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  6 0 There's no evidence that they are bad for your health. Some more legitimate concerns have been brought up relating to their environmental stability but as of yet there's no health risk. Personally, I would like to see them better regulated. New GE foods should probably be analyzed for safety more closely. Then again, the same risks occur with natural foods. Many of the foods we eat today are asexual clones of natural foods (bananas or apples, for example) precisely because the natural versions vary so drastically in taste, appearance AND chemical and genetic makeup. There is a naturally occurring variety of potato, for example, that will poison you if eaten. This isn't something that is engineered, it's simply the byproduct of allowing a food product to have sex, so to speak. So far, the only identified potential problem would be if you happened to be allergic to a new protein introduced into a food. An example of this actually occurred wherein peanut proteins were introduced into another nut crop but I believe this potential danger was caught prior to that GE crops introduction. When weighing the dangers of GE foods, remember that plants and animals have been genetically engineered for centuries. Modern corn and bananas, to name two, do not look anything like their natural counterparts and yet these changes occurred before the discovery of DNAs structure. It's best to look at it on a product by product basis rather than as a whole field. If you did that, you'd be forced to include nearly everything we eat today. Arsenic7 answered in Feeding the Family about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by protosaurus… 0 0 Wow this is the most sane answer I've ever heard on this topic. Nice work. GE crops save literally millions of lives every year. Not eating them is such a first world problem. protosaurus commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 2 My answer to this question is YES, avoid GM crops like the plague, but not for dubious health reasons. GM crops are technically as safe as any other, but the way they are grown and sold undermines the agricultural stability of the entire world. You see, farmers never really "own" their GM crops; they rent them. They are allowed to use the seed for a single crop, but GM crops are always sterile (not because of the intended GM traits, but because they're bred that way), so they don't produce usable seeds themselves. If you want another crop next year, you have to buy another round of seed. This isn't a big deal in the rich world but in the third world it's a problem. It's worse than that, though, because it's normal for crops to drift across into other fields and cross with them, and this leads Monsanto and other giant agribusinesses to make claim to intellectual-property ownership of YOUR crops, too, even if you never bought anything from them. The problem with GM is an intellectual property problem. GM crops are devised for the profits of Monsanto et al. While there's nothing objectionable in profits per se, the development of GM crops has completely taken over the research field into better crops. Also, GM crops are just the latest of the many intrusions of giant agribusinesses into the economy, at horrific enviromental and economic costs. These companies are hugely subsidized by the US government, distorting world markets and putting millions of people into extreme poverty. They also use fertilizer regimens that are destroying the world's oceans, and government-subsidized water projects that are destroying the world's water resources. While these problems are not specific to GM, they ARE specific to the only companies that do GM. Saying "no thanks" to ADM and Monsanto is a good thing to do, whether you think GM is dangerous or not. Fnarf answered in Feeding the Family about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by prompt… 0 0 I'm going to have to disagree with some of what you said. If it wasn't for GM food, there would be countless more starving people than there already are. There simply isn't a way to feed everyone on Earth without GM food. The environmental effects of any agricultural business aren't good, but they are unavoidable unless there are far fewer people in the world. To answer his question, GM food is entirely safe to eat. prompt commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 3 They are banned by the EU and many other nations around the world. Contamination of non-GMO US crops has blocked their export. There are class-action lawsuits underway against Bayer and Monsanto for this reason amongst others. There have been studies showing that they can alter intestinal bacteria, a backbone of our immune system. They contain genetic material that would never have ended up in their DNA in a million years and have been studied only in a limited fashion, particularly in terms of their long term affects on the environment where it is known that they affect insect populations. It is estimated that at least 60% of non-organic crops are GMO. A recent poll on MSNBC.com had over 94% of respondents supporting labeling of GM foods on an ethical basis. I think avoiding mass market packaged foods is wise when practical. Eating out or at friends houses make it not always possible. Sticking with whole foods is also a good bet. agness answered in Feeding the Family about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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