Is it safe for consumption??

There is now a worrying body of scientific evidence from controlled animal studies carried out in many countries and by different parties (Govt, academic, independent and company studies) that demonstrates that GMOs can cause a wide range of serious unexpected health impacts. During studies with lab rats fed on GM, evidence linked GM with many adverse health impacts like stunted growth, impaired immune systems, bleeding stomachs, misshapen cell structures in different organs, lever and kidney lesions, reduced digestive enzymes, inflamed lung tissue, higher offspring mortality etc.

How to make a GM Crop

Scientists take genes from one organism and insert them into the genome of another organism during the process of Genetic modification. There are two ways in which they go about inserting a foreign gene into a plant cell. The first method is more in the style of cowboys. They take a Gene-Gun with a golden pellets and shoot the gene from an unrelated organism into the cell of the plant, although without the accuracy of cowboys. The second method is more in the spirit of viruses. They insert the foreign gene into a bacteria or a virus and use it to infect the plants cell to enter it.

The idea is to provide the plant with certain desired novel characteristics. Such as herbicide tolerance or production of certain toxins that can kill harmful pests. But, as we can see, the technology is not reliable at the moment.

What is Genetic Engineering

The process of taking a gene from one organism and inserting it into the genome of another unrelated organism to give it certain new traits is called GM. Genes can be found in the nucleus of every cell in all living organisms and are the very building blocks of life. They decide the characteristics, structure, growth and behaviour of all organisms, including us. They play the critical role of passing on genetic information from one generation to the other. If you are tired of people telling you how you resemble your parents, you can blame genes for that. In the 1970s, some clever scientists figured out that they could transfer genes of one species into the genome of another and that got them excited. What if we were to insert spider genes into the genome of goats? May be the goat milk would contain spider web protein? What if we were to insert cow genes into the genome of pigs? May be they would develop cowhides? And that’s how the whole genetic experiment began.

'The ability to introduce alien genes into a genome is an impressive technological manipulation but we remain too ignorant of how the genome works to anticipate all of the consequences, subtle or obvious, immediate or long-term, of those manipulations'.