Friends of the Earth has been leading the fight to protect public health from the dangers posed by biotechnologies since 1973, when e. coli bacteria was inserted with a frog gene, creating the first recombinant DNA organism. Since then, scientists’ ability to manipulate genes has been increasing at a rapid speed – much faster than the government has been able to respond with appropriate regulations or to provide time for public debate to determine who actually benefits from these technologies.
Genetically engineered seeds have already been introduced into our food system at the expense of public health and the environment. Animal cloning, which entails making identical copies of genetically engineered animals, is being attempted, possibly as a precursor to human cloning. This is a crude technology that most often leads to sickness and premature death in animals – animals that may end up in our food supply. Scientists are also attempting to build life from scratch, forcing nature to fit humans’ needs regardless of the environmental damage or the ethical issues of creating life. This technology also isn’t stopping at our plate – corporations are seeking to own and engineer the very genes that make us human.
Around 20 percent of the human genome has already been patented, as well as DNA sequences from thousands of naturally occurring plants, animals, viruses and bacteria. Gene patents threaten public health since they limit access to potentially life-saving tests while also limiting scientific innovation. Genes are facts of nature and should be outside the realm of patentability. Friends of the Earth is taking the lead in fighting for passage of the “Genomic Research and Accessibility Act” in the U.S. Congress. This act would ban the patenting of all naturally occurring genes and DNA sequences.
Products from cloned animals and their progeny are currently allowed in our food system without any labeling or other way of informing the public of the products’ origins. However, polls show that a large majority of Americans are “not comfortable” with eating cloned products and believe they should be labeled. The public has a right to know whether it is purchasing and consuming products whose safety is questionable. Animal cloning is also being used as an intermediate stage to cloning humans, a technology President Obama has said “is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society.
Learn more about genetically engineered food
Genetically Engineered Animals
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will hold public hearings on the approval of a genetically engineered (GE) salmon created by the biotechnology company AquaBounty Technologies. If approved, these fish would be the first genetically engineered animals to be approved for human consumption.
Learn more about genetically engineered animals
Gene doping is a developing technology that has the potential to alter athletes' genomes, enabling them to run faster or hit harder by injecting a virus containing modified genes into their bodies. This is the same method used in the medical practice of gene therapy, which has yet to prove successful. Gene doping is the new frontier in sports doping and is the first step in engineering the human genome.
Chimeras are no longer things of Greek mythology. Human-animal hybrids are being created as researchers combine the genetic material of humans and animals to provide more accurate "animal" models for researching human disease, although there is no evidence that research on human-animal hybrid embryos will lead to more viable human disease treatments. Genetic hybrids open the door to humans contracting diseases previously limited to animals. They also pose environmental threats. Human-animal hybrids flout billions of years of natural evolution and could disrupt the natural balance of ecosystems if released into the environment. This technology is changing what it means to be human.