Genetic Engineering, Friend or Foe?

“Genetic engineering promises to replace expensive and toxic chemicals with expensive and but apparently benign genetic information: crops that can protect themselves from insects and diseases without the help of pesticides.” (Pollan, 191). Genetic engineering can be beneficial in that it can feed more people more quickly, wasting less crops. In a way, genetic engineering replicates nature in that it creates hybrids to withstand environmental hazards, increasing an organism’s chances of survival.
Genetic engineering dates back to the time of the Incas. “A more or less vertical habitat presents special challenges to both plants and their cultivators, because the microclimate changes dramatically with every change in altitude or orientation to the sun and wind.” (193) The Incans found a way of working around this obstacle by planting potatoes suited for different microclimates in patches. The difference between this modification and today’s genetic engineering is that the Incans worked with the land as best they could, instead of trying to develop a radically different form of organism to fit the land and preferred growing style. “To Western eyes, the resulting farms (of the Incas) look patchy and chaotic; the plots are discontinuous, offering none of that Apollonian satisfaction of an explicitly ordered landscape.”
Though growing crops in strait lines may be easier when it comes to treatment and harvest, I believe that trying to grow things in accordance with the land produces a more sustainable result. Some organic farmers grow crops together, such as flowers that need shade under fruit-bearing trees, a less “orderly” yet equally profiting method of growing useful plants. By carefully observing and trying to play along with nature’s ways, we can provide ourselves with a more sustainable future.