Q.What are the possible risks of GMOs?

Step 1. Recall that GMOs, though genuinely useful in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, bioremediation and environmental management, can have negative ecological effects if released into the environment deliberately or inadvertently under the wrong circumstances. Step 2. List the specific risks the chapter names: creating new or more vigorous pests and pathogens, or worsening existing pests through hybridisation with related transgenic organisms; harming non-target species such as soil organisms, non-pest insects, birds and other animals; disrupting biotic communities, including agricultural ecosystems; causing irreparable loss of, or changes in, species diversity or genetic diversity within a species; and creating direct risks for human health. Step 3. Explain the underlying mechanism that makes these risks real: living GMOs can proliferate, persist in the environment, and sometimes transfer their DNA into other organisms, so a released GEO could displace existing organisms or effectively create new species, causing environmental damage that may be very difficult to reverse. Step 4. Note the finer-grained categorisation the chapter also gives (environmental, health and agricultural risk categories): allergic reactions from novel proteins and inadequate GM-food …

List the chapter's named ecological/health risk categories for GMOs and explain the underlying mechanism (persistence, proliferation …

• Listing only agricultural risks (pest resistance) and omitting the broader environmental (biodiversity) and human-health risk categories. …