Genetic Engineering in Crops - Threat to food security?

Replies

• 

  Ramani Aswath

  Nature does its own GE by mutagens and teratogens not to mention evolution.
  ezinearticles.com
  
  Are we not indulging in this when we cross pollinate two plants of the same species to produce new versions that will produce different flowers? This is called hybridization.
  Hybrid %28Biology%29
  
  Sometimes activists tend to dramatise and oversimplify things to take extreme positions. 'Give a dog a bad name and hang it' is the rule. Media gets into the act and things get out of hands.
  I am all for protecting the environment and prevent exploitation of the unsuspecting for corporate gains. It does not mean that all GE is bad.
  My suggestion is that we should take notice, but form our own considered opinion on these issues without automaticallly accepting whatever is put up.
• 

  nitesh mishra

  sir but i have read that one of the purposes of genetic engineering is to increase yield and produce high nutritious food ,if it affect our food chain so adversely then whats the use of it ?can you explain .
• 

  Ramani Aswath

  nitesh mishra

  sir but i have read that one of the purposes of genetic engineering is to increase yield and produce high nutritious food ,if it affect our food chain so adversely then whats the use of it ?can you explain .

  I am not against GE. It is possible that commercial agencies engineer a self destruct mode into the seeds so that the seeds from the parent GE modified plant will not reproduce true to type. Even worse, if the insects doing the pollination from the flowers of a GE field to a neighbouring non GE field, the seeds from this field may not germinate. Some small farmer , who is unable to afford the GE seeds will get affected badly.
  I am not saying that it always happens. It is not good if it does. What happens in nature is that the genes fittest to survive remain. Over many iterations a stable type has evolved. Trouble comes if we interfere with this time evolved balance.