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Asked by Nickoname to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 10 Nov 2014.
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Marikka Beecroft answered on 10 Nov 2014:
GMOs are Genetically Modified Organisms. So far studies into GMOs and our health have seen no effect but it is complicated and people are still researching the issue.
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Robert Hampson answered on 10 Nov 2014:
GMO is a Genetically Modified Organism and it is a technical assignment made under UK and EU law. To be a GMO, an organism has been altered using modern scientific techniques in a laboratory.
GMOs have been assessed and regulated for many years and when cleared for human consumption they are considered to be safe. Its not like I could make a new kind of strawberry in my lab, think it tastes nice and then start selling it to everyone! Any given GMO could well be harmful, which is why there is considerable testing before they are allowed to go to market. There may be small long term health effects that cannot be seen inscientific studies, however, they are likely to be very minor!
For many millenia, humanity has been engaged in selective breeding (i.e. the more orange carrots were used to breed together to make next years crop of carrots). This is a primitive form of genetic modification, carrots used to be purple!
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Sally Cutler answered on 10 Nov 2014:
GMO’s are genetically modified organisms and they are not always harmful. When you think about it microbes are genetically modifying themselves naturally all the time by exchanging genetic material! Laboratory GMO work is used to breed more productive crops, animals that have natural resistance to infections etc. You can also get plants to produce vaccines so that you could eat a banana instead of having an injection! So as you can see, now all dangerous. Much of the news reporting gave a rather bias unfair opinion of GMO’s.
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Ceri Dare answered on 10 Nov 2014:
GMO is a genetically modified organism – this means that it has had its genes changed so it grows differently – like changing the plan before builders make a house.
They aren’t necessarily any more dangerous than any other plant or animal. I could genetically modify a potato so it is poisonous, but then I could also modify it to put extra vitamins in and make it more healthy. Many ‘natural’ things are dangerous, for example apple seeds have poisonous cyanide in.
Genetically modified organisms have to go through a lot of testing. I am not worried about the safety of GMOs. But I am sometimes worried about the behaviour of the companies which make them.
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Matt Bilton answered on 11 Nov 2014:
GMOs are organisms that have had their DNA altered by scientists. There are lots of reasons for doing this for food – making more healthy vegetables, or helping crops protect themselves against insects, cutting down on the use of pesticides. There is nothing specifically dangerous about eating a crop that has been genetically modified – humans have been selectively breeding crops for centuries, and this is a form of genetic modification. The way it is done now is just far more specific.
Another use of GMOs is in science research – making bacteria fluoresce under UV light for example. This is done by introducing a gene that encodes a fluorescent protein in the DNA of the organism.
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