Chook Me!

genetically modified or not?

Polls have shown that most Americans want genetically modified food to be labeled, but the grocery industry worries that this might scare away customers. There is also evidence that the GM companies are manupulating scientic reports for their own ends Some facts about genetically modified food: The majority of corn and soy products are genetically modified. There are no genetically modified meat, poultry, or dairy products currently on the market. A biotech salmon is being developed but hasn't been approved yet. Genetically modified rice intended for animals has found its way into the human food supply. 1. they need lot of water for irrigation which makes it hard to be grown in areas where less water is available. 2.they absorb a lot of nutritions from the soil and makes it barren

Public Comments

1. I don't care - I eat whatever and it hasn't done me any harm at all
2. what are you on about zzzzz
3. I agree that GM foods should be labeled if that's what customers want - the grocery industry has no right to withhold this information purely on the basis that it might scare away customers - in fact this is the very reason they should put GM on relivant food labels. But dispite that, I don't think that we have much to worry about about eating GM foods. Foods are generally genetically modified to make them easier and cheaper to grow (for example by giving them resistance to a herbicide makes it easy to kill weeds by simpily spraying with the herbicide that will kill all plants but the GM crop plant), more profitable (eg. improving shelf life will reduce wastage due to spoilage), or to improve flavour or nutritional value. It involves taking a gene from another plant (or sometimes animal) and adding it into the plants DNA. This can change cellular processes within the plant to give them the desired effect. These genes do not have some magic potential to slice themselves out of the plants DNA and relocate to ours, and GM plants are tested so strictly that many of our traditional crops would not pass the testing! Testing does work, for example a few years ago scientists put a gene from a Brazil Nut into a potato to make the potatoes rich in vitamin E. All seemed great, untill during testing it was identifited that people who are allergic to nuts could be allergic to the potatoes. The project was dropped imediately and the plants were distroyed. I really think GM foods are not dangerous for people to eat!!! On the ecological, environmental, and ethical issues surrounding GM foods this is another issue. GM plants do not need extra water or nutrients - this is nonsence and they often need less. However, they may interbreed with some wild type crop plants which has a potential effect of wiping out wild populations that may otherwise be beneficial to us in the future. I think the risk of this is low. Some scientists very worryingly see it as ok to test GM plants on people in 3rd world countries before considering them to be safe for richer areas. They have the oppinion that poorer people should be grateful of any food - GM or not! This is shocking but to my knowledge hasn't actually been carried out yet. The biggest issue is that multi-million pound companies (esp. Monsanto) are buying up local varieties and pursuading farmers to switch to GM varieties for which they have to buy seed every year from the company. Farming is a difficult industry to make a profit in and this presents a worrying future for farmers, pushing towards poverty. If you really want to make a difference in the world of GM you first need to educate yourself. If this is something that you really feel passionate about you could even consider a degree in genetics. I think that many issues surounding GM foods are very poorly understood by those that fight for them and this is sad because areguements cannot really make a difference without scientific evidence to back them up.
4. Yes