I think the key to handling ethical issues is to have a productive and free work environment so employees can easily express their ideas. Regular meetings, group activities, retreats, fair division of leadership responsibilities, and the ability to provide anonymous feedback would all help to cultivate this environment. Small companies may be tempted to cut corners and ignore regulations because of pressure. Adaptability and versatility would solve this problem, since lack of robustness is often due to stagnation, both in ideas and methods. For example, if a company were to corner the market on a particular type of product, then all its fortunes would be tied to the that same product. If a competitor were to establish itself and outsell the original, the first company might be forced to lower prices and put out a lower quality product. Companies must strive for flexibility, much in the way Gregory Bateson explains in Steps to an Ecology of the Mind. The best possible way to do this is to have a safety net and encourage innovation, and not merely improvement.

http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-patents-sue-farmers-547/

Genetically modified organisms have been controversial for decades. Humans have modified crops and livestock for centuries; however, these changes accumulated over many generations of artificial selection. This effectively limited the degree of change that could be achieved per generation and had a balancing effect on the traits that were to be enhanced. For example, consider the potato. The wild ancestors of this staple crop were nearly inedible because of moderate levels of solanine, which acted as a natural pesticide and deterrent. After centuries of modification, the potato is safe for consumption, with some strains retaining their natural pest resistance.

The genetic modification of crops is similar in principle, but radically different in nature. Public outcry has been strong since the beginning. In the 70’s, scientists at Berkeley discovered and isolated a mutant strain of bacteria of the species Pseudomonas syringae. The wild-type produced a cell wall protein that made it a nucleation point for frost formation. Its presence on plants put them at risk for frost damage. The rarer mutant strain produced a defective version of the responsible protein, and so did not contribute to frost formation. This strain was dubbed “ice-minus” and “frostban”. An experiment was set up which involved spraying a test field of strawberry plants with a recombinant strain of ice-minus bacteria, an artificial version of a naturally occurring variant that produces the defective protein.  It seemed that frostban would turn out to be a success.

The project was scrapped for two reasons. First, environmental activist groups destroyed the test sites by uprooting the plants. While the damage was repaired the next day, the negative publicity couldn’t be fixed. Second, nothing had been done to assess the GM bacterial strain’s effect on the environment, especially since its introduction would alter the natural allele ratios of the affected bacterial populations. A lack of knowledge on the part of the public and poor risk assessment or conflicts of interest essentially assure that the issue will not be put to rest.

As with any technology of great consequence, there will always be those who will use it at the expense of others. Many issues about gene flow between GM and organic crops have recently come to light. In a 2011, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association sued the food giant, Monsanto, for filing numerous lawsuits against farmers whose organic crop became contaminated with Monsanto’s patented genes. The case reached the Supreme Court, and though Monsanto won, it was ordered not to sue farmers for traces of patented genes less than 1% in non-GM crops.  It is possible that such litigation over seed patents and ownership will become more common in the future. Already, large companies such as Monsanto control over 80% and 90% of the corn and soybean markets respectively.

Nature will, in many ways, always be a final frontier in engineering. Few engineering fields involve the design and manufacture of products (organisms and genes) that can replicate themselves to achieve near infinite lifespans. Undoubtedly, new technologies such as these will continue to benefit those who own them. We need people to be better educated about their choices, but we also need them to be more wary about who is providing them.