto. com/biotech/bbasics. nsf/index or Methods of Flower Biotechnology in the National Centre for Biotechnology Education http://www. ncbe. studying. ac. uk/NCBE/GMFOOD/techniques. What are some of the advantages of GMC foods? The world population is at the top of 6 billion dollars people and is also predicted to double within the next 50 years.
Ensuring an adequate food supply for this flourishing population will probably be a major challenge in the many years. GM food promise to meet this need in a number of methods: Pest level of resistance Crop deficits from bugs can be incredible, resulting in devastating financial loss for farmers and malnourishment in growing countries. Farmers typically use many a great deal of chemical insect sprays annually. Buyers do not would like to eat food which was treated with pesticides because of potential health risks, and run-off of gardening wastes from excessive usage of pesticides and fertilizers can toxin the water source and cause harm to the environment.
Growing GM foods such as W. t. hammer toe can help eliminate the application of chemical pesticides and reduce the cost of taking a harvest to market4, 5. Herbicide tolerance For some crops, it is not cost-effective to eliminate weeds simply by physical means such as tilling, so farmers will often apply large quantities of different herbicides (weed-killer) to ruin weeds, a time-consuming and expensive procedure, that requires care so that the herbicide doesn’t injury the plants plant or the environment. Crop plants genetically-engineered to be resists one incredibly powerful herbicide could help stop environmental harm by lowering the amount of herbicides needed.
For instance , Monsanto has established a strain of soybeans genetically modified being not troubled by their herbicide product Roundup 6. A farmer increases these soybeans which then only require one using weed-killer rather than multiple applications, reducing production cost and limiting the dangers of agricultural waste run-off7. Disease resistance There are many malware, fungi and bacteria that cause flower diseases.
Grow biologists work to create plants with genetically-engineered resistance to these diseases8, 9. Cold tolerance Unexpected ice can damage sensitive seedlings. An antifreeze gene via cold normal water fish continues to be introduced in to plants such as tobacco and potato. With this antifreeze gene, these kinds of plants are able to tolerate cold temperatures that normally will kill unmodified seedlings10. (Note: I have certainly not been able to look for any journal articles or patents that involve fish antifreeze aminoacids in strawberries, although I use seen such reports in newspapers.
I am able to only consider that nothing at all on this program has however been printed or copyrighted. ) Drought tolerance/salinity threshold As the world population increases and more property is useful for housing rather than food development, farmers will likely need to grow crops in locations recently unsuited intended for plant fostering. Creating vegetation that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will assist people to grow your crops in earlier inhospitable places11, 12. Diet Malnutrition frequently occurs in third world countries in which impoverished people rely on just one crop including rice for the main software program of their diet plan.
However , rice does not consist of adequate levels of all required nutrients to avoid malnutrition. If rice could be genetically designed to have additional nutritional supplements, nutrient deficiencies could be relieved. For example , loss of sight due to vitamin A deficiency is a common injury in third world countries. Researchers in the Swiss Federal government Institute of Technology Commence for Grow Sciences have formulated a strain of golden grain containing an unusually high content of beta-carotene (vitamin A)13.
Since this rice was funded by Rockefeller Foundation14, a nonprofit organization, the Institute desires to15325 offer the golden rice seedling free to any third world nation that demands it. Plans were underway to develop a golden grain that also has increased iron content. Yet , the scholarhip that financed the creation of these two rice strains was not reconditioned, perhaps due to vigorous anti-GM food protesting in European countries, and so this kind of nutritionally-enhanced rice may not come to market by all15. Pharmaceutical drugs Medicines and vaccines typically are expensive to produce and frequently require exceptional storage conditions not easily available in third world countries.
Experts are working to develop edible vaccines in tomato vegetables and potatoes16, 17. These vaccines will probably be much easier to ship, store and administer than traditional injectable vaccines. Phytoremediation Not all GMC plants are grown as crops. Dirt and groundwater pollution continues to be a problem in all of the parts of the earth. Plants just like poplar forest have been genetically engineered to clean up up heavy metal pollution by contaminated soil18.
How prevalent are GM crops? What plants are participating? According to the FDA and the United states of america Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are above 40 flower varieties which may have completed all the federal requirements for commercialization (http://vm. cfsan. fda. gov/%7Elrd/biocon).
Some examples of the plants consist of tomatoes and cantalopes that have modified maturing characteristics, soybeans and sugarbeets that are resistant to herbicides, and corn and cotton plants with increased resistance from insect pests. Only some these products can be purchased in supermarkets however; however , the prevalence of GM foods in U. S. food markets is more wide-spread than is commonly thought. While there are very, few genetically-modified whole fruits and vegetables on produce stands, highly processed food, such as veggie oils or breakfast cereals, most likely consist of some very small percentage of genetically-modified ingredients because the uncooked ingredients have already been pooled as one processing stream from a number of sources.
Also, the pervasiveness of soybean derivatives since food chemicals in the modern American diet practically ensures that almost all U. T. consumers had been exposed to GENERAL MOTORS food products. The U. T. statistics stated in this article are created from data shown on the USDA web site at http://www. ers. usda. gov/briefing/biotechnology/. The global figures are based on a brief posted by the Intercontinental Service intended for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) by http://www. isaaa. org/publications/briefs/Brief_21. htm and through the Biotechnology Industry Organization at http://www. bio. org/food&ag/1999Acreage. Tough luck countries grew genetically-engineered seeds commercially in 2000, and of these, the U. T. produced most.
In 2000, 68% coming from all GM crops were grown by U. S. maqui berry farmers. In comparison, Argentina, Canada and China made only 23%, 7% and 1%, correspondingly. Other countries that grew commercial GENERAL MOTORS crops in 2000 happen to be Australia, Bulgaria, France, Australia, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, The country of spain, and Uruguay.
Soybeans and corn are the top two most widely produced crops (82% of all GMC crops harvested in 2000), with cotton, rapeseed (or canola) and potatoes walking behind. 74% of these GM crops were modified pertaining to herbicide threshold, 19% had been modified for insect infestations resistance, and 7% were modified intended for both herbicide tolerance and pest threshold. Globally, acreage of GENERAL MOTORS crops has increased 25-fold in only 5 years, from approximately 4. a few million massive areas in mil novecentos e noventa e seis to 109 million quadrat in 2150 practically twice the location of the British.
Approximately 99 million acres were dedicated to GM crops in the U. S. and Argentina by itself. In the U. S., approximately 54% of all soybeans cultivated in 2000 were genetically-modified, up from 42% in 1998 and only seven percent in mil novecentos e noventa e seis. In 2150, genetically-modified organic cotton varieties made up 61% of the total organic cotton crop, up from 42% in 1998, and 15% in 1996. GMC corn and in addition experienced a similar but significantly less dramatic enhance. Corn creation increased to 25% of corn cultivated in 2000, about the same as 1998 (26%), but up from 1 ) 5% in 1996.
While anticipated, pesticide and herbicide use in these GENERAL MOTORS varieties was slashed and, for the most part, yields were increased (for information, see the UDSA publication by http://www. res. usda. gov/publications/aer786/). What are a few of the criticisms against GM food? Environmental active supporters and workers, religious organizations, public interest groups, professional associations and other scientists and government representatives have all brought up concerns regarding GM food, and belittled agribusiness pertaining to pursuing income without matter for potential hazards, plus the government to get failing to exercise satisfactory regulatory oversight.
It seems that all of us have a strong opinion about GM foods. Even the Vatican19 and the Knight in shining armor of Wales20 have expressed their viewpoints. Most issues about GENERAL MOTORS foods fall under three types: environmental hazards, human health risks, and financial concerns. Environmental hazards Unintentional harm to different organisms Recently a lab study was published in Nature21 displaying that pollen from W. t. hammer toe caused large mortality rates in monarch butterfly caterpillars.
Monarch caterpillars consume milkweed plants, certainly not corn, but the fear is that if pollen from B. t. hammer toe is broken by the breeze onto milkweed plants in neighboring fields, the caterpillars could eat the pollen and die. Although the Nature study was not conducted underneath natural discipline conditions, the results seemed to support this viewpoint. Unfortunately, B. big t. toxins kill many types of insect larvae indiscriminately; it is not necessarily possible to create a M. t. toxin that would only kill crop-damaging pests and remain benign to all various other insects.
This kind of study is being reexamined by the USDA, the U. H. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other non-government exploration groups, and preliminary info from new studies shows that the original study may have been flawed22, 23. This kind of topic may be the subject of acrimonious controversy, and both equally sides of the discussion are defending their info vigorously. Presently, there is no contract about the results of the studies, and the potential risk of harm to non-target organisms will have to be evaluated further more.
Reduced effectiveness of insect sprays Just as a lot of populations of mosquitoes produced resistance to the now-banned pesticide DDT, so many people are concerned that insects will end up resistant to N. t. or other vegetation that have been genetically-modified to produce their own pesticides. Gene transfer to non-target species Another concern is that plant plants built for herbicide tolerance and weeds will certainly cross-breed, resulting in the transfer of the herbicide resistance genetics from the seeds into the weeds. These superweeds would then be herbicide tolerant too. Other launched genes might cross over into non-modified crops planted subsequent to GM crops.
The possibility of interbreeding can be shown by defense of farmers against lawsuits registered by Monsanto. The company offers filed patent infringement legal cases against maqui berry farmers who may have collected GM seeds. Monsanto promises that the farmers obtained Monsanto-licensed GM seed products from a mysterious source and did not spend royalties to Monsanto. The farmers declare that their unmodified crops were cross-pollinated coming from someone else’s GM plants planted an area or two apart.
More analysis is needed to resolve this issue. There are lots of possible solutions to the three complications mentioned above. Family genes are traded between plants via pollen.
Two ways to make certain non-target varieties will not acquire introduced genes from GM plants in order to create GMC plants which have been male sterile (do certainly not produce pollen) or to alter the GENERAL MOTORS plant in order that the pollen would not contain the introduced gene24, 25, 26. Cross-pollination would not happen, and if harmless insects just like monarch caterpillars were to take in pollen coming from GM vegetation, the caterpillars would endure. Another conceivable solution is always to create stream zones about fields of GM crops27, 28, 30. For example , non-GM corn will be planted to surround a field of N. t. GM corn, plus the non-GM corn would not always be harvested.
Helpful or benign insects would have a retreat in the non-GM corn, and insect pests could possibly be allowed to eliminate the non-GM corn and would not develop resistance to M. t. insect poison. Gene transfer to weeds and other seeds would not take place because the wind-blown pollen may not travel past the buffer zone. Quotes of the important width of buffer zones range from 6 meters to 30 meters or more30.
This sowing method is probably not feasible in the event that too much expanse is required intended for the stream zones. Human being health risks Allergenicity Many kids in the US and Europe have developed life-threatening hypersensitivity to nuts and other foods. There is a opportunity that introducing a gene into a flower may make a new allergy or trigger an allergic attack in prone individuals. A proposal to incorporate a gene from Brazil nuts into soybeans was abandoned because of the fear of creating unexpected sensitive reactions31.
Extensive testing of GM food may be required to avoid the possibility of harm to consumers with meals allergies. Labeling of GENERAL MOTORS foods and food products is going to acquire fresh importance, that we shall discuss later. Unidentified effects about human overall health There is a developing concern that introducing international genes in food plants may offer an unexpected and negative effect on human overall health.
A recent article published in Lancet reviewed the effects of GMC potatoes on the digestive tract in rats32, 33. This research claimed that there were remarkable differences in the intestines of rats fed GM taters and mice fed unmodified potatoes. Yet critics declare this paper, like the monarch butterfly info, is flawed and does not hold up to scientific scrutiny34. Moreover, the gene presented into the taters was a snowdrop flower lectin, a substance known to be harmful to mammals.
The researchers who made this variety of potato made a decision to use the lectin gene only to test the methodology, and these potatoes were never intended for human or creature consumption. Overall, with the exception of feasible allergenicity, researchers believe that GMC foods will not present a risk to human overall health. Economic worries Bringing a GM meals to market is a lengthy and costly method, and of course agri-biotech companies desire to ensure a profitable come back on their purchase. Many new plant genetic executive technologies and GM crops have been copyrighted, and patent infringement can be described as big concern of agribusiness.
But consumer promoters are worried that patenting these new plant varieties can raise the price of seed so high that small farmers and under developed countries will not be able to manage seeds to get GM crops, thus extending the space between the rich and the poor. It is hoped that within a humanitarian gesture, more corporations and nonprofits will follow the lead of the Rockefeller Foundation and offer goods at lower cost to destitute nations. Obvious enforcement are often difficult, because the legislation of the maqui berry farmers that they involuntarily grew Monsanto-engineered strains when ever their vegetation were cross-pollinated shows. A good way to combat feasible patent intrusion is to expose a suicide gene in GM plant life.
These plant life would be practical for only one growing time and might produce sterile seeds that do not germinate. Farmers would have to buy a new supply of seeds each year. Yet , this would be fiscally disastrous intended for farmers in third world countries who cannot afford to buy seedling each year and traditionally set aside a portion with their harvest to plant in the next growing season.
In an open letter to the public, Monsanto has pledged to forego all research using this committing suicide gene technology35. How are GMC foods regulated and what is the government’s role through this process? Government authorities around the world working hard to to establish a regulatory process to monitor the effects of and approve fresh varieties of GENERAL MOTORS plants. However depending on the political, social and economic climate in a region or perhaps country, diverse governments happen to be responding in different ways.
In Japan, the Ministry of Health and Wellbeing has declared that health tests of GMC foods will be mandatory by April 200136, 37. Currently, testing of GM food is voluntary. Japanese grocery stores are offering the two GM foods and unmodified foods, and customers are beginning to show a powerful preference intended for unmodified fruits and vegetables. India’s authorities has not but announced a plan on GENERAL MOTORS foods mainly because no GENERAL MOTORS crops will be grown in India with no products are commercially available in supermarkets yet38.
India is, however , incredibly supportive of transgenic flower research. It really is highly likely that India will decide that the advantages of GM food outweigh the potential risks because Of india agriculture will need to adopt radical new steps to combat the country’s endemic low income and give food to its exploding population. A lot of states in Brazil include banned GMC crops entirely, and the Brazilian Institute for the Defense of Consumers, in collaboration with Greenpeace, provides filed go well with to prevent the importation of GM crops39,.
Brazilian maqui berry farmers, however , have got resorted to smuggling GMC soybean seed products into the region because they will fear monetary harm if they happen to be unable to contend in the global marketplace to grain-exporting countries. In The european countries, anti-GM food protestors had been especially lively. In the last couple of years Europe offers experienced two major food scares: boeotian spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in Great Britain and dioxin-tainted foods from Belgium. These types of food frightens have undermined consumer self-confidence about the European food supply, and individuals are disinclined to trust government information regarding GM foods.
In response towards the public outcry, Europe now requires necessary food labeling of GMC foods in stores, and the Euro Commission (EC) has established a 1% tolerance for toxins of unmodified foods with GM meals products40. In the usa, the regulating process is usually confused since there are three diverse government agencies which have jurisdiction above GM food. To put this very simply, the EPA examines GM plants for environmental safety, the USDA evaluates whether the grow is safe to grow, plus the FDA evaluates whether the herb is safe to enjoy.
The ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY is responsible for controlling substances just like pesticides or toxins that may cause harm to the surroundings. GM plants such as M. t. pesticide-laced corn or perhaps herbicide-tolerant crops but not food modified for their nutritional value belong to the grasp of the EPA. The USDA is responsible for GENERAL MOTORS crops which often not fall under the umbrella of the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY such as drought-tolerant or disease-tolerant crops, plants grown for animal passes, or whole fruits, fresh vegetables and grains for man consumption.
The FDA in the past has been concerned with pharmaceuticals, makeup products and food products and additives, not complete foods. Under current rules, a genetically-modified ear of corn sold at a produce stand is not controlled by the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION because it is a whole food, nevertheless a container of cornflakes is governed because it is a food product. The FDA’s position is that GMC foods are considerably equivalent to unmodified, natural food, and therefore certainly not subject to FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION regulation.
The EPA performs risk examination studies in pesticides that could potentially cause harm to human health and the environment, and establishes patience and remains levels to get pesticides. There are strict restrictions on the sum of insect poison that may be put on crops during growth and production, as well as the amount that remains in the food after processing. Growers using insect sprays must have this license for each pesticide and are required to follow the directions on the ingredients label to agreement with the EPA’s safety requirements.
Government inspectors may routinely visit farms and execute investigations to assure compliance. Violation of government regulations may result in steep fees, loss of license and even imprisonment sentences. Including the EPA regulatory approach, consider B. to. corn.
The EPA have not established limitations on remains levels in B. to corn since the B. to. in the hammer toe is not really sprayed as a chemical pesticide but is known as a gene that is integrated into the genetic material of the hammer toe itself. Declaring no to prop must have this license from the EPA for W. t corn, and the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY has granted a notice for the 2000 growing season demanding farmers to plant 20% unmodified hammer toe, and up to 50% unmodified corn in regions where cotton is also cultivated41. This kind of planting strategy may help stop insects by developing resistance from the W. t. pesticides or herbicides as well as give a refuge pertaining to non-target pests such as Monarch butterflies.
The USDA has its own internal partitions that talk about responsibility to get assessing GM foods. Amongst these divisions are APHIS, the Animal Health insurance and Plant Inspection Service, which in turn conducts discipline tests and issues enables to develop GM plants, the Agricultural Research Services which functions in-house GENERAL MOTORS food exploration, and the Cooperative State Exploration, Education and Extension Services which runs the USDA risk evaluation program. The USDA is concerned with potential hazards in the plant by itself. Does it harbor insect pests? Could it be a poisonous weed?
Will it cause harm to indigenous species if it escapes by farmer’s domains? The USDA has the power to impose quarantines on problem regions to prevent movement of suspected crops, restrict import or export of supposed plants, and can even destroy crops cultivated in violation of USDA rules. Many GENERAL MOTORS plants will not require USDA permits from APHIS.
A GM flower does not require a permit if this meets these kinds of 6 conditions: 1) the rose is not just a noxious pot; 2) the genetic materials introduced in to the GM grow is balanced integrated into the plant’s very own genome; 3) the function of the released gene is famous and does not trigger plant disease; 4) the GM plant is certainly not toxic to nontarget organisms; 5) the introduced gene will not cause the creation of new grow viruses; and 6) the GM grow cannot have genetic material from pet or individual pathogens (see http://www. aphis. usda. gov: 80/bbep/bp/7cfr340 ). The current FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION policy was developed in 1992 (Federal Enroll Docket Number 92N-0139) and states that agri-biotech businesses may under your own accord ask the FDA for the consultation. Companies working to produce new GM foods are not required to consult the FDA, neither are they required to follow the FDA’s recommendations following the consultation.
Consumer interest organizations wish this process to be mandatory, so that every GM food products, whole foods or otherwise, has to be approved by the FDA before being released pertaining to commercialization. The FDA desks that the agency currently would not have the time, money, or perhaps resources to handle exhaustive health and safety research of every recommended GM foodstuff. Moreover, the FDA insurance plan as it is available today does not allow for this kind of intervention. Exactly how are GM foods labeled? Marking of GMC foods and food products is also a good issue.
Overall, agribusiness companies believe that labels should be voluntary and motivated by the needs of the free of charge market. If consumers show preference for labeled foods over non-labeled foods, then simply industry will have the incentive to manage itself or risk powerful the customer. Consumer interest teams, on the other hand, will be demanding mandatory labeling.
People have the right to really know what they are eating, argue the interest groups, and historically sector has verified itself to get unreliable at self-compliance with existing safety regulations. The FDA’s current position on food labeling is ruled by the Foodstuff, Drug and Cosmetic Act which is only concerned with meals additives, certainly not whole foods or food products that are regarded as GRAS generally recognized since safe. The FDA disagrees that GENERAL MOTORS foods are substantially equivalent to non-GM foods, and thus not susceptible to more strict labeling.
In the event that all GENERAL MOTORS foods and food products should be labeled, Congress must sanction sweeping changes in the existing food labeling plan. There are many concerns that must be answered if marking of GM foods turns into mandatory. First, are buyers willing to absorb the cost of such an initiative? If the food production industry is necessary to label GMC foods, production facilities will need to create two distinct processing avenues and keep an eye on the production lines accordingly. Maqui berry farmers must be capable of keep GM crops and non-GM seeds from blending during planting, harvesting and shipping.
It truly is almost assured that industry will transfer these further costs to consumers in the form of higher rates. Secondly, exactly what the acceptable limits of GM toxic contamination in non-GM products? The EC provides determined that 1% is usually an acceptable limit of cross-contamination, yet a large number of consumer curiosity groups argue that only 0% is satisfactory. Some firms such as Gerber baby foods42 and Frito-Lay43 have pledged to avoid use of GM foods in any with their products.
Although who is gonna monitor these companies for compliance and what is the charges if that they fail? Once again, the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION does not have resources to handle testing to assure compliance. Precisely what is the level of detectability of GM food cross-contamination? Scientists concur that current technology is not able to detect minute quantities of contamination, thus ensuring 0% contamination using existing strategies is certainly not guaranteed. However researchers differ on what level of contaminants really is detectable, especially in packaged food products including vegetable herbal oils or lunch break cereals in which the vegetables utilized to make these products have been put from a number of sources.
A 1% tolerance may already be below current levels of detectability. Finally, who will be to be in charge of educating the general public about GM food labels and how costly will that education end up being? Food labels must be built to clearly convey accurate information about the product in simple vocabulary that everyone is able to understand.
This may be the greatest concern faced be a new meals labeling insurance plan: how to inform and notify the public devoid of damaging the population trust and causing alarm or fear of GM food products. In January 2000, an international trade arrangement for marking GM foods was established44, 45. A lot more than 130 countries, including the ALL OF US, the world’s largest manufacturer of GMC foods, fixed the contract. The plan states that exporters should be required to label all GMC foods and this importing countries have the directly to judge on their own the potential risks and reject GMC foods, in the event that they therefore choose.
This new agreement may spur the U. H. government to fix the home food labels dilemma quicker. Conclusion Genetically-modified foods have the potential to solve most of the world’s hunger and weakness problems, and also to help safeguard and preserve the environment by increasing deliver and lowering reliance after chemical pesticides and herbicides. But there are many problems ahead intended for governments, particularly in the areas of safety testing, regulation, international policy and meals labeling. A large number of people believe that genetic anatomist is the inescapable wave for the future and that we cannot afford to ignore a technology which has such enormous potential benefits.
However , we must proceed with caution to stop causing unintentional harm to human being health and the environment as a result of the enthusiasm just for this powerful technology.
