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Genetically modified foods, the title alone makes you cringe. As a biologist myself I have an excellent understanding of how these products can be altered to grow what is seen by industry as a better product. For the average consumer in the western world it is supposed to mean that the cost of foods will be cheaper and more readily available. But what is the real cost of these seemingly minor genetic alterations?

The truth is we will probably never know for years to come if there is any drastic effect on us or our environment. It has only been a few years since the results of the first GM crop trials in the UK, the results were in many cases what you would expect. A drop in the numbers of bees and other insects around where these crops where bring grown and it turn a probable reduction in food for plants or other small animals that fed on these insects.

If you do take a drive into the countryside during summer months it is not unusual to see fields upon field of fluorescent yellow flowers. Oil seed rape is now a major crop grown by farmers because of the high revenue generated. It is understandable; farmers are now being severely undercut when selling their produce to supermarkets. If they are given the opportunity to increase profit by using a GM crop resistant to pests then many would take that choice. The more we consume GM foods the less choice we may have over what is GM and what is not. We do not yet fully know the consequences of eating these plants.

Oil seed rape is a highly profitable crop, 30 years ago was almost unknown in the UK. Now its yellow glow can be seen in many a field and alarmingly in a lot of places outside the field where it was never intended to be sown. This must ring alarm bells somewhere, one crop may not be GM but another one might. Is it right that we are releasing GM plants into the environment? Maybe not by choice but carried by the birds or bees. One study in 2003 found that potentially GM pollen could be carried 16 miles by bees fertilizing other plants thought to be too far away. What if by cross pollination these genes were to end up in the environment? Will it still be possible to find organic foods and unadulterated crops ?

There is also the question of how good these GM products are, being GM does not necessarily mean that no chemicals are used in farming. Plants could be made resistant to certain environmental attacks but would include a gene resistant to a specific weed killer allowing the farmer to kill any weeds that come up with the crop with copious amounts of the stuff. There are so many questions still to answer and to ask. While governments are being pushed by industry to grow these products the only way we as consumers can have our say is not to buy them.

Learn more about this author, Catherine M.
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