GM Foods

[secret squirrel]

I really prefer to know what I`m, eating. Not to the point where its an obsession but I resent the secrecy of government and scientific groups who genetically modify what we eat and are not open about the fact that they have done it.
Sadly there are millions who have no Idea what they are eating or where their food comes from or how its produced, as long as its as cheap as possible. I do appreciate though that for those on low income, for whatever reason, its often difficult to get really good quality produce, but even if you buy what you call `fresh fruit and veg` in the market, which IS really cheap, you still cant be sure if it is from genetically modified crops or what it has been sprayed with. It shouldnt be that way.
Does genetically modifying produce `change` the flavour do you think?
People seem to want to eat more and more bland flavours and have more processed stuff instead.
You cant seem to get varieties that you used to. Just one example is `webbs` lettuces. You have to be really lucky to find them and I havent been able to buy one for a VERY long time. All we get in supermarkets are 2 or 3 varieties and bags of mixed continental salads in plastic bags. Ok if you are in a hurry, but what have they done to the bags to ensure that they stay fresh and edible, for long enough. I come from a generation and lineage where you dont buy salad in plastic bags.

Even the seeds you buy at the garden centres have been tampered with.
I suppose its to increase the shelf life of all these things. I was posting this as a spin off really to the thread about bees and pesticides.
Do they do the same in other European countries and other continents or is it just here in Britain that we do not seem to have a voice in what we choose to eat.

What does everyone else feel, without if possible being millitantly poilitical about it. (not sure if thats possible). Is there an answer or solution?
lorna

[Orfy]

Man has been geneticaly modifying plant and animal for 100s of years if not 1000.
They have been doing this by selective breeding to change DNA. Hopefully getting the good DNA added that they want. This was a slow way of doing things, almost random. Copying evolution but innstead of nature choosing what strain survived and florished man did.

The Diference now is that we can choose the Gene in the DNA we want and splice it directly.
The worrying thing is that we done know what they are doing and the direction they are heading in.

You can not deny that plant technology has done wonders for wheat and rice production and means that we can prodice more food with less ecological impact.

I just thing that all research should be public domain.

[secret squirrel]

Yes I do agree on that score, and I do understand that plants have evolved either by themselves or with the aid of man to make them better. The thing which causes suspision though is when you buy things like chocolate bars and other items which say that they contain genetically modified ingredients, and you have no idea what they are.
Why is it necessary to use these things in absolutely everything?

If you know whats in them you can then make a personal choice as to whether you buy and eat them , or not.

The sad thing is that we have lost a lot of indiginous varieties which are specific to the British Isle, which have self modified to grow well in the different climates we have here.
Its good to have varieties which are more disease resistant and are more adaptable to being transported from one region to another, but I do wonder at what cost.
Sometimes I think it encourages people to buy and eat things `out of season`, because they simply do not realise that some things are summer foods and some are winter foods. I realise that you cannot dictate what folk should eat and when, but for me I like the changes of food things that the different seasons bring.

If you can buy any item of fruit and veg at any time of the year, I think sometimes that they dont taste the same.
I know that you are very keen on your fruit and veg, and I wish I had the time and skills to do what you do. I`m sure you find the lovely strawberries you grow are far better in the summer when they are at their best, and havnt been `mucked` about with, than the rock hard tastless bullets from supermarkets, that you can buy at Christmas, which have been modified, forced, picked when not ripe and transported hundreds of miles.
Lorna

[Stig]

I'm no expert here, but my understanding is that GM is a step further than selective breeding. It involves modifying plants at a biochemical level.

If the only result is stronger, more productive crops, then what is the harm? Trouble is, we don't know what the result will be. One concern is that if you make plants resistant to a specific disease, like with over-use of antibiotics, the disease becomes resistant to both the GM and herbicidal treatments & we become powerless to control it. Another is that GM plants "escape" and cross-fertilise with wild plants to produce super-weeds (since a major area of research is to produce plants imperveous to herbicide so the crop can be more liberally with chemicals). Or maybe be harmful to insect life, and a small change here could have a dramatic effect on ecology as a whole. (although I do wonder what the purpose of slugs & snails is? Pretty sure we could get by just fine without them!!)

The most frightening side effect is that we do not know what effects on our health there may be from eating GM food. There needs to be exhaustive testing before the idea can become widespread, and sorry to say, I'd prefer it was not carried out in my back yard!!

[secret squirrel]

I think its far more wide spread than people realise and I agree with you about health issues.
Kit Kats apparently contain GM choclate. We had a list once of foods which contained Gm ingredients. I was quite surprised at some of the things on the list.
I havnt got it any more but the above is one that I remember, so I dont buy them any more.
lorna

[foghornleghorn2]

You have to wonder how far research has already gone without our knowledge.

I reckon that they have already cloned humans somewhere in the world.

[wendy]

As best i know ? I don't have it and neither do the animals. I try to shop sensibly and only ever cook from the ingredients up.
I also don't like the idea of someone messing around with the food. But you get lied to so often, how can we be sure ?.
Wendy

[aparker155]

I'm still 'on the fence' in the GM debate - I don't like the idea of messing with nature mostly because we don't know the long term implications - there are so many historical examples of things being proven as safe but then they turn out not to be! Science is NOT an exact science - all experimentation is based on probabilities and you can never examine all factors.

However, there is an obvious food shortage - this issue is masking the real issue which is that this world is overpopulated and we do not have the resources in the long run to maintain it.

[misty]

The main reason for gm seems to be the need for more food. So what if instead of growing dope (tobacco, chat, heroine, cocaine etc) and flowers that ruin the land for farming it was used to grow food. Job done.

[Stig]

Millions of pounds spent on R&D would suggest the motivation is profit rather than a noble campaign to feed a growing population. Maybe I'm just cynical. I know it, I AM cynical!

Before anyone starves there are countless resources that could be diverted to food production though, as you say. And we could all eat less, as my increasing waist size will attest.