Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Is Genetically Modified Food good for your health

Is Genetically Modified Food good for your health?
My teachers say that Genetically modified (GM) food causes cancer and causes allergies. They also tell me that they destroy the environment, so they causes respiratory health problem. Is it true?
Other - Food & Drink - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
yes it is its stupid that we even have to modified are food what was wrong with it in the first place but yes they do cause lots of body problems my friend is a nurse and she told me about this
2 :
It is not as healthy as heirloom types of food-a good bit of nutrional value is lost just to grow it faster+ bigger. More profit for them = less value for you. That's 1 reason why kids are less healthy than they were 75 yrs ago
3 :
Genetically modified food is a big question mark. The technology for it has only been around for a couple decades - to see the lasting effect of a new technology or a new food takes years, generations, or even centuries. Here are some of the concerns that people have expressed about genetically modified food: They contain novel proteins - i.e. proteins that have never existed in any living thing. Most allergies are reactions to a particular protein, so when we create new ones, we may be opening the path to new allergies, both from the food we eat and the pollen spread by the plants we grow. The majority of genetically modified foods are "Roundup-ready" crops. "Roundup ready" plants can survive being sprayed with the weed-killer Roundup so more of it can be used. The company Monsanto makes Roundup and also produces Roundup Ready varieties of food crops. Roundup is an organophosphate pesticide just like lice shampoo and Phosmet, the insecticide used on cows in the UK to kill a parasitic insect called warble fly. Organic beef farmer Mark Purdey discovered that his cows who had not been treated with Phosmet were immune to Mad Cow disease, while a herd of cows that he bought, which had aleady been treated, did get the disease. People who live and work in rural areas are likely to have respiratory problems and miscellaneous health problems, not so much because of pollen but because of the pesticides being sprayed from airplanes. This isn't a direct result of growing genetically modified plants, but there is a strong link. There are also economic concerns about genetically modified crops. Canadian canola farmer Percy Schmeister discovered that some of his plants did not die when he sprayed Roundup around some utility poles. He learned that pollen had drifted over from a nearby Monsanto field, causing Roundup Ready plants to grow on his own farm. When he complained to Monsanto, they sued him for theft of their intellectual property. A few African countries have demanded that GM grain shipped to them as aid must be milled first, to prevent the seeds growing and making them economically dependent on Monsanto and other companies, just like Percy Schmeister. This leads to the greatest concern about genetically modified food. Once it is out in the world, it tends to spread. There may be a day when no living thing on Earth does not have genes from a genetically modified organism. Maybe that won't make a difference, but we just don't know. Some people think it is too dangerous to take the chance

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