Is Genetic Engineering `Natural?
In response to a N.Y. Times article on genetically engineered foods, Carl B. Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, wrote a letter to the editor. He objected to the claim by critics that “what they do is `natural’ while modern biology is not”. After all, Archaeologists have documented twelve thousand years of agriculture throughout which farmers have genetically altered crops by selecting certain seeds from one harvest and using them to plant the next, a process that has led to enormous changes in the crops we grow and the food we eat. It is only in the past thirty years that we have become able to do it through biotechnology at high levels of predictability, precision and safety. One often hears this line of thought. The first problem with it is that it invites us to remain uncritical about technical developments during those 12,000 years. In this sense, the argument simply assumes what it sets out to prove, which is that we have every reason to remain uncriti
