try in New Zealand, global market values for genetically modified crops is expected to be up to six billion dollars in the year 2005. Using genetic technology, the development process of organisms is quicker, reducing breeding cycles of fifteen years to only two or three years (Paoletti & Pimentel 1996). With more crops being produced rapidly, businesses are able to run a company of increasing profitability and decreasing management costs (Nielsen 1999).Risks associated with transgenic organismsGenetic engineering in agriculture provides many benefits to social, economic, and environmental welfare. However, ecological risks are unavoidable, even under careful monitoring (Altieri 1998). According to Rissler and Mellon (1996) the most serious risks of transgenic crop use include: simplifying crop systems and promoting genetic erosion, the potential transfer of genes from pesticide-resistant crops to wild vegetation, the generation of new virulent strains of viruses, insect resistance to Bt toxin, and the destruction of natural relationships in the ecosystem. Although all of these cases have not yet been proven, signs of ecological imbalance and environmental hazards have already appeared through the application of genetic engineering (Regal 1996).Total weed removal by herbicides may lead to undesirable ecological impacts (Altieri 1998). Weed diversity in and around crop fields is important to the balance of the ecosystem because weeds provide insect pest control, reduce erosion by covering soil, and help prevent insecticides from spraying into forests. The complexity of the agro-ecosystem will also be reduced. Low plant diversity caused by the elimination of weeds will enhance free-range weed growth, insects, and disease since other organisms will not fill the empty ecological niches (Rissler & Mellon 1996). As herbicides continue to become more and more effective, species that have adapted to the herbicides will become the favo...
