Genetically modified foods can be described as "untimely". In recent years, with the emergence of a series of incidents such as mad cow disease, dioxin pollution, foot-and-mouth disease and bird flu, people all over the world have paid unprecedented attention to food safety. Without knowing much about genetically modified food, many people have instinctive prejudice against it, so that rejection is normal. However, there is no need to talk about genetically modified foods.
Genetically modified food is a kind of food in which foreign genes are added or the original genes are removed by genetic technology. For example, a gene in arctic fish has anti-freezing effect, and scientists extracted it and implanted it into tomatoes, thus creating new varieties of cold-resistant tomatoes.
From 193, when the world's first genetically modified food was put on the American market, the number of genetically modified foods consumed by more than 200 million consumers in the United States increased to nearly 4,000, and there has not been an unsafe incident of genetically modified foods so far. On the other hand, the safety record of some non-GM foods is not satisfactory. Traditional crops are threatening people's health because of the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers.
Nevertheless, consumers in many countries still have doubts about genetically modified foods. The survey shows that 70% of Europeans don't want to eat genetically modified food. A recent survey in Canada also shows that 92% people are still worried about the possible harm of genetically modified foods.
Many people worry that after eating genetically modified foods, the genes of animals and plants will be transferred to the human body. Actually, this is a misunderstanding. Almost any food contains genes. Regardless of the origin of the gene, the genetic material DNA that constitutes the gene will be decomposed by enzymes after entering the human body, and will not bring foreign genetic information into the human genome. Experts believe that the safety of genetically modified foods is guaranteed, because they must undergo strict inspection before they are put into the market.
People are also afraid that genetically modified foods will destroy the ecology. For example, the foreign genes in transgenic crops are mainly herbicide-resistant, disease-resistant and insect-resistant genes, which may be transferred to adjacent wild crops with pollen, resulting in strong resistance of weeds in nature; At the same time, insect-resistant transgenic technology may not only kill beneficial insects, but also make pests more resistant to drugs and become more difficult to kill. But many scientists believe that with the deepening of scientific research, these problems are expected to be solved.
As a cutting-edge biological new technology, transgenic technology has great potential in increasing grain yield, reducing pesticide use and producing more nutritious and healthy food. Now the crops improved by genetic engineering have many characteristics, such as drought resistance, cold resistance, salt tolerance and disease resistance, which are better than ordinary crops.
Because of this, all countries are stepping up the research and development of transgenic technology, and genetically modified crops are gradually promoted around the world. According to the statistics of "International Agricultural Biotechnology Application Access Service", the global planting area of genetically modified crops increased by 20% in 2004 compared with 2003. At present, there are 14 countries with an area of more than 50,000 hectares of genetically modified crops, of which 72% of genetically modified products are concentrated in the United States. Genetically modified products account for about 35% of American agricultural and food exports, and the annual export value is about 654.38+0.2 billion US dollars. It can be said that genetic modification is quietly triggering an "agricultural revolution", and those countries that started early will undoubtedly be in the leading position.
Developing transgenic technology is the requirement of the times and the necessity of scientific development. Some experts pointed out that concerns about genetically modified foods need to be faced squarely, and the safety and ecological impact of genetically modified foods need to be further studied, but we should treat genetically modified foods with a scientific and rational attitude instead of simply saying "no". In the long run, it is unwise to take an extreme attitude towards a new technology, but to look at and solve the problems in the field of transgenic technology with a development perspective, so that this new technology can benefit mankind to the greatest extent.
Question 2: How to treat genetically modified food correctly? Genetically modified food is neither an angel nor a devil. It is the inevitable product of the development of human science and technology. Just like nuclear power generation technology, the advantage of nuclear energy utilization is clean and cheap, but once it is out of control, it will lead to greater disasters. Humans can't stop developing nuclear technology because of its danger, but find a reliable scheme for safe operation through the lessons of nuclear accidents.
Similarly, genetically modified food raw materials are characterized by high yield, low cost and few diseases.
Any science and technology, since its advantages are obvious, is bound to have the same amount of defects. According to farmers in Northeast China, after pigs and chickens ate genetically modified food, the litter size and egg laying rate decreased. I asked him again, which of the piglets and chicks after delivery has better disease resistance than those who don't eat genetically modified food? He looked blank and said that no one had made such a comparison.
Through such an example, it shows that most people in China use the same way to judge the quality of transgenic technology, and will not confirm whether other people's conclusions are reliable.
According to this truth, some people say that after eating genetically modified foods, people's pregnancy rate will also decrease. So, is the baby with low pregnancy rate less likely to suffer from congenital genetic diseases than other babies, or will the IQ of the next generation be higher after eating genetically modified food? It will take a long time to prove.
If so, wouldn't it be a missed opportunity for people to reject genetically modified foods? In fact, people can't accurately predict the future, but the future development will certainly be more beneficial to human beings.
In the past, there were many old comrades who came into contact with the war years, and their stories left me with an unsolved mystery. At that time, the more timid the soldiers were, the higher the death rate was. On the contrary, those brave soldiers who are not afraid of death have a high survival rate. With the accumulation of combat experience, they gradually leave the front line, which is another matter.
In short, when we are not sure about the future results of genetically modified things, we take a positive attitude and have a spirit of not being afraid of death like a veteran. Anyway, people's life span is less than 30,000 days, and it doesn't matter to reduce 1%.
Question 3: What do you think of transgenic technology and genetically modified food 1? Transgenic technology is a major breakthrough in biotechnology and will have a great impact on the future of mankind. These influences may be a double-edged sword.
2. Genetically modified food is the application of transgenic technology in breeding technology, which has great influence on agricultural progress.
3. On the premise of safety evaluation, genetically modified food is very beneficial to human beings, which may solve the problem of food shortage, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and is beneficial to the environment.
Question 4: What do you think of genetically modified foods? In fact, gene recombination in nature has never stopped. The common grain planted by human beings today is the result of natural selection and artificial selection for thousands of years. When we eat these foods, we eat the disease-resistant genes and other genes of the wild relatives of this food, which is not realized by ordinary people. Traditional cross breeding will introduce thousands of new genes, many of which are unknown to human beings and do not know what the consequences will be. However, transgenic technology only adds one or two new genes with known characteristics to the crop varieties that have been planted in a large area, so the efficiency of cultivating new varieties is higher and the risk is not necessarily greater than that of traditional breeding. It is reported that there are nearly 4,000 kinds of genetically modified foods on the American market, including baby food, which is eaten by 200 million people. In recent ten years, there are few reports about the safety of genetically modified foods. Up to now, the commercialization area of genetically modified crops in the world has reached tens of millions of hectares, and there has not been a clear environmental safety problem.
Transgenic technology is a new frontier biotechnology, which has great potential in increasing grain yield, reducing pesticide use and producing more nutritious and healthy food. The public is mainly worried about being misused. Some scholars believe that, like any food, the safety of genetically modified food needs to be treated with caution and strict management, and the long-term impact of genetically modified crops on the ecological environment needs more follow-up research. In the face of genetically modified food, what we need is a strict food safety control system to stop the unauthorized addition of genetically modified food ingredients in time. In addition, we should also have a rigorous scientific attitude and not unilaterally exclude genetically modified products.
/From club.china/, China Net Community
Question 5: How to treat the transgenic technology of genetically modified food correctly? Like hybridization and mutation breeding, it is only a biotechnology. Any technology is neutral, and there is no difference between good and bad.
However, products developed through technology have both advantages and disadvantages. For example, nuclear fission technology can be used to build nuclear power plants for the benefit of mankind, and it can also be used to make nuclear weapons to destroy the world. Technology is innocent, in the final analysis, it is still a human problem.
The same is true of genetic modification. Some products developed by transgenic technology may meet the expectations of researchers, while others may be unqualified and become toxic and harmful products. This requires enterprises to strictly abide by laws and regulations and prohibit unqualified products from entering the market; But it is more necessary to strengthen supervision to prevent some unscrupulous enterprises from putting harmful products on the market for profit.
The biosafety assessment of genetically modified crops in China is mainly undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Food and Drug Administration.
How to treat a single genetically modified product mainly depends on whether you believe in the credibility of the four ministries in the State Council.
If you believe that the four ministries can strictly follow the Regulations on the Safety Management of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms, the Measures for the Safety Evaluation of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms and the Measures for the Hygienic Management of Genetically Modified Foods, then you can safely eat genetically modified foods that are legally circulated in the market.
If you don't believe that the four ministries can strictly examine genetically modified products in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, then you are unlikely to believe that all genetically modified foods on the market must be safe, so naturally try not to choose genetically modified foods.
Question 6: What do you think of genetically modified food? The article published in Nature rejected genetically modified food in Europe.
Why don't Europeans and Americans eat? Because no one wants to be a mouse until they know whether it is harmful for a long time.
Americans don't eat genetically modified organisms, and it is the general trend to buy organic (that is, domestic standard organic). They have never seen genetically modified wheat because their food is mainly made of flour. If there were, the Americans would have rebelled long ago. Some people say that genetic modification is widely used in the United States, yes, it is, but they are used in soybeans and corn. Rape. Soybean, rape and corn can all be used to extract oil, and oil is relatively better than toxic protein. Corn is mainly used to make fuel ethanol and feed animals. I've never seen anyone eat corn as a staple food.
The technology applied this time:
1. The difference between species is not whether they look alike, but whether their genomes are the same or different.
2. Transgene is different from hybridization. Hybridization is to fuse the excellent genes that originally existed in rice from generation to generation, concentrate them on a certain offspring, and use this offspring as seeds for cultivation. Generally speaking, the father wants a child with double eyelids and big earlobes, but he is not, so he must find a wife with double eyelids and big earlobes, so that his children can inherit the advantages of his wife. But the premise is that they belong to the same genus, that is, they are all people. The offspring of hybrid rice will always be rice.
3. Transgene is to randomly insert genes that don't belong to you into your genome, just like cutting a piece of rope and adding a piece of wire to express the protein represented by this wire. Therefore, transgenic rice has been out of the category of rice. An example is as follows: If someone wants to have a tail, he can insert a gene to promote the growth of the tail into his genome and choose children with long tails among his offspring. Because gene insertion is random, it is not necessarily inserted into the sequence we know clearly, nor is it necessarily inserted into the gene fragment. The consequence is that this gene will affect the expression of other genes. For example, the tail is not long and the legs are long. It is also possible that a long tail and a long hand are mixed together, and the tail is not like a tail and the hand is not like a hand. Sometimes people say that soybean oil is not as fragrant as before. Of course, the inserted gene fragments will affect the expression of flavor genes. But what if it affects the overexpression of toxic genes? When the kidney and liver have problems, you don't even know that it comes from genetically modified oil.
4. the problem of seeds, there is no doubt that seeds are to be bought. Is the seed safe? Some people may say that seed companies will sort to ensure the "long tail", which is simply impossible. If so many rice seeds are sequenced, all of them are genomes, he will have nothing. Whether it is bad or not depends on your luck. But this bad seed may bring serious ecological consequences and may become a super weed. Do seeds cost money? A few years ago, I might have wanted to make you addicted. No, wait until you are extinct, then buy mine. Hehe, I won't be hungry if the price increase is not negotiable. If you import, global food prices will go up, which will also kill you. I know this best in America. Some magazines only need to be subscribed for one year for free, and the internet access fee or cheap mobile phone fee will be surprisingly high after one year. Of course, you don't have to use this, but is it okay not to eat?
5. Biological function: China people are different from other races because of their unique genes. If this rice-labeled BT protein has a unique effect on China people and attacks a weakness of China people, but other races (whites and blacks) don't, is it also a biological weapon? There is no need to harm people, and there is no need to prevent people. After going abroad for several years, I have never seen foreigners as enthusiastic as China people. Despise, everywhere. Even black people bully yellow people.
6. protein. Some people say it is egg white, so it doesn't matter. But BT protein is toxic to some organisms, see below:
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt, formerly known as Suli bacteria) is a gram-positive bacterium. Δ-toxin secreted by Bacillus thuringiensis, encoded by cry gene, has insecticidal activity and is very destructive to Lepidoptera (such as moths and butterflies), Diptera (such as flies and mosquitoes) and Coleoptera (beetles). By inserting this gene into rice genome and expressing BT protein, transgenic rice can be obtained artificially and pests can be killed theoretically. However, many studies have found that experimental mice have adverse reactions, including kidney, liver, reproduction and nervous system. After three generations, the reproductive ability of mice is basically lost. Protein is actually a foreign antigen, which can trigger an immune response, just like someone is allergic to it. Some of these systems ... > >
Question 7: How to treat the long-term natural development in the era of genetically modified food-unnecessary!
What if the present is considered inevitable? How can we rule out people who are eager for quick success and instant benefit bragging under the banner of science?
In addition, Einstein famously said:
In terms of reason and understanding, anyone who pretends to be an authority will surely collapse in God's joke!
Question 8: How to treat the safety of genetically modified food? It is generally believed that genetically modified food has not been found to be harmful to human body, at least most people in academic circles think it is safe. But when it comes to food, many non-professionals often have other opinions. It can also be said that people use fear to promote their views. After all, people are more likely to reject genetically modified foods than to recognize them. But in the future, with the increase of the world population and the decrease of cultivated land, it is necessary to vigorously promote genetically modified food.
Question 9: How do you think it is better not to eat genetically modified food? A fear of new things is just like the fear of taking photos and repairing railways in the late Qing Dynasty. Judging from their circle of friends, the reasons they used to oppose genetic modification were either nonsense, rumors or unscientific experimental methods, all of which were refuted one by one. I don't want to understand, I don't want to understand, and I can't understand the principle of transgenic technology, but I can't come up with any reason to object. Only one sentence is wonderful, just like believing in feudal superstition.