Do you think genetically-modified food is a bad thing?

Question

I thought it was until I learned more about it. Now I'm not so sure!

Organic food is great, except there's not enough farmland in the world to support all the people in the world. Crop yields are horrible on organic food. And genetically modified crops can allow them to produce natural chemicals to resist pests (like chrysanthemums do), and that away they don't get sprayed with pesticides... Which most agree is a good thing!

I think its a necessary evil in today's world. I personally feel it beats the alternative of ingesting trace amounts of round-up, and its definitely better than people starving, round-up or not. I just wanted to see what other people's opinions are about this controversial issue...

Answer 1

Well, like it or not, GMF is already in our food-chain. Unless one prepares all their food from scratch, there is no way to determine if the meal is truly organically grown.

Answer 2

Well, you're effectively putting your concern about the health of humans above any concerns about the environment, the way you've written your blurb.

That is, you're apparently more worried about trace amounts of pesticides (a legitimate concern, I'll admit) against the considerable risks of GM crops breaking out of the "confines" of farmers' fields and becoming established in natural habitat. There, they can become invasives and lead to the local extinction of native biodiversity. That's a vicious cycle, and will have far-reaching effects on ecosystems around the world.

Another poster also mentioned another risk, which is the loss of genetic diversity among crop plants that will follow a world-wide acceptance of select GM strains. Sadly, that's already happening, and GM crop use will only accelerate that process.

So, you raise some legitimate concerns, but you're definitely putting humans ahead of all else, and that cannot add up to "Green Living" in the final tally.

Answer 3

I've been told that franken-foods are responsible for our children entering puberty at early ages.  Our daughters are looking like 18 year olds at age 13.  No wonder they are getting harder to raise.

Answer 4

Its a good and bad thing. Theres not much natural farmland fertile enough to grow food in the amount of quantities required by people these days so GMF is the logical solution. But then again GMF food s are allergic and very harmful to some people although some other people can deal with it. In conclusion i would say they should develop better ways to genetically modify   food without its negative after affects.

Answer 5

I don't think GMF is risky for human consumption, although i agree this should be done under control.

However, GMF can cause some species to become extinct, If this GMF is to grow out of control.

Answer 6

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but it could become a bad thing if the wrong modifications are made.  And quite frankly, I don't really trust the FDA to make sure that each particular modification is safe before approving it.  Companies want to make money, and the FDA is on their side.  Not a good situation for consumers.

And furthermore, there is plenty of food in the world to feed the world's population.  The reason people are starving is because of the food distribution system.  Just think about the fact that the US and EU governments literally pay farmers to not grow crops, in order to prevent a surplus, while people on the other side of the world are starving.  World hunger is a distribution problem, not a supply problem.

Answer 7

no they will be essential to feed a growing and more wealthy population combined with the potential loss of growing areas due to climate change.

It will be a simple choice in the end eat GM or people will starve...No contest,

p.s Mavster yes I do think humans should be at the top of our list of priorities, I guarantee the polar bears are not sitting around thinking how can we help the humans

Answer 8

I agree with you it's not the good versus evil issue that so many people make it out to be.

I worry that because biotech development is so expensive, only big multinationals can afford it and they need to make a big profit to make it worthwhile.

It could speed up the loss of diversity, with companies pushing the same few high yield, disease resistant crop varieties all round the world. Whereas many would want us to be breeding lots of varied, nutritionally valuable, tasty local varieties.

But of course it's not only GM that has this effect - we have the same thing now with non GM crops.