Environmental activists, religious organizations, public interest groups, professional associations and other scientists and government officials have all raised concerns about GM foods, and criticized agribusiness for pursuing profit without concern for potential hazards, and the government for failing to exercise adequate regulatory oversight. It seems that everyone has a strong opinion about GM foods. Even the Prince of Wales have expressed their opinions. Most concerns about Genetically
Modified Foods fall into three categories: environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns, which brings me to my first contention. Contention 1: Environmental Hazards.
In 2012 a lab study was published in nature showing that pollen from B.t.
corn caused high mortality rates in monarch butterfly caterpillars. Monarch caterpillars consume milkweed plants, not corn, but the fear is that if pollen from B.t. corn is blown by the wind onto milkweed plants in neighboring fields, the caterpillars could eat the pollen and die. Even though the Nature study was not conducted under natural field conditions, the results seemed to support this viewpoint. Unfortunately, B.t. toxins kill many species of insect larvae indiscriminately; it is not possible to design a
B.t. toxin that would only kill cropdamaging pests and remain harmless to all other insects. This study is being
reexamined by the USDA,
the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other nongovernment research groups, and preliminary data from new studies suggests that the original study may have been wrong in some ways. This topic is the subject
