genetically altering plants, good idea?

By Kelly Moody
1/23/07, 8:00 PM
Our 1st class we talked about 4 different foods that Dr. Redick brought to class from the grocery store. We discussed the human role in processing and growing of these plants. We are now able to produce mass quantities of the kinds of foods we want by genetic engineering. Essentially we are picking the qualities we want in a plant that we consume or use in some fashion that best fits our needs. This is positive in a lot of ways. We can make one good apple a standard for genetically altering other apples, we can essentially make all apples possess the good qualities that the one apple did. Humans have this power over not just apples but just about ANYTHING you can buy in the grocery store, or anything made of plant materials. More people can get the nutrition they need, because there are more quality foods available. Instead of the chance that some people will get the good of the bunch and some won't, now everyone can get the same quality foods if they buy them at the same place. Also, products made of plants, now can all have the same great quality (cotton or hemp for example) and standard because we can harvest the plants to all grow to the exact same strength.
The downside of all of this is the random negative effects genetically altering foods can have. Though we can genetically alter any plant we want to fit out needs, that plant has the ability to randomly mutate on it's own, or we could alter a plant to the point that it has a negative effect on our bodies later on. An example of this is my roommate. She cannot eat bread because she is allergic to genetically altered yeast. It is almost next to impossible to grow yeast now without it being altered in some form by humans, even the natural plant now is a derivative of the altered form. She told me that some people adapt to the changes made by humans and some people become victims of these changes. This makes me think, what if over time we can't "undo" what we change? We are essentially evolving plants to our own needs, but what if one day this backlashes on us and becomes harmful? Also, if there is not enough variation in the plants themselves, will this have a greater ecological effect? Can we actually be hurting our own evolutionary process while altering what we consume?
Does anyone else have any ideas/examples about the pros and cons of genetically altering plants?