Genetically Modified food?

Question

Motion: Genetically modified foods are unsfae for human consumption. How far do u agree this? Give evidence for the reasons. thanks in advance for the answers =)

Answer 1

Benefits

        Crops

           Enhanced taste and quality

           Reduced maturation time

           Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance

           Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides

           New products and growing techniques

     Animals

           Increased resistance, productivity, hardiness, and feed efficiency

           Better yields of meat, eggs, and milk

           Improved animal health and diagnostic methods

     Environment

           "Friendly" bio-herbicides and bio-insecticides

          Conservation of soil, water, and energy

           Bio-processing for forestry products

           Better natural waste management

           More efficient processing

     Society

           Increased food security for growing populations

Controversies

Safety

Potential human health impact: allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects Potential environmental impact: unintended transfer of trans-genes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity

  Access and Intellectual Property

Domination of world food production by a few companies

     Increasing dependence on Industrialized nations by developing countries

     Bio-piracy—foreign exploitation of natural resources

Ethics

Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values

     Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species

     Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice- versa

     Stress for animal

Labeling                                                                                                          Not mandatory in some countries (e.g., United States)

     Mixing GM crops with non-GM confounds labeling attempts

Society

New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Hu...

Answer 2

GMO can be extremely dangerous . Although there is no proof yet, I am confident that the apocalypse is a result of a gmo . Specifically salmonella. Olly 1/3rd of the planet will die directly from it ; however, most of the rest will die indirectly. Of course it would happen eventually without gmo because at the rate some people breed . The human race will commit suicide with or without the genetic bomb. It remains to be seen whether the genetic bomb is deliberate or accidental . The most likely date is dec 2008.

Answer 3

It is not demonstrable that all genetically modified foods will be unsafe. In fact all foods are genetically modified, even if not by human hand.

What we can say is that when modifications occurred thousands of years ago, so we have  50 generations of humans that have experimented with that mutant, we have a lot of grounds to accept that it could be safe. Also, if a plant has been proven to be poisonous, a thousand years of history tells us to be careful how much we eat.

Every time we introduce a new genetic variant, we open that Pandora's box as from day one. We do not have that thousand years of history.

We do test this on a very few people, or perhaps first on livestock, and decide to run with it.

We usually get what we predict we will get.

If we add to corn genes that will produce the nutritional value of millet or oats, we are likely to find the outcome safe. If we add a gene that will insert an insecticide into the skin of the plant, and we test to see that the new crop has that insecticide only in the skin, we may feel it is safe, until we discover that some people process that squash by grinding whole fruit including skin into food for people.

So, for example if we add a gene from the skin of tomato leaves into some plant, we have to be careful of all the ways that new plant may be used.

The expected problem can result from introducing a gene that results in an allergic reaction in a small number of people, perhaps one in a thousand. By the time we have discovered that, we may have killed a million people.But anyhow, we made money, and most people just stopped using that originally safe species. So on we go.

Answer 4

I am adamantly against it for both health reasons, and because I believe that giving a corporation with already questionable ethics a patent on a plant so that they can monopolize the world food supply is dangerous to the health of everyone...

"A Russian study has confirmed a link between genetically modified (GM) potatoes and cancer in laboratory rats, according to UK Greenpeace activists. The results vindicate the research of Dr. Arpad Pusztai, whose work was questioned by industry backers.

The research was conducted in 1998 by the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy, but was suppressed until a recent victory for anti-GM activists in the Russian court system that released the findings to the public. The study showed that GM potatoes did considerable damage to rats' organs.

The findings have led for a call to withdraw permission to grow GM potatoes at secret sites in the UK."

Source http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articl...

and much more below....

I also suggest watching "The future of food"

The GMO foods are currently engineered to be resistant to some herbicides or produce their own pesticides, many of which are endocrine disrupters, causing many health problems ranging from hypothyroidism, to adrenal insufficiency, to diabetes....this , in combination with our overprocessed diets is leading to epidemics of vast proportion.  

There is a war on real food going on in this country (and many others), and it is time we start paying attention!

I could go on and on, the list of GMO foods available in the supermarket is so long it would take two pages of answers to get on here, so for the sake of hoping somebody actually reads this and cares about it, I will stop there.