Well in general GM Foods currently sounds like a fantastic idea. You can create a plant or organism to produce food to your desired effect. Though have we thought about the long term effects this will have on us? Maybe we could all die because suddenly there is this organism that feeds of carbon or oxygen and starts to eat humans or out grow us.
Also maybe we could all die from an accident from a crossing the genes and the breaking down of the barriers. This could result with all of us becoming super mutants or maybe zombies, perhaps even acquire super powers.
On the other hand we with gene technology we may see the end to world starvation and also maybe world poverty!!! We could expand our civilisation and go live on other planets making production and living standards drastically more different and most likely for the better.
I can conclude that both our view would be mixed. Maybe GM foods will be cheaper one day and we will all just live off GM foods though for now maybe we should stay with non-GM foods incase we die or something bad happens. Research and more depth of though would be required for this field since it is so important to us.
Monday, April 26, 2010
- The added genes and the effect of cross pollination can cause non gm crops to produce allergy causing substances or toxins.
- Due to the fact that GM Foods are quite recent there has been no long term on human health tests or studies that have been carried out.
- The modification of the antibiotic marker gene in organisms can cause the outbreaks of a new human disease.
- GMOs can cause changes in the ecosystem.
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Why we Love GM Foods so much!!!
- The use of genetic technology improves our rudimentary way of breeding crops and animals to get our suited and desired effects.
- There are strict legal requirements that control the development and production of GM Foods in Australia.
- We are protected by The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator which protects the safety and health of people and the environment. They identify risks posed by or as a result of gene technology.
- There is controversy that the antibiotics in GM foods' genes which have been used as markers can be transfered to bactirea but these antibiotics are not the type that is used in medicine.
- The FSANZ carries out very thorough assesments of all food that is made from genetically modified organisms. They also examine whether the food would either have and additional toxins or allergens as a result of being genetically modified.
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Sunday, April 25, 2010
History of GM Foods
The Flav Savr was the first 
geneticallly modified food to be commercially marketed, it was created in 1990 by the Californian company Calgene. Flav Savr was gentically made to take longer to decompose longer after it was picked.
Dr Arpad Pusztai of the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen in 1998 published research that GM potatoes, modified with an insecticide gene taken from the snowdrop, were toxic to rats in feeding trials.
The Labour party in the U.K announced in 1999 farm scale food trials to study the effects of crops engineered to being more resistant to herbicide.However, the trials were criticised because of the threat posed to neighbouring crops and honey by cross-pollination.
Critics at that time said that they would give a very restricted view of potential long term effects of the environmental impacts caused by the new technology.
In September 1999, pollen from GM oilseed rape, grown at a trials in Oxfordshire, was discovered at beehives 4.5 kms away. Shortly after in March 2000 honey sold in supermarkets were contaminated with GM pollen from British crop trials. Out of nine samples two were found to be contaminated.
Soon after many countries across the world started to emerge with different opinions on GM Foods being accepted across the world. Many companies have started on producing GM foods though many pull out claming that many goverments apply too many policies forcing them to pull out and stop production for example GM Maize in the U.K.
geneticallly modified food to be commercially marketed, it was created in 1990 by the Californian company Calgene. Flav Savr was gentically made to take longer to decompose longer after it was picked.Dr Arpad Pusztai of the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen in 1998 published research that GM potatoes, modified with an insecticide gene taken from the snowdrop, were toxic to rats in feeding trials.
The Labour party in the U.K announced in 1999 farm scale food trials to study the effects of crops engineered to being more resistant to herbicide.However, the trials were criticised because of the threat posed to neighbouring crops and honey by cross-pollination.
Critics at that time said that they would give a very restricted view of potential long term effects of the environmental impacts caused by the new technology.
In September 1999, pollen from GM oilseed rape, grown at a trials in Oxfordshire, was discovered at beehives 4.5 kms away. Shortly after in March 2000 honey sold in supermarkets were contaminated with GM pollen from British crop trials. Out of nine samples two were found to be contaminated.
Soon after many countries across the world started to emerge with different opinions on GM Foods being accepted across the world. Many companies have started on producing GM foods though many pull out claming that many goverments apply too many policies forcing them to pull out and stop production for example GM Maize in the U.K.
Bibliography:
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Basic facts on genetically modified food.
Genetically modified food is harvested from a genetically harvested organism. Through genetic engineering the organisms can make produced to our standards or needs. Whether its growing it in the desert of making it grow faster, we can do most of it through modifying the organism thus our produce become genetically modified. GM foods have not been around for long. Only since 1990s were GM foods brought into the market. The most of the common GM foods are transgenic plants. Transgenic plants are plants containing a multiple or single gene from a different species. Controversially GM animal products have also been made. Currently there is as much support as controversy for GM foods.
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