Shortages of food around the world leave large populations of people starving. Even in countries like the United States, people with low incomes struggle to afford a nutritious diet. Using transgenics, scientists create crops and vegetables such as transgenic rice, which contains beta-carotene and helps undernourished people produce vitamin A. Transgenic chickens can lay eggs with more protein in their whites. Transgenic chickens can also survive in smaller chicken coops and grow more quickly.
Scientists create transgenic animals in order to test medications that may be dangerous to test on human beings. Scientists can create transgenic mice by injecting human genes into a lab mouse. These genes make it possible for mice to catch diseases such as polio, which normal mice cannot. Scientists can then use these polio-infected mice for medication testing. Scientists sometimes transplant pig organs into humans in emergencies, but transgenic pigs' organs are even more compatible.
Crops such as rice and corn are essential for feeding large populations around the world. However, diseases can kill these plants. Tomato plants can get the tobacco mosaic virus. However, transgenic tomato plants can be resistant to this virus. Scientists can create natural insect resistants by using transgenics to prevent insects from destroying crops without using poisons. Some plants are killed by herbicides, which cannot be avoided; some transgenic plants are resistant to this danger.
Transgenic plants and animals are useful, but some people feel transgenic plants and animals threaten human health. People opposing transgenic plants and animals are concerned about diseases that normally cannot harm humans mutating into a form that can. When humans ingest bacteria used in transgenic foods, they can be negatively affected. Transgenic plants could theoretically harm other crops growing around them.