Do you need gm foods

Answer 1

'GM' stands for 'genetically modified'. We not only don't need them, we don't want them: we don't know what long-term effects they will have on human health, on the environment, on other plants, or on other animals. Human history with trying something before knowing whether it's safe or not is not very good: as just one of many, many examples, radioactive radium was used for a range of purposes including for the luminous lines and numbers in clocks and watches, and even as a health food, for a long time before it was realised that it caused radiation sickness, cancer and a very unpleasant death. Who knows what effects GM foods will have? At this stage, no-one. One of the many potential risks of GM crops is that they are often manufactured so that they produce seeds that cannot be grown. This is to force farmers to buy new lots of seeds rather than do what they've always done and collect the seeds from the old crop to plant the new one. Apart from the obvious issues with this approach of setting up a system where farmers have to continue to buy seed that they formerly got for free, pollen from GM crops is being blown on the wind and fertilising non-GM crops and even organic and biodynamic crops, causing them to produce seeds that cannot be grown. If this were to go on, it is very conceivable that the world would run out of seeds that could be grown, causing the extinction of major crops. Imagine a world without wheat ... or corn/maize ... or rice ... and now imagine the effect on the people who depend on these crops ... basically, GM food could be the cause of a worldwide famine.

Also, all organisms on earth have evolved over millennia by those which are most suited to their environment living to pass their genes on to their descendents. How do we know that genetically modifying organisms won't have unforseen genetic effects that somehow make the organisms less fit, ultimately resulting in extinction?

The point is, at this stage, we just don't know what the effects could be. Given the potential effects are so catastrophic, wouldn't it be better to do more research, lots of research, to make sure they're safe before we use them, rather than finding out too late?

The problem is, they are already very widely used, and some of the things above - health problems and contamination of non-GM crops - are already happening. You have almost definitely already eaten GM foods without even knowing it. For example, most maize/corn is now GM. Most countries do not have laws requiring GM labelling of foods.

And if you think companies wouldn't dare do something that might affect your health, you're naive: the only thing companies are interested in is profits.

And if you run the line that most foods today are effectively genetically modified through millennia of human cultivation, you're right: the difference is that these foods have been modified indeed over millennia, so it's been much slower; and the forces used to modify them are nowhere near as artificial as current genetic modification; and they have been tested and proven to survive well over millennia also. In nature, a fish gene would just never get into a tomato.

But don't take my word for it. And don't ignore it, because ignoring it is making a choice as much as deciding one way or the other. Inform yourself. Do a Google search. Look on Wikipedia. Read arguments for and against and make up your own mind. Because remember, companies are not interested in your wellbeing. They're interested in your money, and history has shown repeatedly that they'll do anything they can get away with to get your money, even if it kills you.

OR;

Yes we do. It is only the rich countries that can afford to ignore them, though most of the development is made in these countries.

To dismiss them would condemn many people to a subsistence diet or starvation.

Foods have been 'genetically modified' for centuries by selective breeding. Opinions to the contrary are incorrect.