Why do you think Canadians should have the choice to pick genetically modified food?

Answer 1

(Please note that the question asks for an opinion; therefore, the responses given below contain personal views, not factual information.)

Never Better GM FoodsGenetically modified food is NOT better to use in Canada or anywhere in the world for at least two reasons: // First, some studies have shown that genetically modified foods harm the environment by contaminating non-genetically modified varieties, changing the insect population, and altering the environment in a harmful way. // Secondly, no one knows the short and long-term effects GM foods will have on humans and animals. Since studies have shown that the effects on the environment are harmful, it only makes sense that eating those foods will also harm us! Sadly, most foods in the supermarkets in the US have genetically modified ingredients in them. I assume the same is true in Canada. And Here is MoreThe above poster is absolutely correct! Look what they have done with chicken and beef; loaded with hormones, so my thoughts are that the U.S. and Canada are worried about the over-weight population, but it's our own governments that allow hormones in our foods not to mention hidden fats and sugars. Genetically modified food certainly is not better for you and it's wise to read your labels, or if in doubt when buying especially meat, ask the butcher (by law they have to tell you the truth.) We have wild Salmon in Canada and then Farmed Salmon and we are fighting against having Farmed Salmon and dread the thought of some of them getting loose and setting off a catastrophe with Wild Salmon. Most of us refuse to buy it. One large food chain was selling Farmed Salmon as Wild Salmon and got caught and heavily fined. And Here is Still More

We continue to apply European standards to all world crop manipulation despite the fact that it has been going on for centuries. In Western countries 1% of the population is engaged or attached to agriculture. In certain African countries that figure is 80% and still 20% of that population starve. Bananas are their only form of agriculture and are effected by a deadly rust which can be fixed by inserting a rice gene. The alternative remedy is to use gigantic quantities of herbicide at a price that is beyond the capacity of the people to pay. And don't think the bananas are like the ones we Westerners prefer, they have to be peeled like potatoes and stewed to make them barely palatable. Such differences indicate the already extensive genetic modification that has taken place over hundreds of years. The word "harmful" is often used emotively to engender fear but the failure to modify crops also has harmful effects, it is simply that unmodified crops are more noticeable in Africa than in Canada where there are more alternative foods. It is interesting that the anti-vaccination lobby has an interest in genetic modification, the source of all vaccines, which, along with the discovery that cooking raw food was healthier, brought man out of the dark-ages.

GM plantations in African research plantations have the usual barbed wire around them, but NOT to guard against anti-GM invaders, it is to stop the locals from stealing the rust resistant experimental crop. Once again, the motivation is different.

We in the West have the luxury to reject such modifications and yet bananas and strawberries such as we know and love, came from this same genetic modification, except it was done blind-folded. To say that genetically modified food is not recommended anywhere in the world is a down-right untruth. Apart from the African situation I have mentioned, people have been eating genetically modified foof for centuries. The common potato is one example.

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Genetically modified food is not recommended anywhere in the world for we don't know what kind of diseases they may cause on human genes in the long run. Almost all the farmers anywhere in the world would opt for organic farming which deliver not only good nutrients in the crop but also they were grown in the natures wild. A little bit of fertilizer is good to use otherwise it is important that man doesn't change the natures balance and act god at least in fields of agriculture and nutrition.

Answer 2

This question is misleading in that it assumes genetically UNmodified 'food' of any kind is available. Ever since man began husbandry of domesticated animals and the cultivation of food crops, he has selected the most fruitful, hardy, shortest growing season, durable in transit, etc., etc., etc. varieties and chosen them to create the best crop available. Just to 'pick' one case in point, that of the apple; the varieties available today, most commonly red delicious for eating and granny smith for cooking, were created by cross-breeding early in the 20th. century. Orchardists discovered they could cross varieties and create crossbreds that would in turn breed true. Some crosses were unsuccessful, in that they'd not breed true or would mule out as sterile. Even the seeds chosen to plant in gardens are the result of, sometimes, decades of experimentation in 'genetic modification'. If you're curious about how 'genetic modification' has prevented the death by starvation of billions of people, please treat yourself to the story of how Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug "The Man Who Fed The World" saved most of the population of the tropics by 'genetically modifying' dwarf wheat from the link listed below. ___________________________________________________________________ I don't think anyone should pick genetically modified food. Too many unknowns. It may be that one day, GMF will be ruled safe for the planet, but, until then, it is merely an experiment. Experiment on yourself, not on the general public.