can anyone show me any impartial studies showing any negatives side effects of genetic engineering in crops?

Question

i'm not looking for a lecture on might happen with genetic engineering, i'm looking negative things that have happened as a result of genetic engineering in crops.

Answer 1

I suppose it depends on exactly what kind of 'negative things' you are looking for. These weren't exactly studies, but they are more or less facts, and about as impartial as I can make them. Look them up yourself if you doubt their veracity:

One famous fiasco involved StarLink corn. It had been modified to produce its own pesticide, but it hadn't yet been approved for consumption. They were just developing test fields. It turned out, however, that they couldn't contain the modified crops in their test areas - the modified gene was shortly found all over the place, and had even ended up in food that had already been produced and even used for human food. There were no illnesses linked to it (to my knowledge) so it would seem that it was completely safe, but it caused a nationwide recall of EVERYTHING made of corn and was a financial catastrophe for the StarLink company. A national Cheetos shortage and everything.

Bad things. If you're looking for something a little more potentially dangerous, there was always the affair with Pioneer Hybrid soybeans. Soybeans are low in a particular amino acid, so they added a gene from Brazil nuts that makes it. Someone along the line, however, observed that those nuts are one of the more allergenic ones and, sure enough, the final soybean product was shown to cause massive allergies in many of their tests. It was pulled and destroyed before it ever got to the market.

That one could have been lethal, but it would seem that the system more or less worked and it never went anywhere. If you want a biotechnology product that actually went so far as to kill people, the best I can do is tryptophan.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that can be found in a variety of foods, but for which supplements became popular. One major manufacturer, the Showa Denko company of Japan, decided to try and increase their yield by genetically modifying the bacteria they were using to produce the stuff. They also modified their procedures, using less purification and filtering which they said was no longer necessary. Ultimately it turned out that there was some kind of impurity... some people think the engineering increased bacterial production of it, other that the lack of filtering allowed it to creep through, but whatever the reason seven people died and thousands were permanently disabled as a result. Tryptophan was banned entirely as a product as a result of this for more than a decade.

Still, all of these are only hints of what MIGHT happen. What if something like Showa Denko's modification had been combined with a natural spreading like StarLink's? We might have poisoned every natural supply in existance. Or maybe not. What most people don't like about genetic engineering is that they don't know what's going to happen, and I have to concede... given what's happened, it's certainly hard to say!

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Not sure what you consider impartial, but ...
You should definetly look into the Monsanto case concerning Roundup and GM seeding. Look at both sides.

Basically...I like organic stuff, but I am not opposed necessarily to improvement ...as long as it doesnt harm anything. When you modify.....you will continue to have to keep modifying because insects will become immune, and after awhile your crops are no longer anything close to natural - and shouldn't be considered food.

Another thing to point out would be the harm it has done to smaller farmers who have actually been sued for copyright infringement due to the fact that GM seeds have blown into the wind and onto the others farm ...changing the structure of the non -GM plants, which in turn gave Monsanto the right to claim that the crops were actucally theirs (stolen)...which left many farmers out of jobs.

I choose to buy non-hybrid/heirloom seeds myself. Hybrid means your apple looks pretty, but has been modified to sell better and might resist disease when planted (but for how long),.... and the main key is that the seeds from those plants cannot be re-seeded or re-planted. If you control the reproduction of crops...what else might you have control over?????

Several foreign countries have already outlawed certain seeds for one reason or another. Sorry I can't be more detailed...but it is a place to start anyway.