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Genetically Engineered Crops Improvement or Potential Disaster

kill a monarch larva is unlikely on milkweed plants more than just a few feet away from flowering corn, and pollen is readily blown or washed away by wind and rain (“Poison Plants?”). Recent field studies have confirmed these predictions, and even shown that monarch larvae are more threatened by sprayed pesticides than by biotech pollen (Steyer). However, this is not to say that other animals might not be harmed by bioengineered plants, or that there might not be other negative consequences of using GM crops.The counterpart to the monarch investigation with regard to human safety was British researcher Arpad Pusztai’s study, which he claimed showed that genetically engineered potatoes are poisonous to rats. After feeding them modified potatoes for 110 days, the equivalent of ten human years, he found that their growth was stunted and they were more vulnerable to disease than normal rats (“Poison Plants?”). However, when other scientists went over his data they found no significant correlation between eating the GM potatoes and health problems in the rats. It seems that rats dislike raw potatoes, which means that Pusztai couldn’t get them to eat enough food. This, combined with the fact that the rats were getting no other essential nutrients, meant that they were suffering from malnutrition. In addition to suffering from undernourishment, the rats were also poisoned by natural toxins found in all raw potatoes. While Pusztai’s study was discounted, it still serves well as an introduction to the concept that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately test genetically modified food for safety (MacKenzie).If it were possible to thoroughly test genetically engineered crops for safety, there would probably already be a law requiring testing. When a normal additive is being analyzed, the approach is to keep feeding it to a rat until the rat dies. However, this approach doesn’...

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