GMO studies???

Blaundee

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Quickly, can someone post some links to studies proving that GMO's are NOT beneficial to us & our world? I am in a debate...
 

Joel_BC

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First of all, I'm not a geneticist, or any sort of biologist - nor an expert in physiology, biochemistry, etc. But I believe that genetically modified foods and food ingredients should be indicated on food packaging and food bins in markets (as has been required in some European countries, so I've read). That gives people choice. Plus, I wouldn't choose to grow from genetically modified seeds in my own garden. But that's just me.

Maybe this can help in your search. There's an organization called the American Academy for Environmental Medicine. I know next to nothing about them, but they've published a "position paper" on GM foods. It can be found here:
http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html
The paper is brief and includes end notes showing the references and studies they've cited. These are the references:

Bibliography: Genetically Modified Foods Position Paper AAEM
1. World Health Organization. (Internet).(2002). Foods derived from modern technology: 20 questions on genetically modified foods. Available from: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/index.php
2. Smith, JM. Genetic Roulette. Fairfield: Yes Books.2007. p.10
3. Freese W, Schubert D. Safety testing and regulation of genetically engineered foods. Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews. Nov 2004. 21.
4. Society of Toxicology. The safety of genetically modified foods produced through biotechnology. Toxicol. Sci. 2003; 71:2-8.
5. Hill, AB. The environment and disease: association or causation? Proceeding of the Royal Society of Medicine 1965; 58:295-300.
6. Finamore A, Roselli M, Britti S, et al. Intestinal and peripheral immune response to MON 810 maize ingestion in weaning and old mice. J Agric. Food Chem. 2008; 56(23):11533-11539.
7. Malatesta M, Boraldi F, Annovi G, et al. A long-term study on female mice fed on a genetically modified soybean:effects on liver ageing. Histochem Cell Biol. 2008; 130:967-977.
8. Velimirov A, Binter C, Zentek J. Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice. Report-Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth. 2008.
9. Ewen S, Pustzai A. Effects of diets containing genetically modified potatoes expressing Galanthus nivalis lectin on rat small intestine.Lancet. 354:1353-1354.
10. Kilic A, Aday M. A three generational study with genetically modified Bt corn in rats: biochemical and histopathological investigation. Food Chem. Toxicol. 2008; 46(3):1164-1170.
11. Kroghsbo S, Madsen C, Poulsen M, et al. Immunotoxicological studies of genetically modified rice expression PHA-E lectin or Bt toxin in Wistar rats. Toxicology. 2008; 245:24-34.
12. Gurain-Sherman,D. 2009. Failure to yield: evaluating the performance of genetically engineered crops. Cambridge (MA): Union of Concerned Scientists.
13. Lofstedt R. The precautionary principle: risk, regulation and politics. Merton College, Oxford. 2002.
 

rhoda_bruce

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Well, I'm computer stupid, but I have recently completed an herbal studies course and one of my last lessons had to do with lettuce. You see it is supposed to be bitter, which would stimulate our salivary glands and promote digestion and help with several of our common ailments, but we have developed 'lettuce' that is so far from its ancestor that almost no hint of bitter is ever detected, except near the stem and if you keep it long enough for some of the leaves to begin to turn yellow.....and then we normally throw those parts away, because they offend us.
If we would allow iceburg lettuce to go into seed a few generations, then we would begin to have a true lettuce, which would be bitter and much more benificial to our health. So by modifying lettuce, we really have hurt ourselves.
This is just one example. Now I have also heard of some assassin plants that if grown anywhere in the area of an heirloom garden will mess with the purity of the seed and the resulting seed will be fruitless.......in otherwords, it seems it could possibly destroy future generations of gardens, by infiltrating the purity. Not sure that this was intentional, or that was an accident, but it sounded scary, when I first heard it about 2 years ago.
There is a growing number of people trying to avoid GMOs right now. The more I hear about it, the more I lean toward heirlooms. I used very few GMO's last year. I hope to use none this year.
 

Joel_BC

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rhoda_bruce said:
The more I hear about it, the more I lean toward heirlooms. I used very few GMO's last year. I hope to use none this year.
Rhoda, I was a little unsure of this part of your post. Maybe you realize that GMOs are different from hybrids?

Both hybrids and GMOs are different from heritage seeds, yes.

Hybrid seeds have been available for a long time. A hybrid comes from two different parent stocks, and they're bred by pollination, and then the seed is saved. And the hybridization (or "crossing") process does happen in nature.

GMOs are created by a different process, one that was developed in laboratories. It's a much more recent thing. So far as I know, the result is different from something that would happen in nature. But maybe someone here knows more and better than this.
 

Hinotori

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Yup, you can't normally crossbreed corn and bacteria. GMO isn't the same as hybrid no matter what the people who don't understand that difference say.
 

~gd

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I should NOT post! I have recently been warned by Niffty that even when my facts are right my tone offends so please skip this post if you are easily offended.
Let me start with sex, things that reproduce by sex includes many plants and insects and I think all animals. It is natures way of exchanging genes. During this process sometimes accidents happen the result is a mutant. Usually the mutant dies because it cannot compete with the normal, but sometimes the mutant wins. If Man likes the mutant he might step in to help the mutant survive. [Often mutants are sterile] the Apple is a good example of "extreme heterozygote", in that rather than inheriting DNA from their parents to create a new apple with those characteristics, they are instead significantly different from their parents. For example the Red Delicious originated at an orchard in 1880 as "a round, blushed yellow fruit of surpassing sweetness". That does not sound like the apple in your supermarket? That is due to mans messing with natures product [in the1980s these were of the Washington state apple crop. They were useless except for their good looks. The market crashed and Congress and Bill Clinton bailed them out in 2000.]
Sorry Rhoda, I couldnt find anything on lettuce, I am not a fan. But I think bitter greens are still available just not bitter Iceberg, try some leaf lettuce and I am sure dandelion leaf is bitter and grows easily.
Commercial hybrid seed is produced by removing the male pollen producer and replacing it with pollen from a different cultivar.
Heirloom heritage seeds are grown in isolation from other plants that could provide pollen so only heritage seeds and a few mutant seeds are produced
Hinotori- I think you will find that insects were not used, the genes that are used in GMO were taken from other plants that had already developed resistance. Trans-kingdom GMO is a future project not current state-of-the art
If I have offended. you all know where the Report botten is but I will be back~gd
 
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