O: I was going to suggest that you search the "Sustaining Our Environment" forum on Nature.Net, a GardenWeb "sister" set of forums, but you already did. The folks there discuss this topic a lot. Also try "Farm Life," "Permaculture" (although that forum is relatively new and may not have covered GE foods yet), and "organic gardening." A year or so ago the topic was widely discussed on forums, but it has faded somewhat. -- Marie

Olanga,
I recently sent the following letter to the editors of three publications. I am a freelancer and write for all of those papers, one being an agricultural paper. I'm waiting for some backlash, but you might want to consider the idea of "choice," as explained in the letter when you are discussing the merits of GMOs with your neighbors.

Dear Editor,
This country began because people wanted a choice, to do and think as they pleased. It has also been built on a free marketplace and a capitalistic system.
Both of these ideas are in jeopardy these days, and corporate agriculture is one part of the driving force behind these principles' demise.
A free marketplace works on the theory that the customer is always right, and a good entrepreneur surveys his customers to find out what he can do to serve them. If they want blue cereal, he strives to secure blue cereal for their shopping carts.
Now the tables are being turned by corporate agriculture that "tells" its customers what to buy. Two specific instances include the inclusion of GMO foods in everyday products and rBST in dairy products.
In both cases these corporations "argue" that their food is scientifically identical to the former products. Although that statement cannot be proven with 100 percent certainty, it is not even the point. Rather, the point is that the customer should be given the opportunity to chose what he wants to buy.
Those who have said they don't want GMO or BST foods are portrayed as not knowing the facts. The facts are that some people just don't want to be told what food they can and cannot buy, and put into their body. The corporate entities have made certain that customers can no longer select products that are GMO or BST free, (without making a deep plunge into their pockets for certified organic products). These GMO and BST products are routinely incorporated into regular food products.
Why can't customers chose? Because corporations refuse to identify, through labeling, those things that contain the two items under consideration. The customer's choice has been denied, and rather than giving customers what they want, corporate agriculture is shoving their product down customers' throats, using scientific data to bolster their case, rather than reverting to the tried and true "customer is always right" theory.
Telling customers they can go back to buying the basics and make everything from scratch (one argument proposed at one conference), forcing them to live as though they were still in the early 1900s, is not a legitimate solution, and insults the intelligence of all customers.
Furthermore, corporate agriculture, with the assistance of government, is now bad-mouthing foreign countries who fail to accept such products, saying these governments would rather have their citizens die of starvation than accept our GMO products. This is intimidation or bullying brought to a new level.
Since when is the U.S. corporate system so superior to everyone else's way of life. Many would doubt that the greed and financial gain of some corporate companies is an ideal to which all should aspire.
Agriculture is not the only industry where this thinking is prevalent. Drug companies are reaching new heights of arrogance, as they tell lay people to go to their doctors and ask about XYZ drug. Duh! Are doctors so ignorant these days (please, let's not go there!), that the patient has a better medical background than the doctors. If so, let the patients prescribe their own medications, and cut out the doctors (not really a legal option).
It's bad enough that doctors often prescribe those medications that are presented to them by drug companies in the form of samples, with little knowledge of the costs. Maybe this is why it is so expensive to get health insurance, and those who don't have it must bear the full costs that they can barely afford, or go without. But to have a patient go into a doctor's office presuming to know what might be the best cure for an ailment diminishes a doctor's credibility. It also puts pressure on doctors to prescribe when something isn't needed, particularly evident with the over-prescription of antibiotics. This exposes another fault with some doctors who prescribe to make the patient happy, not well.
And, isn't it interesting that many of the same companies that push drugs are the same companies that push pesticidesthe same pesticides that are part of the "system" used with GMOs. The BST guys are linked to the same types of corporations, too.
It seems that a few corporations are telling us to forget about choices any longer, as they have it all figured out. That was the same propaganda offered to an ignorant public when the first generation of pesticides came down the pike decades ago...and look what that got us.
Maybe corporations will force their own hand as their greed grows, and those who want choice will find a viable alternative. But, to make matters worse, if it leads to these corporations ending in financial disaster, the government will probably bail them out!

From a nutritional standpoint, GE foods, whether they be plant or animal, are no different from non-GE foods. Starch is starch, sugar is sugar, protein is protein, and your digestive tract doesn't(and can't) differentiate between soy protein from Roundup-Ready soybeans and non-Roundup-Ready beans; although, for example, insertion of genes that code for production of essential amino acids in foodstuff that normally doesn't contain it, may actually make it a much more 'complete' food source.
If, however, you choose not to take advantage of technological advances that make farming more productive and less polluting, and food more nutritious and healthy, that's your own personal decision, and one I'm proud for you to make, but don't hasten to make your decision without researching the situation thoroughly.
Where can you get unbiased information? I don't know. Both sides of the argument have their own agendas to advance and there is plenty of information out on the Internet - on both sides of the argument - that is of dubious veracity. Sometimes you just gotta go with your head or your heart, whichever wins the battle.

For an alternative viewpoint, which often gets beaten down or suppressed by the staunch anti-GE types in these sorts of discussion threads, take the time to read the page linked below.

Unfortunately, you are forgetting that anytime you mess with gene altering you are opening up a Pandora's box of troubles that only the future will tell. Don't even begin to try and sell me on GE foods after the intensive studying I've done on the subject over the years! B.

I'm not selling GE to anyone, just offering the viewpoint that they're not necessarily the bugaboo that some folks think they are.
You might also check out and search the "Junk Science" website for some more eye-opening insights on GE paranoia.

It depends on what was genetically engineered into the food.

ie. some species of corn are engineered with a gene that produced minute amounds of naturally occuring insecticides. The finished product is bug resistent, but has far less toxic material than natrual corn that has been doused with insecticides from a sprayer.

Now, concern is for a small percentage of the human population that may have allergies to the new material, (whether the product was engineered for insect resistence, higher protein, more sugar, pretty color...whatever). People who were not allergic to corn, may have some minor, or some very serious reactions to the new corn. That's why a lot of perfectly good GE products are restricted as animal feed. Just in case.

However, there was a recent incident where a batch of some of that GE corn was accidentally introduced into the human food pipeline. There were no reported ill effects. It was only months later that an audit revealed the mistake. To the folks who consumed this product, they could not tell the difference. I believe the corn had been introduced into taco shells for a major fast food franchise.

CONSPIRACY THEORY - maybe it wasn't an accident.

I use corn as an example because it is the longest genetically engineered food crop in human history. In fact, it's engineering has followed modern man's progress for the past three thousand years or so.

Anthropologists have traced corn to a weed cultivated by ancient humans three thousand years ago. Back then, corn was nothing more than a pinkie-sized cob of starchy seeds. Through man's selective cultivation engineering, we changed this species over a few thousand years to the large, sweet, yellow cobs of summertime goodness.

Corn today, does not exist in the wild. It is a species that is entirely dependent on human agriculture to exist. The genetic engineering we used back then, was slow, but basically the same concept.

Look for a strain that offers desired traits and cross-pollinate with another strain with other desired traits until you get what you want.

Today's gene splicing methods allow us to speed up the process and test at a furious rate. Our mistakes are quickly discovered and repaired in the next generation of plants before we decide on a final commericially viable product. The old method took entire seasons and in some cases, lifetimes to determine the results.

The resistence to the technology could be likened to any other venue of science. Air travel - We were not meant to fly. Only now are we finding out that some people get nosebleeds when they fly to lofty altitudes! And don't forget all those people who get killed every year in aircraft accidents!

I'm sure fewer people have been harmed from GE crops than from auto accidents, television watching, and rabid domesticated cats!

They should just stay indoors... and don't touch the cat!

Some GE foods are less nutritous and one thing that has for certain been found is that they intake more metals from the soil. there is a great book called Fatal Harvest, tragedy of Industrial agriculture.This has been the best most organized insite I have found so far. It goes through the myths most people believe why we need GE foods in the first place.

Another great place to find unbiased, unfiltered media is a website called organicconsumers.org.

Good luck trying to educate anyone as many people dont care. They will only care when they get sick. I believe Montisanto is trying to control the worlds food source. They are doing a great job and even tried to market terminator seeds. They will not even bare one fruit if you try to save the seeds. The united nations has banned their use but now Canada is questioning that judgement and would like to go with them. Why??? Maybe they were offered a great deal on the seeds. What do you think will happen if the pollen from those terminator seeds spread? I am not arguing with anyone. Been there done that.
Good luck
Marie

Terminator seeds! Oh my!

I'm guessing those are seeds that are designed to generate one generation of fruiting crops and their progeny are sterile.

We've already engineered through thousands of years of engineered cultivation a crop that does just that... the bannana.

I think it's estimated that only one out of nearly 400 banannas actually bear seeds. Bannana plantations carefully screen bannanas through a sieve to harvest those seeds and something like one in five hundred can actually germinate into a plant! slice a bananna across and you will see those 5 dark spots in the center - those are the vestiges of bananna seeds.

Currently, there is a scientific race to save the bannana from extinction. If you were old enough to remember banannas sold prior to the 1940s you may think that banannas had better flavor and were sweeter. That species of bananna went extinct within a few years due to a virus. The resulting bannana shortage was immortalized in the song "Yes, we have no banannas" because it rocked us culturally and socially.

The big bananna conglomerates then had to rush to put in place an alternate bananna species to replace the one we lost. That species that we enjoy today is lower in sugar and flavor. It too is now fighting the virus that wiped out it's predecessor. the virus mutated an is now making it's way around the world. I think it's currently in asia.

The banannas they are currently developing have names like Big Yellow 738 and are the hopes of the bannana industry. they are trying to replicate color, flavor and sweetness, but can't get an exact match. However, they are getting some interesting mutations with flavors like vanilla, and strawberry.