modified seeds one step at a time instead of spending years to develop the best tasting and hardiest plants all at once. It takes 10 – 12 years to breed plants in the traditional way. With biotechnology, breeders can select the exact traits they are looking for and mix them together enabling them to get the plants they want in only 1 - 2 years. Crops that are currently produced in the U.S. through biotechnology are soybeans, corn, canola, tomatoes, squash, and potatoes. These crops are suppose to be improved versions of the traditional ones with added beneficial traits. RISKS Some of the risks, to humans, that scientists have identified are new allergens in the food supply, antibiotic resistance, a concentration of toxic metals, and enhancement of the environment for toxic fungi. NEW ALLERGENS New allergens could cause problems for people that are sensitive to certain things and do not know that they are now part of something else that they were not allergic to. For example if they put certain milk proteins into carrots, parents would know not to give children allergic to milk the milk but they would not think twice about giving them the transgenic carrots that now contain milk proteins. A study done at the University of Nebraska showed that soybeans that were genetically engineered to contain proteins from Brazil nuts caused people allergic to Brazil nuts to have reactions to the soybeans. ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE In genetic engineering the often use antibiotic resistant genes as what they call "selectable markers". The markers help select cells that have taken up foreign genes. Although the cells no longer have a use for the genes, they still stay in the plant tissues forever. Having these antibiotic genes in foods could cause two problems. This first is eating the foods that contain the genes could reduce the effectiveness of taking antibiotics that need to be taken with food when you are sick. An example is if you eat a tomato w...
