GM foods

[Marian Fricano]

     Genetically modified food is more complex than merely tinkering with the genes of plants.  What hybridizers have been doing for centuries is to crossbreed closely related species.  Genetic engineering, as in introducing a pesticide gene into soybeans, is quite another matter.  I just attended a presentation by our university that featured 3 proponents and one detractor.  My eyes were opened wide to the enormous amount of money that is being spent to convince people to buy GM foods.  The thrust is on marketing the products by avoiding telltale words.  The lone panelist with another view merely emphasized the need for congressional oversight to ensure proper testing and labelling for the public.  If you think GM foods are just as fine as natural selection aided by enlightened cross-pollentation, I suggest you start investigating this mega-business in earnest.  The future may hold no obvious need for entomologists!!!  I'm sure there will always be bugs, but maybe only super bugs that have evolved to eat BT corn, etc., not beneficial bugs, let alone butterflies and moths.  Yeah, this is over the top, but how over the top???
Marian