Genetically Modified Foods: Thoughts & Opinions

I recently read Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, by Jeffrey M. Smith. I realize that this book is now several years old, but I hope many people have had the opportunity to read it. If you have not had the opportunity to read it, I would highly suggest it, if for no other reason than to get another perspective on the issue of genetically modified foods that seems to be absent from the mainstream media.

I will admit before even reading Seeds of Deception I had reservations about genetically modified foods though I don’t know I could have told you why. Call it a gut feeling, but altering the genome of plants and other organisms in such a drastic way just didn’t seem right. While we have come to know many things about biology and how our bodies function, there is still so much that we do not know. This is my main concern: that putting foreign genes from one organism into another may have effects that we have not even considered or may not even be able to detect yet. And these thoughts were given more background and evidence after reading Seeds of Deception.

Our understanding of genetics and gene expression continues to expand. It was thought that the genome had lots of genes, and each gene would express a specific protein. However, now we know it is much more complex than just one gene will make one protein. There is a complex process that the body goes through to produce a protein and many more proteins are made by the body than there are number of genes. Information from a gene is processed and rearranged many different ways according to what the body needs. There continues to be evidence that our environment has an enormous effect on gene expression. So just because you have this or that gene does not mean you will express it. All these factors play into why genetically modified foods have the potential to cause unknown negative effects. Just because a gene creates a certain protein in one organism does not mean it will produce the exact same protein in another. And then even if the desired protein is made, are there other proteins being made as well? Or are natural proteins of the organism now limited, stopped, or produced in excess?

I believe these are good questions that should be answered. Unfortunately they have not been answered. Genetically modified foods continue to have too many unanswered questions when it comes to safety. Even the concerns of scientists tasked with testing the safety of genetically modified foods have largely been ignored. Yet we are assured that genetically modified foods are perfectly safe. While it may be coincidental or caused by many factors, I find it very interesting the rise in food allergies and sensitivities and chronic diseases in the United States began accelerating after the introduction of genetically modified foods.

I recommend avoiding genetically modified food as much as possible. The problem being is that they are not labeled in the US, making it virtually impossible to know if you are avoiding them or not in most processed foods. In general, reduce the amount of highly processed food and eat as fresh of food as you can get. Avoid crops that now consist of a large proportion of genetically modified foods such as soybeans, corn, and canola. And if you really want to know what goes into your food, grow it yourself. Here are a few more tips on avoiding genetically modified foods from wikihow.com that seem reasonable.