Their advantages are visible, but the consequences are unpredictable "Oh, you will finish badly …" - wise adults exclaimed thousands of times to their naughty children. And as if they were looking into the water. So modern scientists "played out" - they created transgenes on their heads, they are genetically modified organisms, they are GMOs, and now they are thinking and wondering what this could lead to
They look very tempting - they are clean, even, like a selection, potato tubers, mouth-watering popcorn, juicy meat. Not only that, new superfoods are often cheaper than regular ones. What is hidden behind the frightening name "genetically modified" or "GM foods"? These are products obtained from organisms, mainly plants, in whose DNA a special gene, not given to them by nature, is introduced. In the process of development, this gene endows the "host" with new properties. For example, vegetables are stored longer and do not deteriorate, cows produce milk of high fat content. For the first time, a gene transfer experiment was carried out in 1983. Now the possibilities of genetic engineering are almost endless. You can create absolutely fantastic products if you wish.
Two rings - two ends …
So, the advantages of using genetically modified organisms seem to be obvious, which cannot be said about the consequences. That is why the debate around transgenes does not subside. Proponents believe that DNA from genetically modified organisms is just as safe as any other DNA found in food. We eat pork, and fortunately no one has turned into a pig yet, at least in the genetic sense of the word. In order to exclude unpredictable consequences, such products are strictly controlled. Finally, there is not a single real, proven fact of harm from transgenic food. No one got sick from this, did not die. While. But this is what the opponents of GMOs are mostly using for the time being. After all, only enterprising fortune-tellers know about what will happen in 40-50 years.
The birth of a monster
The most sensational publication about GM was the report on the study of Irina Ermakova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, according to which more than half of the offspring of female rats, to whose feed GM-soy was added, died, and some of the surviving rats turned out to be underdeveloped. In addition, several females were found to have impaired maternal instinct. Other scientists from the United States have found that eating genetically modified potatoes leads to severe pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract in animals.
We vote for:
• A number of influential Russian academics advocate for GM products. So, the director of the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Viktor Tutelyan, claims that their harm to the human body has not been proven, but there are opportunities for increasing yields.
• Avoiding GM foods is primarily beneficial for those who produce fertilizers, pesticides, preservatives, herbicides, antibiotics and anabolic steroids that remain in both plant and animal products and cause significant harm to health here and now, and not through supposed "several generations".
• Genetic information is contained in living cells in the form of a DNA molecule, which is destroyed after the death of the organism and cannot in any way affect the organism of the person who eats this product.
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We vote against:
• The effects of GM foods have not been studied, and this makes us wary. Reading, for example, "harmful" books, you will not die, and eating GMOs is unknown. It's just that not enough time has passed for this to be tested on generations. In addition, existing safety screening requirements are extremely inadequate and there is a significant risk that products hazardous to health will not be rejected.
• Genetically engineered foods do not have significant nutritional value and mainly serve commercial interests. But Michurin has not yet been canceled.
• The Academies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences warn that products from GM plants can have toxic, allergenic and even carcinogenic effects.
• Environmentalists have made suggestions about possible environmental complications of the transgenic boom. For example, the uncontrolled spread of potentially dangerous genes, including their transmission by bacteria and viruses.
• And finally, evolution in nature is a law, and our genetic engineering is an artificial lawlessness.
Meanwhile
• According to the results of last year, the acreage of GM crops in the EU countries increased fivefold - from 1,500 to 8,500 hectares of artificial crops.
• In 2000, Greenpeace USA published a list of companies using GM ingredients. Along with other products, it included the well-known chocolate products "Mars", "Snickers", "Twix", "Milky Way", soft drinks from "Coca-Cola", chocolate drink "Nesquik", rice "Ankle-Bens", Knorr sauces, Lipton tea, Parmalat cookies, Nestlé baby food and much more.
• The sunflower became the first honey plant to be killed by genetic engineering - now the bees just stick to it and die. Real buckwheat honey is also a huge rarity. He put his head on the block of genetically engineered rapeseed, soybeans almost died. Clover, apples, strawberries, etc. are next.
• In the US, almost every household eats modified foods.
Natalia PODOROGA and Efim SIMONOV