Recently I pointed out that people tend to rule in favor of something they don’t understand, as long as
it “sounds good”. The same holds for genetically modified foods or crops. I suppose there is something about “genetic modification” as a term that sounds scary to people, but what really disappoints me is the lack of curiosity as to what it really means.
What brought on this question, you may wonder? Well, believe it or not, but there are people who think that introducing a “novel gene” into a food we eat, i.e. genetically modifying the food, will cause that gene to be introduced into our DNA. In other words: they take the saying “you are what you eat” to an extreme and believe that the novel gene that keeps tomatoes from freezing will integrate in our own DNA and cause strange defects, or God forbid, cancer!
Considering the media tends to oversimplify things, but never really explain properly, let me take this opportunity to vent and educate! First of all, if DNA would be a ‘problem’ for us, then we would literally take up DNA from everything we eat. I.e. we would be producing cow and tomato proteins. Basically, DNA gets digested, like the rest of the food. The only standing issue with safety of any crop, or genetically modified food, is the question whether or not it contains a protein that can cause an allergic reaction in humans.
