Why are genetically modified foods bad for us?

Question

i am doing a project for my economics A level and i need to know why GM foods are bad for us. thanks

Answer 1

They aren't bad for us!! They require less pesticide use, which keeps the environment cleaner, and we are all healthier as a result. There is concern that they will interbred with wild plants and the consequences of that are not known. Whether that is actually a problem or not remains to be seen.

There is also the economic aspect to the situation. Farmers who don't have GM crops are worried they won't be able to compete with those who do have the better plants. So they have a motivation to try and raise concerns about the GM crops - even when it is not justified.

Answer 2

Because the people modifying the foods do not understand exactly what they are doing and have very little idea of the long term consequences and the potential economic impact of their actions. This is partly because there has as yet been no economic value put on the genetic material that exists in nature, and therefore there is no enforceable economic penalty for a company that causes irreparable damage to it. By 'it' I mean life on earth. If the science behind genetic modification were flawless this would not neccassarily be an issue, but sadly it is not. Monsanto for example does not exactly know why dipping 22 calibre steel bullets in DNA and firing them at grasses in the hope that some of the DNA lands in the right place works better than other methods. This does not however stop the company for modifying corn, wheat and other grains in that manner and jeopardising the food supply for a large proporion of the world.

Answer 3

-New allergens could be inadvertently created - known allergens could be transferred from traditional foods into GM foods. For instance, during laboratory testing, a gene from the Brazil nut was introduced into soybeans. It was found that people with allergies to Brazil nuts could also be allergic to soybeans that had been genetically modified in this way. No allergic effects have been found with currently approved GM foods.
-Antibiotic resistance may develop - bioengineers sometimes insert a ‘marker’ gene to help them identify whether a new gene has been successfully introduced to the host DNA. One such marker gene is for resistance to particular antibiotics. If genes coded for such resistance enter the food chain and are taken up by human gut microflora, the effectiveness of antibiotics could be reduced and human infectious disease risk increased. Research has shown that the risk is very low; however, there is general agreement that use of these markers should be phased out. Stephen Leeder, ‘Genetically modified foods - food for thought’, MJA www.mja.com.au, John Huppatz and Paula A Fitzgerald, MJA 2000
-Cross-breeding - other risks include the potential for cross-breeding between GM crops and surrounding vegetation, including weeds. This could result in weeds that are resistant to herbicides and would thus require a greater use of herbicides, which could lead to soil and water contamination. The environmental safety aspects of GM crops vary considerably according to local conditions.
-Pesticide resistant insects - the genetic modification of some crops to permanently produce the natural biopesticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin could encourage the evolution of Bt-resistant insects, rendering the spray ineffective. Wherever pesticides are used, insect resistance can occur and good agricultural practice includes strategies to minimise this.
-Biodiversity - growing GM crops on a large scale may also have implications for biodiversity, the balance of wildlife and the environment. This is why environmental agencies closely monitor their use.
-Cross-contamination - plants bioengineered to produce pharmaceuticals (medicines etc) may contaminate food crops. Provisions have been introduced in the USA requiring substantial buffer zones, use of separate equipment and a rule that land used for such crops lie fallow for the next year.

as far as growth hormones are concerned, most growth hormones are actually antibiotics, which destroy the microbes that aren't resistant, and allowing resistant microrganisms to flourish.
even if the resistant microbes do somehow die, they can stil confer their antibiotic resistance to other microbes that come in contact with them, by the living microbe picking up the plasmid that carries the antibiotic resistance, therefor making the bacterial infection you encounter unable to be controlled via antibiotics.


now that being said, not all GM foods are bad. those are just possibilities.
the only one that holds any real merit is the use of antibiotics for farm animal enhancement.

a better way of asking your question would be " How CAN GM modified foods be bad for us?"

Answer 4

You are starting on a false premise, as someone one has already suggested. No scientist would begin with such a bias question. Your question should read? ARE GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS BAD FOR US?

And you can then discuss the evolution of foods....and that is where your research should begin. And, you should define GENETICALLY MODIFIED and further refine it to , say corn whose chromosome load has been changed only recently. NOW and only now do you have a question to research....

One argument might be that we has humans have evolved to eat, say, corn, in its present genetic presentation for only the last 5000 years.... We as humans have already selected from corn's ancestors to grow and eat corn from plants that grew only the biggest ears. So, corn has already been genetically engineered, and our evolutionary experiences prior to 20 years ago with it are only 5000 years old. Man has been evolving for at least 5mil years. We as farmers did the same with wheats and barleys and rices. And we bred cattle to be bigger and fatter than their ancestors. So, I am hoping you are getting the idea that genetics has been around a long time, and early man recognized it a long time ago, and bred for qualities he wanted.. Therefore hope you see that your question is faulty in the eyes of science.... and that as suggest above, you narrow your question to not only exclude bias, but to include something you can reasonably research.

Answer 5

I agree with Steve. Taking the starting position that genetically modified foods are bad for us biases your conclusion.

A little thought would tell you that we eat "genetically modified" foods every day. Animal husbandry selects those animals with desirable traits, which are then bred to have those traits passed on to their offspring. This is a form genetic engineering.

Plants are selected for their desirable traits - resistance to disease, larger or more abundant fruits or grains, etc. and intrerbred. Again, a form of genetic engineering.

Read the book "Guns, germs and steel" by Jarrad (sp?) Diamond. He gives a very cleaer example. Natural wild almonds contain a high concentration of cyanide, enough to kill you it you ate about a dozen of them. BUT they are extremely bitter, so unless you were bent on suicide, you could not eat that many. This is a chemical defense mechanism of the almond tree. It turns out that the cultivated almonds that we eat do not produce cyanide in the nut, because of a natural genetic mutation. He speculates that early farmers/gatherers would collect wild almonds, selecting ones from trees that did not procude bitter nuts. Eventualy some of these gathered nuts would be dropped around human settlement and would grow into the now selected trees. Then those tress were used for additonal cultivation. So without knowning it, humans selected plants, based on specific genetic mutations for cultivation; again a form of genetic engineering - just not called by that name.

Answer 6

You are starting your project with a shakey preconception. You should be asking "ARE GM foods bad for us?"

The dirt thrown at GM foods comes from people disguising their religion as 'science' in the hope of preventing any change from 'God's natural order'

Answer 7

Yea... formerly DDT replaced into found out to be dagerous, it replaced into sprayed down residential streets. childrens might want to run round contained in the spray. Given sufficient time, GMO's will be shown to be causing complications. that is taken 50+ years for pestisides to be proper to well-being complications. purely 10 years in the past, the "experts" reported pestisides do not even make it into the nutrients. We now recognize they were mendacity. replaced into that speaker FOR using GMO's? What might want to inspire the speaker to promote them??? $ $ $ $

Answer 8

Because the alteration of their natural genetics may have consequent harmful effects to our body.