Recently, or today, I was looking at a magazine that presented on the front cover DNA revolution. The magazine begged the question "should we? " meaning, should we alter DNA because we can? I think it is an interesting subject to study, one that should be kept within laboratories until the unveiling of the consequences. But to be truthful I think the magazine is a bit behind times, we are already altering DNA of countless species and plants. Except we weren't given the choice to say no to this science experiment. I walk out my backdoor every morning and witness this change in the form of a white spring chicken who is close to losing her ability to walk. She limps to the food and water, but isn't much for being able to run from the others and spends a lot of time down. Her DNA was altered for the sake of food. Her comfort wasn't important when it came to growing food and doing it rapidly. She isn't as nature intended her to be and most certainly will not survive the winter. She just wasn't bred for it. Personally I would rather have a smaller and happier chicken for dinner than some altered creature who can't even walk. If I were to breed her, which I most certainly would not, she would produce chicks that would later face the same problems as she does, given that the rooster was the same altered breed. Last spring I had a turkey who suffered the same: he grew too large, couldn’t hold his weight nor tolerate the cold and soon died unable to carry himself to food or water. I brought him food and water, but it didn’t really do him any good considering he couldn’t walk.
Plants are also suffering the same fate, they are altered and sprayed with pesticides that are also causing damages to whatever is unlucky enough to be sprayed. Some plants, or weeds, are changing and are going wild, their DNA changing allowing them to grow a tolerance to the poisons. This isn’t’ good. What we humans are doing is altering the balance of nature, I’m not sure about anyone else, but from past examples, such as the changes in weather I am sure we are all aware of, but mother nature does not like her stuff messed with. I am not saying that DNA alteration, genetically modifying things, could never do us any good, but we just launch things right out the front doors before we ask questions. We can see the changes now that are causing damages for the sake of money. I don’t think for me to point the finger would do any good, but I find that educating ourselves on the effects of changing DNA would probably one day save us all. For everyone to really know the consequences, we would not have to put our lives and health in the hands of those out for something other than the well being of the planet and ourselves. Maybe the researchers who found GMOs cause cancer and do damage to our bodies are right, maybe they are wrong, but who really knows? Maybe there is good, but do we really know?
I know one thing is certain though: we are already disrupting the balance of nature and there is one scientist who believes that if we changed everything right this very second, these changes would still run their course. The damage is done. But changing ourselves would aid in an easy transition for us humans and other animals into whatever nature is to be like next. I mean come on people, do we really want our planet to look like the Earth portrayed in the Disney film "Wall-E?" Through our lack of questioning and our rapidly changing diets it is clear that we are already starting to represent the people in the film: overweight, sitting in front of the TV, and not caring of the well-being of the planet. We are headed for a future like that already, yet no one is watching their actions to ensure it doesn’t happen. It won’t be long before we are all boarding the Axiom bound for space because our polluted and barren planet can no longer support life. Nature always finds a balance, and if it has to be through mass die off, it will be.
