Earlier this week, Kat Battaglia, a fellow with Green America’s Better Paper Project, published an article critical of genetically engineered trees titled “Genetically Engineered Trees: A New Frontier or Climate Catastrophe?”
Most consumers in the United States are now aware of genetically engineered foods, but far fewer realize that, beginning formally in 1988, biotech scientists have been working on the next frontier of genetic engineering: trees. While the biotech industry claims GE trees could be a natural solution to deforestation, it’s far more likely that a shift to GE monoculture forests, heavily dependent on chemical inputs, would further pollute our soil, air and waterways, and exacerbate the problems of climate change.
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