Organisms with an artificially modified genotype are considered genetically modified. GMO products are created to reduce the cost of nutrition for people and animals. In Russia, 17 types of GM lines of five products are allowed for use - soy, corn, potato, rice, sugar beet.
Disputes over the safety of genetic engineering products at times resemble the information war for the minds and stomachs of consumers. Opinions of scientists and researchers are sometimes opposite. Who to believe? Is it right to call GMO products harmful in the absence of serious large-scale research?
What arguments for are worthy of attention?
- All agricultural crops of plants and animal breeds are the result of human intervention in the genome of wild crops and breeds (mules have been used by humans for centuries). Genetic engineering is excellent in that it changes the genome purposefully.
- Our cells are impervious to foreign genes. In the daily diet of a person contains a huge number of genes. And from the fact that we eat, for example, fish, our gills do not grow.
- Genetic engineering allows you to significantly diversify the diet, to achieve the best taste and nutritional properties of products. In medicine, there is even a special industry - gene therapy, which improves health by enriching the diet with new cultures.
- GMO products are cheaper than traditional ones and are able to solve the problem of food shortages in the face of growing world population and increasing natural disasters.
- Traditional crop production technologies in today's
conditions actively use plant protection products, including pesticides and nitrates. GMO products are initially resistant to weeds and pests, that is, grown "without chemistry." - Millions of people have been using GMO products for 15 years (in the United States, the share of transgenic products today reaches 80%, labeling is optional), with no side effects.
Opponents of the spread of genetic modification products speak of serious risks to human health and the environment:
- Foods containing GMO products are potentially allergenic due to the synthesis of new, foreign proteins. When eating them, metabolic disorders and a decrease in immunity are also likely.
- The unstable genotype of transgenic plants can lead to changes in their chemical composition. Evidence is known that in the process of metabolism, toxins are formed in them, a thousand times higher than those in natural cultures.
- There is a risk of uncontrolled spread of GMOs in the environment. Some types of plants of natural selection can gradually disappear, and after this, changes in the food chains of animals and entire ecosystems are possible.
- The experiments conducted on small rodents prove the suppression of reproductive function due to the use of transgenic products in the second generation (mules, by the way, are infertile).
According to the legislation in force in Russia, the manufacturer is obliged to indicate the presence of GMOs on the product labeling if their content is above 0.9%. If you do not want to eat transgenic products, avoid the presence of E322 lecithin, cornmeal and starch, modified starch, hydrolyzed vegetable protein in the composition of food .