What is Genetic Engineering?

Every living thing, plant, animal or microbe, is made up of tiny cells, in the centre of which is the nucleus, that controls the size, shape and functions in each cell. Inside the nucleus are genes, tiny chemical structures that store instructions for each cell. Genes are made of DNA: the pattern and operating system for all living things.

In traditional plant and animal breeding male and female mate, the offspring containing half of each parent's genes. So, generation by generation, the offspring can be made to express characteristics like insect or chemical resistance. But only individuals of similar, related species can be successfully mated.

Genetic engineering (GE) bypasses this process. Genes can be transferred from one organism to another. The genes can be of related or unrelated organisms. So now we can move genes between a germ and a plant, and a scorpion and a tree. This was never naturally possible before.

Genetic modification is based on an out-dated theory of genetics that asserted that one gene is coded for one protein. Biologists estimated that the number of proteins in the human body was 100,000 or more. Thus they predicted that there would conveniently be about 100,000 genes in the human DNA.  What a surprise when the human genome was mapped in the year 2000, and it was discovered that science was wrong! There are only about 30,000 human genes. Moreover, there are weeds with as many genes as 26,000. Turns out that contrary to 'science', some genes can make more than one protein. In fact the current record is set by a single gene from the fruit fly, which can generate up to 38,016 different protein molecule! How about that!

That's not the only flaw with the 'science' of genetic engineering.

A whole host of things could go wrong. Read more.