posted
Apparently we Americans have been eating Genetically Modified foods for quite a while, unbeknownst to me. I thought there was a truth in labeling law that was protecting us from that... I have been reading labels and I haven't seen any Genetically Modified foods listed on them.
What do you think about Genetically Modified foods?
quote:GM: New Study Shows Unborn Babies Could Be Harmed
By Geoffrey Lean The Independent UK Sunday 08 January 2006
Mortality rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed on a diet of modified soya.
Women who eat Genetically Modified foods (Monsanto Roundup Ready soy) while pregnant risk endangering their unborn babies, startling new research suggests.
The study - carried out by a leading scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences - found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on modified soya died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those born to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many were also severely underweight.
The research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one of a clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food damages human health. Italian research has found that modified soya affected the liver and pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a decade-long attempt to develop modified peas when an official study found they caused lung damage.
And last May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech giant Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had smaller kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible damage to their immune systems, than those that ate a similar conventional one.
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The Monsanto soya is widely eaten by Americans. There is little of it, or any GM crop, in British foods though it is imported to feed animals farmed for meat.
It has fantastic potential for good that, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, is a disaster waiting to happen. The regulations aren't stringent enough, and we don't really know enough to understand how we should be testing. That kind of understanding only really comes with mistakes. So, much like Thalidomide, the industry won't be revolutionized until a disaster. It is, unfortunately, much more difficult to recall an organism than a million bottles of pills.
Nevermind the idea of patenting organisms, which some find distasteful, but I guess that's another can of worms.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I don't like them, but I can't afford to eat only organics. I don't think they're tested anything like sufficiently before they come on the market. I don't think there's sufficient safeguards to prevent them from cross-polinating with non-GMO stock. I think they could do some good in countries where the traditional strains can't grow because of weather, soil, or insects, but in countries like the United States they are not only completely unnecessary but a crutch that allows some of the worst habits of modern agriculture (loss of biodiversity, destruction of soil and water, over-use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides) to continue and accelerate. And while GMOs _could_ be put to good use, that companies like Monsanto choose to use the technology to develop things like the Terminator strains is ethically horrifying.
If they were required to label GMOs on the market, the market would probably die shortly thereafter. As it is, they tried (and were fortunately rebuffed) to sneak GMOs under the organic label.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I'll agree that genetically modified food is a little worrisome, but I generally view it as a pretty vague threat. Concentrated animal feeding operations on the other hand, disturb me a bit more.
But hey! I still got my KFC! That's some good ol' fashioned Kentucky Fried Animal #14!
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I find all factory farming operations to be worrisome. That's why I hope in the future to be able to raise all of our own meat, and most of the vegetables.
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I am ususally of the opinion that I need to be convinced something is safe before I feed it to my self or my kids, rather than continuing to eat it until it's proven unsafe. So, mostly organic or non GMO foods.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by pH: I'll keep eating 'em until they start biting back.
ZOMBIE VEGETABLES ATTACK.
-pH
What if you notice that you've been bitten only after little leaves start growing between your fingers?
I don't like being the unknowing subject of an experiment. Truth in labeling was originated so that we consumers could choose (or not choose) what we eat. Apparently impartial science has found negative effects from ingesting GM foods.
This is another example of a Corporation doing what it wants without government intervention.
quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: I'll agree that genetically modified food is a little worrisome, but I generally view it as a pretty vague threat. Concentrated animal feeding operations on the other hand, disturb me a bit more.
But hey! I still got my KFC! That's some good ol' fashioned Kentucky Fried Animal #14!
Yes, Factory Farms and the money behind them is why we are looking at this sort of problem. Their 'profit at any cost' thinking is taking over farming.
I admit I eat 'Kentucky Fried Animal #14' too. I am ranting because for a few cents more our food could be safer. In the end we have little choice. We are at the mercy of the almighty corporation, and corporations have no mercy.
Posts: 337 | Registered: Nov 2005
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