GM foods help?

Question

so I have to help with a debate on GM(genetically modified foods). I'm against them for numerous reasons. I come from a small farming town. my side knows the other side will bring up small farms as part of its debate. ya know keeping them in business. what evidence is there against this?

What are some other con sides to it other than:

-africa stuff

-unlabelled so could be unsafe

-long term effects

-effects on animals and future generations of then

-animal abuse

stuff like that

Answer 1

GM foods can also contaminate fields of other produce, so organic heritage varieties will become contaminated with genetically modified genes as well, thereby possibly eliminating some varieties of produce and organic food.  This can be caused by soil contamination, water contamination or spores from a field of GM crops drifting into a neighboring field of crops.

Answer 2

Just as organic growers have found it useful to label their products as being pesticide free, simply by labeling them organic, labeling them

certified  organic is also effective in conveying the idea that they do not contain GM plants.

Labeling anything that just might contain a GM food as in... "We have confidence that no GM plants in our products are any danger to anyone, and they have been exhaustively tested to ensure this, and we do not know of any GM food being in this product".  would not have the deterrent effect of placarding on tobacco packages.

First, it does not have a surgeon general's warning that this food is likely to harm you, Secondly, there are not a lot of doctors or dietitians warning us to avoid GM foods. They do not have a probable ground to make such a claim. If they make such a claim they know they will be in court facing a damages suit. (If you doubt that, look at the history of Dr Johannah Budwig who asserted that trans fats are a major health risk, and then had to spend most of the rest of her life in courts, proving it over and over again as the trans fat industry found first one court then another to tie the issue up in the courts.

There could be some knight in shining armour ready to try to prove GM foods harmful and spend the rest of her life in court, as Monsanto would almost certainly keep her. But as of now, nobody has stepped up with such a claim. We are limited to anxiety,

Claims relating to cross pollination could be well founded, but do we have proof? If your bull gets into my pasture and cross breeds with my cows, I have a claim of damage against you. Likewise if your plants contaminate mine. Vendors of GM seeds defend that it is not possible, therefore it is for you to demonstrate not only that it is possible but that it actually happened.

Again, if anyone asserts that a GM crop has cross bred with a heritage variety, they have to be able to prove conclusively that it is possible, and then a preponderance of evidence that it happened.

This may e deterring anyone from making such claims, other than to the  extent that they are concerned that this might happen.

We have concerns about a gene that prevents a GM plant from reproducing with a heritage variety. Some people have tried to ban that terminator gene. But if they ban it, and the GM crop can then x pollinate with heritage varieties, we have brought about exactly the event we feared might happen.

Answer 3

All agriculture is based on genetic modification.  It started when people selectively cultivated and later selectively mated species.  All of this happened before molecular biology was a college course.   Every issue that you list can be applied to the traditional means of genetic engineering without resorting to arguments about the new techniques of biologists.

Answer 4

This is a touchy subject for a lot of reasons, I will give you somepoints but I do not nessacaraly take these points as my own stance.

anti GM points

-Could contain possible alergens

-In cases like Round up Ready seed the farmer has to pay more for the seed and then has to also by the specific herbacide that is labeled for use with the seed, some argue that this does not save the farmer any money in the long run.

-Genetic drift into other crops eg. growing GM canola and having the pollen drift into a nearby field of conventional canola thus causing a cross bred with the GM genes in it.

-overuse of certain chemicals may cause weed/pest  resistance to those chemicals.

-possibility of toxins produced by the gm plants staying in the soils.

Also if you want some extreamly bias and probably inacurate information you can try greenpeace... they always have points that will sound good in a debate but you may get marks docked for using a site that is so biased.