GM Foods.

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

What are your opinions on genetically modified food? Is it safe or not? My favourite food (ProNutro) is genetically modified and it would be a shame if It was bad.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Connor Davies]

I'm conflicted on the subject of GM foods.  I think if we're ever going to get around to being able to feed our ever expanding global population, we're definitely going to need them, just like we're probably going to need chicken nuggets and pink slime and other efficient methods of feeding the masses.  So while I can see the need for them, I don't necessarily want to eat them myself.

 

My main beef with GM foods is how the whole industry is managed (just look at monsanto for examples) If you want a real good summary, there's a section in Food Inc that covers it.  (By the way, excellent documentary)

 

Also there's a recent theory of genetics that says something along the lines of your genetic structure is altered by your environmental factors and the things you put into your body.  So the foods you eat, actually alter your genes.  Therefor, by eating GM foods, you're picking up some of the genetic codes in the food.  Since they're brand new and entirely unnatural, I'm hesitant to do that.

 

Since I live in the UK, I don't actually have the option of eating GM food. 

[Josh Schmitter]

Hi all,

 

What are your opinions on genetically modified food? Is it safe or not? My favourite food (ProNutro) is genetically modified and it would be a shame if It was bad.

 

Thanks in advance.

To me, the GM issue usually only comes into play when we're talking about food...and we seem to have very large discrepencies in our definition of said thing.

 

If you poke around on the forum here you'll find that everyone at the top of the chain(i.e. as close to serious athletes as you'll find) recommend dailing in your diet first before worrying about supplements, etc. I would throw GM in with the "ect." Ditch the ProNutra, but no because of the GM...because it's full of processed soy and friends. 

 

Please resume discussion of the world food system falling apart now...

[Karim Rahemtulla]

Bipocni, the 'theory' you are musing about is actually a field of study, not a theory, called epigenetics.  This is the way genes are activated or suppressed by our interaction with our environment - diet, lifestyle, air quality, etc.  Combining genes from completely different species of animals and plants into our food chain creates unknown effects in our own genetic structure, which in many cases, has led to unstable DNA replication and the associated diseases - ie. cancer.

 

The major problems here are with completely unsafe methods of increasing crop yields - which by the way, don't work. Research biodynamic farming and organic farming vs. conventional, you'll see huge differences in water usage/wastage, chemical industrial runoff (from fertilizers and pesticides) - which then pollute our water supply, not even counting the fact that you're eating food with large amounts of endocrine-disruptors and other pollutants.  The vitamin/mineral content of crops grown with chemical fertilizers is drastically lower, and the survival rates of these plants in unstable weather conditions is even lower.  Sustainable for feeding the worlds population?  Not even close.  

[Colin Macdonald]

So the foods you eat, actually alter your genes.  Therefor, by eating GM foods, you're picking up some of the genetic codes in the food.

My understanding of epigenetics is that it's about altering gene expression. Your environment causes genes in your code to turn on and off, but you're not actually absorbing genetic information from things around you.

 

My general feeling about GM food is that it's a potentially a good idea, if it's used properly.

[Karl-Erik Karlsen]

I would definitely avoid it. Too many questions surrounding the topic to make me feel comfortable.

First of all: The environmental impact - possible dangers to the plant species gene pool, bacteria etc etc.

Second: Our view of nutrition and medicine is changing all the time, we don't have a clear understanding of how our bodies work, it's a work in progress - but clearly the food we eat affects our organism (since it's incorporated into our cells, biochemical pathways, genome etc as building blocks, toxins, substrates for all processes and so on). Essentially, you are what you eat. I'd rather eat "real" food than "engineered" food. Theoretically it shouldn't be a problem, but we discover new things all the time. Before the 1960's it was inconceivable that prions were causing brain damage: Just pieces of protein, not even alive, but "folded the wrong way", when you eat them and they come into contact with other proteins, change the way they are folded and cause fatal, untreatable diseases. I.e. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

No reason to be paranoid, but I think the consequences if there is bad shit with GMO, is just too large that I would want to use it to feed my body or spread it in nature. Maybe in the future when we know more about it, but I still prefer the natural. Nature seems simple, but it's so complex and well adapted. When we humans try to engineer stuff, we mostly f**k it up, we can't plan for all the possible eventualities. Whereas nature has evolved over millions of years of careful selections and balances, everything that didn't work, died. And everything remaining exists because every single little detail about it has somehow proven adaptive, effective and useful in some way. Everything is random, but nothing is superfluous. Not even the stuff that's incomprehensible or seemingly useless to us.

 

[Guest]

Well, I guess it's goodbye ProNutro and all the sweet memories we had together. So long friend.  Time to make some new friends...Oats.    

[Connor Davies]

Everything is random, but nothing is superfluous. Not even the stuff that's incomprehensible or seemingly useless to us.

This is the exact reason why I hate people getting there vitamins from supplements as opposed to real food.  The real deal has thousands of enzymes that help you absorb the nutrients, as well as loads of other stuff we haven't even discovered yet.

[Karl-Erik Karlsen]

There is an interesting book that covers topics like this, I read once.
It's in the "Rough Guide" series, you know, the travel guides that are a lot similar to the Lonely Planet series.

It's called "The Rough Guide to Ethical Living" or some such, it covers vegetarianism, veganism, GMO, microcredits in underdeveloped countries, salmon farming, stocks, tuna fishing and lots of other things. I really liked that one, think I'll have to read it again.
Really well written and I seem to recall it being quite neutral also, not trying to give you The One True Answer, but rather showing the pros and cons and the different angles of the topic.