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<\/p>\n
Jacob Kronenberg kayaking with his mom, Heidi.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Working with genetic engineering means I have to field a lot of questions when I\u2019m home for the holidays. My health-conscious mother always makes sure to buy organic, free-range, \u201cchemical-free\u201d products, so when food labeled GMO-free started popping up, she made sure to get that too. In the produce section at Whole Foods I\u2019d hear, \u201cJake, can you believe what those scientists do, with all this unnatural, genetically-modified Frankenstein crap they\u2019re trying to feed us? When I was little, we just had regular strawberries and regular corn, none of these humongous GMO plants. Not to mention how Big Pharma is making mutant drugs to put in people\u2019s bodies\u2026 C\u2019mon, you\u2019re a scientist now, what do you think of it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is a loaded question. All scientists are ambassadors to the community, and it\u2019s important to dispel myths about our fields, especially when it comes to widely misunderstood topics. From zombie movies to GATTACA, genetic engineering has always been painted in a dystopic light. It also doesn\u2019t help that agricultural use of GMOs doesn\u2019t exactly have a clean record. Chemical-resistant crops have encouraged the use of harmful pesticides, most famously Roundup<\/a>, and many large ag-tech companies have aggressive policies gatekeeping access to their designer crops. With information and misinformation obscuring knowledge of science, it can be tough to know what to say.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I tell people who ask my thoughts on genetic engineering not to write off a whole discipline because of a few groups. GMO crops like golden rice<\/a> can improve access to nutrition in developing countries and don\u2019t pose much harm as long as they\u2019re well managed. Besides, genetic engineering has always been about more than just crops. My favorite example of genetic engineering to bring up is the breakthrough discovery<\/a> that allowed insulin to be mass-produced in bioreactors. Insulin is a life-saving drug for millions of people and it\u2019s thanks to a team of genetic engineers who spliced insulin genes into E. coli and S. cerevisiae that it\u2019s so accessible. I hear people criticize bioengineering as being unnatural and unhuman, but most of our research focuses on treating diseases and improving people\u2019s quality of life. What\u2019s more human than that?<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s important for scientists as well as the public to remember that every scientific discovery can have a good side and a bad side. While a lot of non-scientists are overly pessimistic about unfamiliar advances in genetic engineering, some scientists are overly optimistic. We tend to think that science is just the pursuit of truth, but it\u2019s not that simple.. Along with reminding others that science is a force for good, we need to remind ourselves to think ethically so we can keep it that way. It\u2019s important to reflect at every step of the way about how advances can affect the world at large. I think we all have a lot to learn from conversations like these.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2014Jacob Kronenberg<\/p>\n @jbkronenberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jacob Kronenberg kayaking with his mom, Heidi. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Working with genetic engineering means I have to field a lot of questions when I\u2019m home for the holidays. My health-conscious mother always makes sure to buy organic, free-range, \u201cchemical-free\u201d products, so when food labeled GMO-free started popping up, she made sure to get that too. In… Continue reading Are GMOs that scary? by Jacob Kronenberg<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3409,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/montclare.poly.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}