Many genetic advancements will aid in cleaning or improving the environment. Plants engineered to "naturally" produce additives for paints and plastics will eliminate the need for environmentally unfriendly chemical processing facilities. Crops that produce their own pesticides will reduce the need for spraying.

Some environmentalists worry about possible "genetic pollution." Perhaps the most-likely scenario is that a transgenic crop could pollinate a wild weed cousin, giving rise to "super weeds" resistant to pests and herbicides. It should be noted, however, that such a scenario is also possible with new hybrid crop strains created by the traditional method of cross-fertilization.

Minerd, Jeff T. "Genetic Engineering Will Benefit Human Health and the Environment." Current Controversies: Genetic Engineering. Ed. Lisa Yount. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. West Seneca West Senior High School Lib. 18 May. 2010

-Plants can naturally produce paint and plastic additives, reducing the need for chemical producing factories

-Crops can produce their own pesticides, reducing the need for spraying

-GE crops may create "super weeds", but these "super weeds" can also created by traditionally made hybrid crops

Dozens of gene-spliced crop and garden plants now on the market have been genetically improved with a range of new traits, including resistance to insect pests and plant diseases. Gene-spliced varieties of insect-resistant corn and cotton have been modified to produce a protein that is toxic to certain chewing insects but not to birds, fish, or mammals, including humans. In turn, they require fewer applications of synthetic pesticides and generate higher yields. Gene-spliced varieties of soybean and canola that are resistant to one or another herbicide allow farmers to spray less and still control weeds effectively. Because this eliminates the need for mechanical cultivation to remove weeds, herbicide-tolerant crop plants protect topsoil from eroding easily, which has been a major agricultural and environmental concern for decades.

-Corn and cotton produce protein that is toxic to insects, fewer synthetic pesticides

-Protects topsoil from being eroded

There are plenty of other important health benefits that food biotechnology holds in store. One good example is the addition of vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids into staples, such as grain crops, that have little micronutrient value. Another is the ongoing research into developing vegetables with higher levels of potentially beneficial micronutrients. Varieties of soybean and canola, which have been modified with modern biotechnology to produce healthier cooking oils with less saturated fat, are even now being grown on tens of thousands of acres in the United States and Canada.

-Addition of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, into crops, vegetables, etc.

-Cooking oils with less saturated fat

Even more important are the nutritional benefits that gene-spliced plants could deliver to people in less developed nations. For example, the diet of more than 200 million children worldwide includes inadequate levels of many important micronutrients such as vitamin A. In Asia, this is often caused by the weaning of poor children on little more than rice gruel. Deficiency in this single micronutrient can result in impaired intellectual development, blindness, and even death; each year, approximately 2 million children die from a severe lack of vitamin A. Fortunately, a substantial amount of research into improving the nutritional value of staple crops is well underway. Perhaps the most promising ... advance in this area is the development of a rice variety that has been genetically enhanced to add beta carotene into the edible grains, which is then converted in the human body to vitamin A. It is estimated that by boosting the availability of vitamin A in developing-world diets, this variety, called Golden Rice, could help prevent as many as a million deaths per year and eliminate numerous other health problems. A similar modification to increase iron content is also under active investigation.

-Beta-carotene engineered rice curing vitamin A deficiencies in Asia

And there are many other ways in which biotechnology can help poor women and children, who perform much of the daily farm work in less developed countries. One approach is to enhance the ability of many kinds of crop plants to grow in poor soils, a problem that reduces cereal crop productivity over vast areas of the earth, but primarily in the poorer nations of the tropical zone. Adding genes to rice and corn that enable the plants to tolerate high concentrations of aluminum in the soil is the goal of a team of scientists in Mexico. Other researchers, at the University of Toronto and the University of California at Davis, are creating crop varieties that can be irrigated with poor quality, brackish water. And there are many similar examples of crop modifications, such as improving the ability of plants to grow in alkaline, iron-poor soil, that could have direct and substantial benefits for poor farmers.

Miller, Henry I, and Gregory Conko. "Genetic Engineering Benefits Society." Opposing Viewpoints: Genetic Engineering. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. West Seneca West Senior High School Lib. 18 May. 2010

-Genetically engineering crops to be able to grow in a plethora of different soils, so that they can grow in any environment.

-Economically beneficial for countries that struggle because of nutrient poor soil