What are dangers of genetically modified foods to humans, animals and the environment?

Question

Don't answer if you can't provide scientific evidence.

Answer 1

There are none! No one has ever died, or even gotten sick as a result of GMOs and, personaly, I think your question is slighlty loaded as there ARE benefits to GM crops. By planting corn that is resitant to corn bore and corn rootworm, you greatly decrease the need for pesticides. And I'm warning you... I'm about to get on my soapbox....I hope the previous answerer got a good grade on her paper in her humanities class, because if she takes a crop science class she'll need to re-write it... It doesn't hold water! I just did a quick search on both glyphosate and Round-up (Monsanto's tradename for glyphosate) and both pose very little risk to human health. In fact, in cases of intentional ingestion (suicide) it is fatal only 10% of the time (as compared to 80% for paraquat) and I'm just guessing, but I would assume if someone is trying to end their life, they aren't going to dilute it down to the application rate... so keep that in mind! Also.... why on earth would a farmer use MORE of a product then is necessary? Farmers operate on a very small profit margin, and making decisions like that won't keep them in business very long! I will grant that today's crop plants don't have much genetic diversity, but adding 1-3 genes in a GMO crop has no effect in decreasing diversity. The are no different then any other plant. Yet, I think, most importantly, consider the impact on rural life! Most farmers have a job off the farm and the added flexibilty of GM crops (having a greater time frame for application... ie- glyphosate can be applied after the corn has emerged) allows people who want to farm the ability to continue to do so! To continue to work the land and raise their children the way they were raised. Please... before determining something is horrible after listening to a special interest group.... put yourself in somebody else's muddy boots.

Answer 2

Well if the genetically modified item has developed anything new that is harmful then we will not be able to stop it. What do we know will com out of this gene and that gene coming together, not much until we experiment. But only through experimenting can we spot changes so we do not know all the harmful things that might come out genetically modified stuff. A new disease or pest could grow out of it with a DNA structure we don't know of. As a whole it is good for our health since it has extra vitamins and healthy substances in it. So it would help us. It shouldn't damage the environment too much since it organic and can break down and go back into the earth.

Answer 3

I just wrote a paper on this subject for my World Hunger class. The long term dangers are unknown. In the US, these food items aren't labeled, so there is no way of tracking problems. If people don't know they are eating modified soybeans, how can they blame their health problems on the soybeans, right? And as far as the environment is concerned, genetically modified alfalfa, called Roundup Ready Alfalfa allows the farmer to spray Roundup right next to or in his field with out the crop being damaged. Well this allows them to use as much Roundup as they want to use. Roundup is very dangerous and should be used in limited amounts, if it is used at all. And now they get t use as much as they want to? That's awful for the environment.
ope this helps you understand the GMO (genetically modified organism) that are everywhere around us better.

Answer 4

This is a difficult question to answer because it asks about a method for generating genetic differences, but ignores the specific genetic traits being produced. As with many things in life, the details are what matter. GM foods are many and varied and their uses are still being developed. Some genes being proposed for use have some very distinct potential problems and some are rather less likely to be an issue. There are few potential hazards that are innate to the GM process, so it is really not useful in most cases to lump them all together.

1. There is nothing in the GM process that limits genetic diversity, but if a particular cultivar becomes more widely grown than any other because its trait is of value, this would need to be considered. As it is, many of the major crops have only a small number of cultivars anyway, and while this has hazards it is not a specific hazard made better or worse by the GM process.

2. Invasiveness could be an issue if the trait introduced made the plant highly resistant to pests, or able to outgrow weeds or something. Invasiveness has been a problem with many plants imported for ornamental use in gardens, but only a few issues for crop plants are known. There is some concern that transfer of pest resistance genes from crops to related weed species could generate 'superweeds' but few clear examples of this are known.

3. Use of specific herbicides is actually reduced with GM crops and relatively safe herbicides like glyphosate have replaced very dangerous ones like 2,4-D. Of course, all hebicides are regulated in use, so the comment 'this allows them to use as much Roundup as they want to use' is just without basis in fact. In any event, the use of safe growing methods needs careful regulation - this is not specific for GM's verses traditional breeding varieties.

4. It is indeed possible that someone could have an alergy to a specific protein and that a GM plant having that protein could be an issue. The most cited example of that was with the Brazil nut protein, but that was never released and ended up helping discover the problem protein - thus being of great benefit to people with this allergy. Nevertheless, this needs to be carefully watched. However, traditional breeding has produced things like toxic potatoes that sent dozens of people to the hospital before it was discovered that insects were not the only 'pests' controlled by the high toxin levels.

5. The ethics and intellectual property issues can very real, but traditional breeding has many of the same 'Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values' issues and the production of GM crops like yellow rice is of benefit to the worlds poorest peoples, so the situation is complex.

I hope this helps a bit.

Answer 5

There is no dangers to genetically modified (GM) foods presently, but the long term effects are still unknown. (you will need a pool of people to eat GM foods continuously for a long time before you can come out with the stats.)

By doing genetic modification to the food source, farmers are actually introducing better genes into the DNA, so that the food source, be it plants or animals, are more resistant to disease, higher production, and better quality.

However, think about it. Farmers in the long past also does selection planting, meaning to say, they select the best seeds of a tree to make new plants for fruits, they mate the best cow and bull to attempt to produce excellent offsprings. Isn't this genetic modification in a way?

Answer 6

There are no known dangers of genetically modified foods both to humans, animals and the environment. In fact a report the World Health Organization (WHO) released in June 2005 indicated that GM food can benefit human beings and the environment (http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2181&language=1). Such other reputable organizations as the World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have declared that GM food pose no health risk to consumers.
The following websites shed more light on benefits of genetically modified foods:
http://www.gmoafrica.org/
http://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo/

Answer 7

I don't really care if they are dangerous or not. What I'm concerned with is the fact that they are not required to label it. All I ask is that food products should have label specifying if it does or not does not contain GMO. Then we can have a choice whever we want to buy it or not.

If the scientists and corporations are confident that it doesn't cause harm, fine. But why did they draw the line at letting the consumer know? What are they afraid of?

Answer 8

Everything is taken on a case by case basis. The goal is to be sure that one doesn't ingest something that is toxic or has unbalanced/ compromised nutrition. There is a huge fear factor because this is so knew but it seems to be a fear generated by the uneducated vocal minority. It seems an unbased fear. When you get hungry and we have ruined what agriculture is left, you will eat the blue apples and like them.

Answer 9

GMO's lack genetic diversity, making them more susceptible to parasitism and disease. The widespread use of GMO's therefore could lead to huge die offs of crops if a bacteria or parasite comes along that can kill this GMO. GMO's also tend to be highly competitve, and if they expand beyond human control, they can lead to the extinction of plants and animals native to the local environment.

Answer 10

Swap a bowl of pasta for the bowl of vegetables. You can preserve to 200 calories by slicing the starch and adding veggies.