GMO S
Scientists tinker with plants for many reasons. They often take a gene that controls a desired trait in one plant less need for water, so it can survive a drought, for example and add it into a different plant. The end result: hardier crops, more colorful berries, even seedless watermelons and grapes.Crops built to withstand herbicides could breed with each other and transfer their genes to weeds. These “superweeds” would also beat the herbicides. On the other hand, GM fans say this is nothing new.
“Even nonchemical technologies create superweeds,” Bradford says.The process often mixes or adds proteins that don’t exist in the original plant. GMO foes fear these will create new allergic reactions. They also worry that foods made to resist disease and viruses will linger in your system after you eat them, and that could make antibiotics less effective. But no studies confirm this claim.The FDA’s only litmus test for safety is based on a policy that says GM foods are close enough to natural foods that they don’t need regulation. “The question is, how can they make that determination?” Krimsky says.Whether they think of them as Frankenfoods or a way to feed the world, both sides agree consumers have a right to know what's on their plates. Countries that require labels for GM foods include China, Australia, and the European Union. But the U.S. doesn't make food companies mark products with GM ingredients. So it’s no surprise many Americans don’t realize they’re eating them.
While it’s highly unlikely that an individual consuming gm crops would be affected by those genes (horizontal gene transfer is rare and not fully understood in humans and animals and are no more common in GM crops than they are in ‘ordinary’ produce), it can be more of a concern in bacteria and other microscopic organisms (it is thought that HGT is the main factor influencing evolution in organisms that reproduce via mitosis and is also how bacteria adapt to new
“Even nonchemical technologies create superweeds,” Bradford says.The process often mixes or adds proteins that don’t exist in the original plant. GMO foes fear these will create new allergic reactions. They also worry that foods made to resist disease and viruses will linger in your system after you eat them, and that could make antibiotics less effective. But no studies confirm this claim.The FDA’s only litmus test for safety is based on a policy that says GM foods are close enough to natural foods that they don’t need regulation. “The question is, how can they make that determination?” Krimsky says.Whether they think of them as Frankenfoods or a way to feed the world, both sides agree consumers have a right to know what's on their plates. Countries that require labels for GM foods include China, Australia, and the European Union. But the U.S. doesn't make food companies mark products with GM ingredients. So it’s no surprise many Americans don’t realize they’re eating them.
While it’s highly unlikely that an individual consuming gm crops would be affected by those genes (horizontal gene transfer is rare and not fully understood in humans and animals and are no more common in GM crops than they are in ‘ordinary’ produce), it can be more of a concern in bacteria and other microscopic organisms (it is thought that HGT is the main factor influencing evolution in organisms that reproduce via mitosis and is also how bacteria adapt to new