[dragon_lord]

To add...

Another problem with GM foods is that it isnt required for food companies to label if their product have GM content (here anyway). So if someone is allergic to the component gene that has been added to a particular food and the person then buys a product with it in, they could end up dying from an allergic reaction. The thing here is how would anybody know what caused it? The product wasnt labelled, so how is it possible to tell how much of an effect GM foods are having on a population? Another problem is contamination of Non GM grains/etc after harvest. GM wheat could be added in with Non GM wheat unknowingly, then if someone eats it and gets sick it would be impossible to trace the cause.

Explaining Contamination better: With pollen producing crops such as canola insects and wind will move the seeds a considerable distance. Bees are known to travel up to several km to find pollen. So lets use a standard farm setup as an example: Ok lets say we have 2 farms seperated by a road. One farm has GM canola the other does not. Theres 25m between the 2 farms, not much at all. So along comes pollenation season. The bees, who live in a tree beside the road, go about their business of finding pollen unaware of what they are doing. One bee flies across to the GM farm and lands on some canola. Full the bee then flies back to the hive, but this time the bee flies over to the Non GM farm. Landing on Non GM canola the bee has just pollenated that canola plant, through the pollen that was stuck to its underbelly (how natural pollenation occurs). The GM supporters would have you believe that this cross pollenation is very minimal (less than 0.01% i think i heard), but what they fail to mention is that its compounded. Year after year more and more of the Non GM crop is contaminated, and what if there is another Non GM farm next to the first Non GM farm? The contamination would continue to spread, totally unstoppable. This is why it is impossible for GM and Non GM crops to exist in the same area/country. Contamination will occur.

What would happen if an organic farmer's crop was contaminated by a GM farmer's crop? Would the organic farmer be able to sue the GM farmer for compensation? So now the government passes legislation enforcing segregation of the two crops. Adding another cost to farmers. And theres the fact that the biotech companies own the GM seeds, so every year a GM farmer has to buy new seed. Instead of being able to take a cut from the previous years harvest and resow that.

GM crops are not wanted by alot of consumers (growing popularity of organic foods), the full effects of GM crops on people over long periods of time are not known, the benefit of decreased spraying needed is no better than the current setup (see above for why) and the benefit of GM do not out weigh the risks at this point in time (IMO). Farming is a marginal and unpredictable business (especially in this country) as it is with out all the extra costs encored through GM crops.

>I live on a farm btw