could, however, be directed towards enhancing the flavor and quality of the food that reaches the tables of consumers in developed countries. Presently it is more often used to enhance storage qualities and transportability. In economic terms, these are important qualities but have little impact on the consumer. If the public were given the opportunity to be better informed about GM crops, it might encourage supermarkets and farmers alike to produce food that offers more consumer benefits.Most concerns about the environment are ethically based and the majority center on welfare. Both the welfare of people living now and the welfare of future generations. Issues of rights are also at stake. One particular conflict of rights is between the rights of some people to exploit the environment in pursuit of money, as against the rights of others who want to preserve the environment as an amenity. At another level, rights are often thought to protect the vital interests of creatures that cannot make choices for themselves.Some of those who argue that genetic modification is intrinsically wrong, or unnatural, do so from a position that the environment has rights, including the right not to have species boundaries violated. Whether we accept the idea of rights for the environment or not, this could be taken as a way of saying that human beings have no right to act in a way that violates such boundaries.Others raise issues of 'naturalness' as a way to express uneasiness about what genetic modification means for our relationship with the natural world. Although they are prepared to accept that we already live with considerable human intervention in the environment, particularly in the high intensity agriculture involved in modern food production. Genetic modification seems like a 'step too far'. In the absence of detailed knowledge about the technology, people may not be able to say precisely what boundary is being crossed, and feelings abo...
