Vegetable Intolerance

Genetic Engineering in Agriculture Ch. 2

Since health is a big interest of mine, I chose to blog about chapter 2, titled 'Genetically Modified Crops and Human Health'. Miguel Altieri addresses the concerns about if genetically engineered crops are equivalent to natural breeds.

Altieri puts a large emphasis on how genetic engineering techniques of putting 'alien' rDNA' into an incompatible species is a completely forced practice, compared to conventionally bred plants, which are the result of putting very similar plants in close proximity sothey will reproduce sexually or asexually on their own.

If you're at the grocery store, and you pick up an carrot, you won't be able to tell if it's genome was engineered or the result of natural reproduction. If you had one of each next to each other , they could look exactly the same. These two carrots have been labeled 'substantially equivalent', but there is no scientific evidence supporting equivalence. There is concern that genetically engineered (GE) food could contain foreign substances introduced during the alteration process. And since no scientific testing can prove that there weren't any critical changes that could cause adverse health affects, the consumers have basically become guinea pigs.

If GE is proven less healthy, that doesn't only mean having less nutrition. It could also be referring to possible new proteins that could cause allergic reactions in humans, a much more serious health concern.


??Questions??
1.) In vitro testing was mentioned, but do GE foods also undo in vivo testing for allergenics?

2.) Has there ever been an incident where a widely distributed GE food did cause severe allergic reactions?