- the chemicals used

The process of making the GM plant, including the chemicals used, does not pass onto the plant, nor any seed derived from that plant. The only thing that is permanent is the DNA change itself. People normally eat vast amounts of DNA from all classes of organisms in their food each year. Every plant contains 30,000-50,000 genes; if you eat a mixed salad that would mean consuming somewhere between 100.00 and 200,000 different plant genes! We even digest human DNA because it is released from the dead cells in our digestive system.

- cross-contamination

Foods from genetically modified plants are processed in exactly the same way as other foods. Since the food industry has very sophisticated processes in place to test quality continuously, any contamination would immediately be detected and the problem remedied.

- additives

No additives are involved.

- mutations

Hundreds of crop varieties have been modified in conventional breeding using mutation induced by chemicals or radiation and we frequently buy foods derived from them; it has been estimated that 70-90% of all our existing food has such a mutational event in its history.

Moreover, all living creatures are naturally subject to random and spontaneous mutation. The process of genetic modification can sometimes cause mutations, but these are tested for and, if necessary, the affected plants are eliminated during the testing phase, which takes several years before any new crop variety is approved.

- altering the basic structure of things?

A GM plant has been altered usually by introducing one or two 'foreign' genes into an organism that already contains between 30-50,000 genes of its own. We eat such foreign genes every day of our lives when we eat our daily meals. There is no change in the plant's basic structure and it looks and behaves in every way like the one from which it came, except for the intended new quality.

<<<back