opinions about genetically modified food?

Answer 1

I am not that keen to eat something that has been engineered to produce its own pesticide.

I have a lot of concerns about the possibility of unintended consequences. We have been bitten hard by that in the past.

The ozone hole is an unintended consequence of what seemed like a very innocent choice for a refrigerant. Halocarbons were thought to be nontoxic and environmentally inert - a very smart engineering choice. And yet they turn out to destroy a very vital layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere.

Crude oil seemed like such a good replacement for whale oil in lamps, and later a great way to power a motor car, and later yet a great way to mass produce electricity. And yet they are having the very unintended consequence of raising sea levels, heating up the environment, causing powerful storms, heatwaves, mass extinctions. Gee Whiz all we really intended to do was to make our lives a little easier and now everything is FUBAR.

I am very concerned that genetically modified plants and animals could go that route.

Answer 2

I had some exposure to this topic when I was in the University and my common sense tells me that genetically modified food is not such a good thing. Humans should stop trying to change the things that nature created as he tries to make them how he wants them to be. When the GM crops grow the wind carries pollen to other plants in nearby surrounding areas, so alas, it has the potential to spread and spread and spread. In addition, the GM plants even have the potential to overpower other normal plants because of their superpower to repel insects and such, thus reducing the population of normal plants. Like someone else mentioned, plants are injected with insecticides to produce modifications and that corn (for instance) goes somewhere and is eaten either first by animals and then we eat the animals or it is eaten directly by us. Kind of grosses me out thinking about it (could some of that chemical be in some food particles?). Along these same lines are the hormones given to cows to make them produce more milk. I researched this subject and what I learned made me feel so sick that I do not want to drink any milk that is not organic now. This is another human intervention that we could do without for our health's sake. Sad thing is there is no way to tell in the grocery store if the food is modified, they do not post it anywhere in the produce department so a person cannot avoid eating vegetables or fruits that have been GM. They could at least inform us so we can choose.

Answer 3

seems that all the other countries have a negative opinion about gen mod food - I'm not sure I've ever seen enough info published to even have an opinion. I would surely be in favor of mods that increased yields (safely) so that we could feed the world cheaply and aleviate starvation as a major cause of childrens' death. We have to be careful that the mistakes don't get out like something that would wipe out soybeans by reducing their resistance to some blight or disease. That might be one problem as we probably don't have a working knowledge of what each gene does in the development of the plant. Long term detailed work on the genome needs a supercomputer and a lotof review.

Answer 4

Don't worry about it. You have no choice if you wish to keep eating. Almost everything on the market including "organic grown" has been modified. Believe it !
However such things as ants, etc., are ok at this moment.

Answer 5

actually wild plants too contain genes of other UNRELATED species - that is perfectly normal in plants, indeed nothing unnatural.

plants also routinely produce substances to ward off their pests to survive, so again it is not that unnatural when people want other crops to produce the pest-controlling substances too, they either crosbreed them if possible or transfer the gene - i dont see the difference in these two methods, and to me the natural insecticide is far better than spraying the field by man-made insecticide.

i am afraid that in conventional crops, you do not know "all the consequenes", either,, or DO YOU?? That is what i would like to know?

Answer 6

If it doesnt do any harm, why wouldnt it be a good thing? Like the GM rice... That can save alot of people in Africa.

Answer 7

not right.