GM FOOD

Good Enough to Eat?
9 September 2003

	AWARE group spokesman Ben Aspinall and local lab technician Andy Brownlow
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Is GM food good enough to eat? The answer and indeed the problem is, we really don't know.

Ben Aspinall, local environmental campaigner and GM food critic, argues that until scientists have definite proof that GM products are safe and will not have any long-term negative effects, they should not be on offer to the general public. Indeed, much of the criticism surrounding GM food stems from the belief that genetic engineering is unnatural, "it will be a plant Armageddon, the logical result of tampering with the forces of creation. This whole process flies in the face of nature", says Aspinall.

However, local scientist Andy Brownlow argues that "tampering with nature" has been happening for centuries. "Surely farming has always been concerned with tampering with the forces of creation. Humans have always been modifying the genetic make-up of crop plants to provide tastier, more nutritious and more plentiful crops. Fertilisation, crop rotation, cross breeding are all traditional "unnatural" farming methods. In fact, it could be argued that cross breeding is simply a very crude form of genetic modification and can lead to the development of hybrid plants such as celery that burns the skin and potatoes that are toxic to humans.

It is true that, at this time, we do not know what risks, if any, are associated with genetically modified products. However, there are only three GM products which are currently available, all of which have been stringently tested over a long period before being offered to the general public. As yet, we have no evidence that GM products have any long lasting harmful effects on human health."