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The general trend of the biotech industry is for long-time chemical polluters to reinvent themselves as "life sciences" companies. Such companies generally feature agrochemical, pharmaceutical and nutrition divisions, while dropping losing chemical businesses. Monsanto, for example, spun off its chemicals division as a separate company, though it held on to its agrochemicals business and best-selling product, the herbicide Roundup. Novartis is the result of the merger of two chemical giants, but its public front as a life sciences company obscures its toxic past. Because of the Food and Drug Administration's failure to require the labeling of genetically engineered food, avoiding these life threatening goods is difficult to do. The best way to eliminate GMO's in your diet is to buy organic food. By definition organic food is free from genetic modification.
There is an overwhelming amount of scholarly articles and information concerning the effects of genetic engineering on the environment, specifically the negative. One argument is that by altering genes in plants it creates a situation of "crop uniformity" or "monocrops" as a result of a reduction in genetic diversity. The consequences of low genetic diversity have been well documented with events such as the Irish potato famine and the Panama disease. Scientists explain that crops are by nature resilient and have the ability to overcome viruses by inheriting traits and genes from stronger plants. Each plant in the traditional method has a unique combination of genes that cause variations in seed size, branching pattern, in height, flower color, fruiting time, or flavor, only the plants with the best genes tend to survive. Some scientist's rebuttal with the argument that genetically modified plants are less vulnerable to viruses and diseases, this is sometimes the case however no two environments are exactly the same, so every crop's vulnerability differs considerably.
