dy available as a supplement (Teitel & Wilson, 2001).
Several GM experiments are given somewhat extended treatment. Potatoes have been incorporated with certain antivirus or antibiotic agents, but the authors question why vegetable-induced, hence perishable, antibodies ought to become part of the agricultural mix when more portable and less perishable supplements are already available. Plants have also been developed with a view toward enhancing their heavy -metal absorption properties, hence accomplishing toxic-waste clearing of affected land masses. Here, the authors ask how such metals, not destroyed but rather displaced, would be disposed of when the plants come to maturity and how wild animals could be protected against their continuously toxic content. They predict, too, that engineering antibiotics into vegetables could accelerate the already alarming trend toward increased antibiotic resistance on the part of hardy bacteria. Meanwhile, GM organisms have the potential to exert environmental effects similar to those associated with past attempts to introduce new biological strains into foreign environments. Citing the effect of introducing English rabbits into Australia (they became and remain a significant pest) and the gypsy moth into American forests, they essentially state that bad species introduction can drive out beneficial indigenous species (2001, pp. 3-4).
Thus from a scientific standpoint, Teitel and Wilson conclude that if GM foods were ever intended to solve any problems associated with continuation of traditional methods of agriculture and experimentation, the uncertain consequences of the cure appear to be worse than the disease. That point established, they conclude with treatment of two issues. The first has two parts that can be considered as something of a peroration, the content of which can be considered as two sides of the same coin. Side one has it that the consequences of the spread of GM foods around...