Do the human cells become modified aswell?
2007-11-16 11:06:02 · 7 answers · asked by Stony 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
What you need to understand is that there are pretty much NO foods that are NOT genetically modified. I'm quite serious.
Think about the difference between a poodle and a wolf. Same species, but with just a bit of selective breeding. Farmers have been doing the same kind of thing with crop plants for FAR longer than we've been breeding dogs.
Nor are we talking about superficial changes here. Farmers have been changing the genetic makeup of plants since before genes were even known about. Many crops have two or four times the amount of DNA that a wild plant has and some breeds of yeast have 32 times that amount. Many crosses of wildly different plants have been attempted, some with success, to put one kind of trait in another plant.
Modern genetic engineering is no different. You are no more likely to be 'infected' by a genetically engineered plant than you are by any other. Probably less so, actually, since most companies that produce such plants don't want just anyone to steal one seed and grow a whole crop, so they tightly control (and engineer in) controls so that cannot happen.
I'll grant that some modifications end up producing unforseen effects. That is a pretty poor reason in itself to avoid a product. Few people don't drive cars or avoid vaccinations because they're 'unnatural'. Commercial crops have been unnatural for millennia. Genetic engineering only makes it very slightly more so.
If you take a fair look at recent food deaths, you'll find that what kills people the most is contaminated WATER that is used on foods. The 2006 E.Coli outbreak (at an organic farm no less) and quite a few recent Salmonella outbreaks this year all came from cattle feces in irrigation water.
2007-11-16 11:21:12 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Human cells can be modified by a diet, either through the epi-genome or by adding a defect through interaction with a harmful substance, but GM-food is not always this way. The issue is that the GM food may be modified by adding a pesticide or may add something to the chemical composition that is harmful without knowing they have done this.
There is no simple way to keep these foods honest. It takes very advanced technology to examine what changes were made. The people who make the changes may not fully understand what they have done either. This is why some people feel they have the right to know when they are eating GM food.
Forward looking it becomes clear that this knowledge will be second nature and we can be confident that the modifications were done well and are fully understood. Today however there was a maze seed that included a GM pesticide and the corn from the crop was not supposed to be used in human food. Yet testing off the corn found that it did enter the human food supply. The other issue is that plants share genes through pollination and a GM crop could add its modified genes to other wild and crop varieties. Many responsible people think we need have better technology before we start to create GM organisms.
2007-11-16 19:29:34 · answer #2 · answered by Ron H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When a human eats these foods what happens is what is expected. The food nourishes the body and they body lives another day to work, play and eat again.
I don't think it has any adverse affects on the human cells at all. I do think that it does have an effect on the food chain in agriculture but that is a study to take a lot of money and time to decipher if it does or not.
2007-11-16 19:29:31 · answer #3 · answered by the old dog 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
steriods are used in the modification of foods. therefore, i would thing that in eating these chemicals. we inturn could develop some abnoramal problems. as of right now the side effects are not known because historically we havent been eating genetically modified food for very long.
2007-11-16 19:16:55 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They don't know. Best to stick with natural whole foods.
Most process foods are genetically modified like soy, corn, and wheat.
http://www.krafty.org/flash/
2007-11-19 21:51:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think so, but I suspect that these modified foods might cause digestion problems and the brain may not no exactly how to utalize them.
2007-11-16 19:13:13 · answer #6 · answered by fuzzykitty 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NO ONE KNOWS... and THAT IS THE PROBLEM!!!
Why take chances? Stick with natural foods.
2007-11-16 19:21:24 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋