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2006-09-02 02:53:40 · 4 answers · asked by tip 1 in Science & Mathematics Biology

4 answers

It is only a danger in the mind of people who have no understanding of science and life. People have been changing animals and plants for tens of thousands of years. That is why beef cattle have a lot of meat, why dairy cattle give a lot of milk, why beans are stringless, and why corn has a lot of big kernels. If that had not been going on then we would still be hanging around with wolves instead of dogs and starving for lack of enough rice. Nowadays people are trained to do it in a careful way to get the best properties. At one point they just got a lot of animals in a litter and killed the ones that they thought were not enough of an improvement. Today they can be less wasteful and more productive.

2006-09-02 03:02:26 · answer #1 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 0 1

Most GMO plants are probably safe, but most of the dangers come from the companies modifying them assuming they're safer than they are. So may silver bullets get shot into our own feet.
Here are a few specific dangers:
Modified turf grass (Agrostis stolonifera) resistant to Roundup ("Roundup-ready")--pollen from this grass has gone way farther than anyone thought possible, and grasses can hybridize very easily (Agrostis can hybridize with 13+ other grasses). Many grasses are invasive non-natives, and when they pick up herbicide resistance land managers have to switch to harsher chemicals for control.
Introduction of novel allergenic proteins--transgenic soybeans can contain brazil nut proteins; many people are allergic to tree nuts. With no labeling requirements and no way to tell just by looking, GMO's can expose people to allergens unexpectedly. I'm allergic to fish; would I know if the tomato I'm eating has fish protein in it as a "natural" antifreeze?
Nontarget effects--plants that are engineered to make their own pesticides can affect nontarget organisms. This is less of an issue to me, since growers would be spraying anyway.
There's also the often-overlooked economic effect; when companies engineer crops, they can be very proprietary with their material. In addition to charging a premium for their seeds, and not allowing farmers to grow a second generation from them without pay, they have often sued farmers for "benefitting" from crops contaminated by drifting transgenic pollen! GMOs set up small farmers into a sharecropping level of servitude to large corporations.
I AM a scientist, and not an ignorant fear-prone person. People are doing things they really don't know the full effects of, and even in a year or two of research on a crop there have been a lot of "oops" moments. Things should be shifted from a "safe until proven otherwise" to "dangerous until proven safe" because there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle.

2006-09-02 09:00:33 · answer #2 · answered by candy2mercy 5 · 0 0

All plants give more benefit than danger,especially for the fruit trees or vegetables.

2006-09-08 22:43:11 · answer #3 · answered by Chuong Seng Ly 4 · 0 0

genetically modified plants has both its pros n cons...neither shud be ignored...the pros bein tht they can hav resistance to various factors and the cons bein tht these genetically modified plants can modify the nature of the plants tht have been planted alongside it which were nt genetically modified...

2006-09-02 03:15:51 · answer #4 · answered by Amna Z 3 · 0 0

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