The reason those tomatoes in your grocery cart are so plump and those apples are so golden is due in part to biotechnology. But while science has improved certain qualities of the foods we eat, some experts are concerned about the possible health risks in these ‘new and improved’ foods. Should you be worried?
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Are Biotech Foods Safe?
Genetic engineering is far from being an exact science
Biochemist, Dr John Fagan, returned his government grant to research genetic science and refused to do any more work in the field when he realized the dangers of current GE scientific practice. He referred to as being about as accurate as throwing a statue through the 2nd floor of an art museum and expecting it to land on a specific pedestal. He now works with a company that does testing for genetic content in food etc. Until thorough testing is done on the long term effects of tinkering with genetic code, GE products should be not allowed into the food chain. It's another case of dubious science being forced through for commercial gain with no proper scientific or moral safeguards.
- elio
July 29, 2008 6:05PM
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Exact Science?
There is no such thing.
Perhaps the scientific practice in this field needs some development but the products should absolutely be allowed into the food chain. Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, how many people will die from GE corn? How many die everyday from starvation? Which is a lesser evil, trying to feed them or preventing them from getting food? Breeding plants is possibly more imprecise than genetically engineering them. Both have the same principles of recombining genes.
Besides, if we disallowed anything dangerous, we would be left with nothing.
- sunshiner424
August 3, 2009 4:52PM
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Dangerous games
Dear Sunshiner 24: Actually what you say is a repetition of the biotech industry standard PR points on genetically engineered food products and highly inaccurate. There is no real food shortage in the world. There is a food distribution problem between those who have and those who have not. A lot of that could be sorted out with a compassion approach and sensible politics (I know, it's a scary thought, but not impossible and we do hope). Secondly check out the statistics on the numbers of Indian farmers who have committed suicide because their livelihoods have been taken away by the forced imposition of GM terminator seeds by their government in conjunction with companies such as Monsanto; seeds which they cannot afford nor are they successful replacements for their traditional growing practices. The truth is the the biotech promise of increased crop production through GM seeds has failed to happen. What has happened is they have produced pesticide resistant crops which just happen to require a lot of products such as Roundup which just happen to be made by the same companies that make the GM seeds. Furthermore, the weeds can then become pesticide resistant and so even more pesticides are required, creating an increasing pollution of the crops with chemicals which we already know are not good for us. As to your point about GM engineering being the same as regular breeding of plants, that's also not true. Let's be honest, there is no sex involved here. It is not bringing together different plants to create a healthier hybrid. It is ramming together genetic code from different species: animals , insects, bacteria and plants. The resulting mishmash has the ability to penetrate the normal defense barriers in the human digestive and immune system and cause structural alteration to the human DNA, with consequences that are extremely scary and possibly irreversible.
Sunshine 24, I don't know if you are real in your views or a schill for the biotech industry. But as a human being (potentially with children to care for) I urge you to do some further research into this subject. This is serious stuff and not to be taken lightly. Check out the following web page:
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/AboutGMFoods/index.cfm . There's lots more information like this out there.
- elio
August 4, 2009 8:38AM
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