.....GM foods...?

Question

why are genetically modified foods bad?

Answer 1

Frankly, until now, we are not certain of what exactly makes GM food detrimental to us, but here are some possible problems:

1. GM foods contain extra proteins that may cause allergy to the consumer, and example would be the Starlink corn

2. Herbicide/ antibiotic resistance may be passed on to weeds and bacteria when crops are grown in the field - remember the Monsanto case where cross pollination occurred with the plants of a neighboring farm. The plants of the other farmers came to possess the characteristics of the GM crop (herbicide resistance). This is a worrying sign as the pollen may spread in the wild and result to super weeds especially that corn and rice are related to grass and have wild varieties.

3. Some are afraid that GM food may cause poisoning and cancer but this rather inconclusive.

4. Vegetarians question whether a vegetable can be still considered a vegetable if it produces proteins from engineered genes from animals.

5. Many find it unethical and fear that GM crops will out compete the wild varieties of crops and possibly kill organisms that are beneficial to the environment.

Answer 2

Bad how exactly?

Some folks think that putting genes from a frog into the genetic makeup of corn is bad because it goes against nature.... but at the genetic level things are just base pairs- there isn't really anything to say that this portion is "frog" and that one is "carrot" unless you read an entire sequence. Genes are not like taxidermy.

Others are concerned that modified crops will pass their genes on to wild weeds near the crops. An herbicide-linked gene for resistance would be "bad" for farmers if it became attached to johnsongrass from the wheat that was being grown. Either pollen or transposons could account for this shift.

Still, the genetically modified portion of the plant (or whatever) need not be the portion that is consumed.

Then again, people are rather new to this whole "what does this gene do?" thing. We may find that a useful gene placed in a food crop may have alter uses once consumed- consequently fiddling with our own physiology. For example, cis and trans orientations for unsaturated hydrocarbon tails. cis-fatty acids are found in nature, our species evolved with them, they are edible- if artery-clogging (when too much is consumed). Trans-fatty acids are produced when people try to force extra hydrogens onto the hydrocarbon tain... producing fat-like substances form oils. These do not clog arteries, but not being found in nature and consequently us not being adapted to deal with them, they cause cancer.
-We didn't figure this one out until a few years ago.
So, could geneticists accidently put in a gene we aren't used to? Absolutely, but they might do more testing before it goes out on the market. Then again, you never know. Still, the genes being worked with are natural and we might have evolved alongside them- meaning they are "safe."

Not saying everything natural is good for you- look at the genus datura.

Btw, most of the corn you find in the supermarket is GM. Just pull the husk down a bit. See any wormy bits, or fungal growth? No. It's GM. You always lose the top inch or so of kernels with non-GM corn.
(Unless you're out in the field every day with the eyedropper of baby oil.)

Answer 3

It hasn't been proven yet if any or all or none of the genetically modified foods are bad for us. We cannot know the longterm effects of the genetic modifications until a long time has passed. In that way, we're experimenting on ourselves.