Genetically Engineered foods

[Phunky Cauldron]

Here's a list put out by greenpeace canada outlining the various products that are sold in Canada that are GE-Free. This is a hugely controversial issue in North America because corporations rule our daily activities.

[Phunky Cauldron]

Sorry, here's the list:

http://www.greenpeace.ca/shoppersguide/

Sorry, it's 4:20. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

[MoonBeam]

This is indeed contraversial. My aunt is a scientist on an international panel examining impacts/effects of GM products. A lot of smoke and mirriors on the part of industry. Consumers have no idea what they are consuming and producers would like to keep it that way....

[Ms.Huxtable]

But aren't genetically engineered foods a good thing? Some are engineered so that no pesticides need to be used; some are engineered to enhance the nutritional value (because soil quality varies). What's wrong with this?

[Phunky Cauldron]

I guess it really just depends on who you listen to. I sorta like the idea of the Precautionary Principle. Basically, if you don't know the effects of it, don't use it. Or use it sparingly and let people know you are doing it. I feel very strongly about individual empowerment. You have to give people the option to make decisions on their own. To do that, they need all the information. So basically as long as companies are honest about what they are doing and can tell you the short and long term effects of their product, not only on you, but on the economy, the environment and society then I'm fine with it. But until the point in time that companies are willing to divulge that information, then I'll be against GM foods.

[Phunky Cauldron]

Sorry, now that I read my last post over, I realize what a rant it is. I guess I just have a passion for it. Sorry to add more fuel to the propaganda fire.

[MoonBeam]

Gm products have skipped an evolutionary process and become something new without the benefit of time. The human digestive system has evolved over time to be able to digest and process naturally produced products. There is no evidence that humans are capable of properly processing GM products. In fact we really don't know what the long-term impacts will be on humans, and all other animals that consume GM products. The risk (see David Suzukis research) is that we are consuming products that our bodies are not able to deal with in the long run. Any product that has naturally evolved over time is much safer and consumable - GM products may in fact effect human evolution. Causal links take much time to discover. For example, we have only been eating major additives since WWII - we are now seeing tremendous increases in cancers, allergies etc. (lots of reasons for these changes).

In this post-species ecology (because we are creating new species by genetically engineering) we have absolutely no idea what the outcome will be. A risky business.

[Sarahbelle]

yeah, I was watching a nature of things (with david suzuki) and it was all about GMO foods. ONe of the experts was testing a strain of human DNA for allergies because humans have never consumed things like flounder genes. But, you cannot test nature. You never know when something could backfire. Do they caculate chaos into the mix? no.

Also, I went to a talk, and this man found that rats fed GMO potatos got cancerous tumours in their stomachs.

Not to mention, do humans really have the right to play God?

"A reasonable person adjusts his or her self to the world, and Unreasonable person adjusts the world to his or her self.

Just some *food for thought*

Cheers,

Sarah

[MoonBeam]

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s103866.htm

Sorry don't know if this link will work, but it is a good interview with Suzuki about GM foods & plants.

[weezy]

I heard a few years ago they were putting fish genes (Arctic Cod) into tomatoes to make them withstand cold temperatures better - would these be considered 'non-vegetarian' tomatoes?? Plus, what about soybeans? They are used in virtually ALL processed food - and not until recently were the GM ones quarantined from the normal ones, making us all unwitting guinea pigs.

That's the real issue here - this frankenfood hasn't had any long-term tests done regarding its effect on human and environmental health - it's too late already, lots of this shit has become part of our environment, and who knows how it will effect the future of the planet.

[Maddak]

For those of you who don't know, I'm a biology major and am currently taking two courses in which the topic of GM products is closely related, Plant Sciences and Ecology, and several people have already made points I was going to.... we don't know the long term effects on humans or any other higher organisms on the food chain, that modifying any plants could have. Our systems aren't used to dealing with this enhanced food, but at the same time, Ms. Hux ALSO had a good point in that some modifications eliminate the potential dangers that pesticides in plant products posse on anything that consumes that plants. We haven't been able to observe the long term effects of GM foods, but we haven't been able to observe the long term effects of a long list of pesticides and chemicals either. But, by making some 'super plants' that are resistant to insects and pesticides we could possibly be creating plants that we can't control. If there is no natural predation on the plant itself, the plant's population can boom and begin to kill off all the other species and plants in the same habitat. I agree with Phunky Cauldron that the average person needs to be made aware of just what it is that is in their food, but at the same time I know that that's a very difficult to attain goal. Not everyone cares to know, and a lot of people may not want to bother wrapping their heads around all the scientific information that may come out in the near future. I can tell you this though, just because a scientific study has released some sort of findings on the matter, don't take it as 100% truth. Look into who funds the projects, because it's very easy to perform indirect tests that may give nice sounding answers, but have little scientific merit.