“Should there be government regulations to protect the environment from genetically engineered crops?”
The government should place regulations on genetically engineered foods. Many of these foods and the process that produce them are little studied and cause dramatic changes in the environment and ecosystems. These foods being genetically engineered to resist cold weather or other conditions that naturally cause them to die or weaken, will cause competition between naturally produced plants and genetically engineered foods. This could cause a disruption to the food chain.
Genetic engineering due to the process used to produce the plants and foods, can introduce dangerous new allergens and toxins into foods, their ingredients, and the environment. Transferring animal genes into plants raises important ethical issues for vegetarians and religious groups. It may also involve animal experiments which are unacceptable. When new genetic information is introduced into plants, bacteria, insects or other animals, it can easily be passed into related organisms, through processes such as cross pollination and selective breeding. Also when competition between genetically engineered plants and natural plants happens genetically engineered plants will win out due to resistant characteristics occurring in the plants. This competition will cause displacement of organisms in the ecosystem that will have widespread effects.
Genetically engineered plants can affect the environment in many ways by introducing foreign toxins and allergens into foods and affecting the ecosystem in which they are introduced.
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