Do you think transgenic foods are safe? Why or why not? What experimental evidence supports your positon?

Answer 1

It is not possible to make such a sweeping statement. Most transgenic foods in this country (USA) are safe because we have fairly tight regulatory agencies that require a certain amount of experimentation and proof before they will allow the transgenic foods to go to market.

However, not all transgenic foods contain just plant genes, BT corn contains a bacterial toxin that is an insecticide. Safe? It's all relative. When you factor in that before transgenic plants, that loads and loads of purified BT was sprayed on the surface of the plant and seeped into the ground water, you realize that transgenic plants are SAFER than what we had before. However, long-term effects have still not been adequately studied, and perhaps the allergy issues encountered with starlink corn are merely the tip of the iceberg.

To answer your question, I would have no problem eating transgenic foods developed in this country (USA), and consider them generally safe.

Answer 2

Well, I do think it is safe. Why? Because a transgenic plant is created by adding the DNA of another plant, so as to add to it the desirable property of another existing plant. If you eat that plant, you are eating the DNA, among other things, of two plants, it is the same as a salad.
As for experimental evidence, given that one cannot prove a negative, I suppose it is safe until it is shown not to be. Transgenic plants have been fed to test animals for years, and those animals are perfectly healthy. Some could claim that it will affect only their great-great-grand kids, but there is absolutely no evidence of that, just the desire to cry wolf. Transgenic food is (and should be) labeled as such. If you think that there is a risk, then it is your call, and you can buy something else. Although this something else might be more expensive, let that be your choice; you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Answer 3

I once ate a bowl of corn flakes in the morning and went around my house later killing tussock moth caterpillars. I knocked one to the ground and peed on it just for spite, and noticed that the urine killed it fast, like a commercial insecticide. You know how urine can smell really strong a couple of hours after you eat breakfast cereal? That's how it was. I gotta try that again some time. I'm thinking, it must have been that BT corn in the corn flakes.

Maybe the stuff is not only safe to eat, but useful in alll kinds of ways -- or dangerous too.

The scope of a thing like BT corn could go way beyond the organisms that are a problem to corn. The pollen going everywhere, pollinating wild plants, killing beneficial insects far and wide. The BT toxin that is excreted by farm animals and people does hopefully break down before it causes problems in the environment.

Insects are very important to the food chain, so I hope scientists did the right thing there.

Answer 4

transgenic = genetic modified food??
Okay, from my understanding of GM food... it is perfectly safe.. Theoretically, it is safe!! through natural selection, any genes that are favored, pass on, while those that are less favored died out!! thinking about this concept... food evolve as every organism evolve... and those that are favored survive in a more efficient way.... and less prone to die out... WE (as scientist) came to the idea of manipulating nature's evolution which takes place thousands of years into few years so that it could benifit us in a long and prosperous way!!! if u ask if they are SAFE, then the ANSWER is YES... if u are asking HOW SAFE or do they have POTENTIAL side effects.. Only time will tell... Genetically speaking, we are just favoring a particular GENE within a species of plant, and transferring it to another species of plants that we find more desirable and benificial...... :-) isn't that is what science is about??