When you're making just a few changes to an organism it's a lot easier to predict and test the outcome, vs. inserting a complete batch of genes in the form of a

When you're making just a few changes to an organism it's a lot easier to predict and test the outcome, vs. inserting a complete batch of genes in the form of a new to the ecosystem plant like the balsamine you mention. That Wikipedia article details a bunch of ways in which balsamine can out compete local plants and do other undesirable things like encourage erosion by dying each season. In either case a degree of caution is warranted. Which scientists did for genetic engineering, during a period when I was preparing to join them (actually did some E. Coli genetic work in the summer of 1977 in a NSF Summer Science Training Program between my high school sophomore and junior years): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilomar_Conference_on_Recombinant_DNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilomar_Conference_on_Recombi... The restrictions resulting from the conference were relaxed over time as appropriate as we gained the relevant knowledge, especially the way in which genes naturally jump around all the time between species. I.e. nature has already tried out a lot of stuff we might want to try, given zillions of organisms and years.