Why are people scared of Genetically modified foods?

Question

I don't understand. The food is still coming from a living creature and the genetics altered are just taken from another plant or animal. This technology could greatly increase world production, help feed the starving, and increase our natural vitamin and mineral intake. Explain why some people will not eat it.

They have created GM rice that contains a ton of vitamins and nutrients that normal rice does not have. This was created to help poor people get the vitamins in their diet that they need.

Answer 1

We hear sometimes things can go wrong with science... And science is always filled with testing and experiements. Sometimes things have to be discontinue because of an overlooked discovery that can be cancer feeding, bacteria developing...etc.

But just like things in the past, we will get hooked on it year from now, and will be a normal thing in our lives.

also if know one is make any awarness and teaching about it, fear will always dominate :)

Answer 2

The biggest reason is simple, nobody really knows how modified food is going to affect your body. Maybe there is nothing wrong with it but it could have some strange and dangerous side effects, we simply don't know.
If you modify an apple with some other organisms' DNA, is it still an apple? Maybe now you have some fruit that produces some as yet unknown chemical, how can you be sure? How many times have they created some new drug thats supposed to be great and later they find out its really killing you some other way?
By the way, GM food is made so that its resistant to pesticides, not to make it have more vitamins and minerals. The GM companies don't care about that. They just want to have increased production. So for all you know all those GM foods have less nutritional value than natural foods. So now you have a lot more food but it is less nutritious, which means you have to eat a lot more. So guess what happens when you eat a whole bunch of food with no nutrients in them? You start getting really fat. Hmm.... have you heard about an obesity epidemic? think its a coincidence?
As for me, I'd rather not be a guinea pig, I don't want to find out 10 years from now that I'll get cancer or something worse from eating GM food.

Answer 3

First your reasoning is flawed. GM food has been around since the early 1980s, and we still have starving people 25 years later. So obviously it wont do that. Any extra intake of vitamins and minerals that your body doesnt need or use, your body just gets rid of through urine or feces. They arent splicing genetic codes from different species together. They are changing the genetic codes to ward off different plant diseases, herbicides, and pesticides. You see RoundUp, for example, is designed to kill all vegetation. But when RoundUp encounters the genetically modified plants, it is unable to kill it. So what exactly is in RoundUp, and how does it effect your body, when you eat it? Also how is that changed plant DNA going to effect the way your body digests it? The company that makes RoundUp is HUGE. Many top level officials in our government are currently serving or have served on its board, including our vice-president and many people in the FDA. Are you sure that those foods are safe to eat, when the people allowing them to go to market are cashing in a great deal of money based on stocks and profit margins? There is a lot more corruption that goes into GM foods and the companies that make the seeds. Some seeds, which usually will produce seeds for planting the following year like nature intended, are being modified so they do not produce seeds, that way the farmer is forced to buy more seeds the next year, instead of harvesting their own seeds. Messing with nature like this is unnatural, and should be banned or at least labeled so that people can make their own decisions. And why wont the FDA require labeling on all GM food? Doesnt that make you wonder what they are hiding?

Answer 4

Science and technology and whatever you want to call it, is not the solution to the world's food shortages. Genetically modified foods, be it vegetable or animal, is of benefit only to the patent holder, in this case the big chemical companies such as Monsanto, Dow, Chevron Phillips, and so on.

If science and technology are so great, whey did Bhopal happen? Why did Chernobyl happen? Why did Exon Valdes happen?
And if science and technology is so great, why has Bhopal never been clean up and the family and villages been compensated? And why is Chernobyl still a festering pile on radio active waste? and why is the State of Alaska paying for the cost of cleaning up after the Exon Valdes tanker crashed and spilled its crude oil in the Arctic waters? Last year Exon profits were counted out at over $80,000 per minute for every minute of the day,, for every day of the year, and they continue to rake in millions and not a single cent of this has gone to pay the clean up costs in Alaska. The ship itself has been repaired and back in service but no fine has been paid, no cleanup undertaken by Exon.
Are the people that run your chemical companies the kind of people you want to trust for the quality and safety of the food you eat?

The people of the world who are hungry do not need the benevolence of Dow and Monsanto with their genetically modified seeds.

Answer 5

cloning is unethical