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Week 9 [11.12 - 17.12.2017] GMO – an unfounded fear or a real danger?

Almost all of the food we consume is genetically modified. People have been doing it by pollination, which means the transfer of pollen from the flower of one plant to the flower of a plant having a different genetic constitution. But recently the genetically modified organisms have become controversial, because now it happens in labs. People tend to fear what they dont know, and being a regular person makes it impossible to investigate dangers connected to genetic modification on our own. We must rely on what we read in newspapers and on the Internet. But, again, we cannot always check whether what we read is true or not. So, what is the problem with the GMO? Is it a good thing or we should definitely stop modifying organisms in labs? What is your attitude towards genetic modifications of food? Please, watch the short video below and share your point of view.



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Comments

Unknown said…
Generally this is not an easy topic to take into consideration. I also think that normal person can’t definitely say whether we should stop modifying organisms or not because of lack of knowledge. Of course it sounds dangerous and we often think that it must be harmful for us but we rarely have pure evidences for it.
I think that my attitude is commonly known because I just don’t have enough knowledge so it is normal that I’m scared of unknown things and I often try to avoid it when possible. I’m used to buy food or other things with natural ingredients and without strange interference.
Zygmunt Z said…
I think I have seen somewhere this or similar article on this blog, but I might be wrong, of course..
Because the same video was posted last week I'll give the same answer:
The only thing I thought about during this video was how beautify it’s made! I love that all living beings are illustrated as birds. I think food with GMO have some good qualities and can be very helpful I do mind eating food that is highly processed.
Magdalena Popek said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Magdalena Popek said…
I believe most people think just like you. It's normal for us to be scared of the unnknown. But take into account most of the food nowadays is actually GMO, but done by cross-pollination, for example tomatoes, bananas, potatoes. I think we should not demonize GMO and give it a chance.
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, you have. Same with procrastination, TV series, and football. Happens ;) But it doesn't mean I'm not curious about your opinion on this topic.
Unknown said…
Nowadays GMO products are widespread on the market and we get used to buying them everyday. I don't find GMO food harmful for our health, because tonnes of pesticides are much more dangerous for us. I don't pay attention on the products marked with with a lable "No GMO", though some claim that these goods are more natural and healthier.
Yevhen Shymko said…
I never have fear for GMO products since I know how it work. It is scary for thous people who don't understand how it work and it okay for people to be afraid of things they don't understand. It helped us survive through out of the history. Thus media should do a better just to spread this information.
Vladlen Kyselov said…
I think that we will be able to see GMO negative effect only in 2-3 generations ahead. Because it is unknown, for example how can it influence our genetic system. As I know GMO effects everyone in a different way and it is supported not only but eating GMO products, but also by living in a bad polluted climate.
Marcin Mróz said…
I believe that a lot of people think that GMO is something bad and unhealthy, but this video shows that it's not true. Obviously, if it's based on facts. I must admit that I was one of these people, but this video changed my mind about GMO. It appears that we can take advantage of genetically modifiyng organisms to save our environment and improve world's economics. I think that, if it really doesn't harm our health, we should start using it.
Unknown said…
I think that GMO itself can be helpful, but many food companies may only use it as a tool to make bigger income without caring about people lives. If we have a control over something genetically modified than we should producing it. But I also think that we still need to do many researches in GMO field to fully understand how everything works.
I definitely disagree,that GMO is a good thing to use. The main reason why, that is non-natural! Even if you are going to use it, what is a chance of not getting illness after 5 or 20 years? How you can be sure for 100%? The video showed us that it is a not bad thing,but our previous generations could say another thing. Maybe after some time, we would think more about it,maybe we would eat only GMO products and feel great,but i'm not sure about it. Every 30 years, living threshold is getting lower and lower. So you really think,that GMO will make our life lasts longer?
Marcin Górski said…
I have the same opinion like week ago. I'm not a fan of GMO but I'm fine with that. It is very popular now, that people are shouting that there is nothing worse than GMO food! It is a kind of populism for me. I know that it isn't healthy in 100% but please, we should all keep a level head in this.
I don't pay attention for GMO when I'm buying food in the shop. I'm eating everything what I want. We should be reasonable and known that we can't die if we eat something made from GMO.
Unknown said…
In my experience what we see in the internet is sometimes wrong and not true. For example lately on my univeristy was some leaflet that stated that what we know from internet about atomic bomb in Fukushima is not true, and they are organizing some meeting to reveal the truth. I would share my opinion if it wasn't based only on facts from TV and internet.
Unknown said…
In my opinion GMO is the best way that people could choose right now. The amount of people on the world is still growing and then causes constantly increasing demand on food supply. Other methods used to increase food production cause negative effects on environment like bigger pollution. Of course GMO like any other branch science could be used as a weapon in case when plans could be creating toxics for humans. But when thats processing will be under control the GMO food will be only better. Right now opinion about GMO is divided and many countries are for and many are against, Poland is in the second group. Only social awareness could change that.
Foodocado said…
When I heard about GMO for the first time, I was negatively oriented. Now I believe there are more advantages in it than disadvantages. To be honest no one knows how it will affect the future generations.

I don't pay attention what product I am buying. I am no afraid of eating geneticly modified food. I eat everything I like :)
Unknown said…
There is not much to discuss about this topic. There are barely any research publications written about allegedly "negative" sides of GMO even though scientists have done extensive research about the topic. Because of GMO there aren't as many people starving around the world as there could be. We can't live without it. Even if it's not perfect I'd rather eat normally and continue living than starve and perish.
Unknown said…
As for the video- It showed us all the good that comes from GMO, and in fact there aren't any significant cons for it, except one- the monopoly of the GMO companies. Assuming that in the future it will be commonly used, its not a big deal, but otherwise it gives a nice backdoor for its producers to have power over what farmers plant.
For example, Monsanto, one of the biggest agricultural companies, sued farmers for reusing their seeds (i.e. seeds gathered from GMO crops):
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents
This is a threat that can't be ignored- while I agree that patents are useful, as they give the inventor the protection from competitors, who don't have to invest same amount of money on R&D, they can be, and are widely abused.
As for the food itself, its the same situation as with the vaccines- They help everyone live a better life, but of course there are some "freaks", who wan't to be all-natural.
I say - Go on, be 100% natural and get your plants "rekt" by some dumb pest, or life the rest of your life in "iron lung" thanks to Polio.
If we want to advance our race, we have to leave behind some of our "natural" parts- just as we did with riding horses and hunting game for driving cars and farms. Pure nature, while astonishingly beautiful, is also brutal and doesn't care about your plans- nobody has ever wondered what dinosaurs "have thought" on being wiped out by some space rock?
Unknown said…
I think that GMO is incomprehensible for a lot of people, but becasue of how it is show in TV they are afraid of it, for example commercial of eggs "there is no GMO" like if it was an advantage.
Almost everything has got its pros and cons and I believe that to discuss it you should be aware of both - to have got even a small knowlegde of topic, so it can be constructive instaed of repeating lies and making new.
Unknown said…
GMO... huge problem to solve. From one side it's good because it help people who are farmers because they don't need to fertilize to a large extent and spend money for that. What is more of course it hepls people who are starving. But from the other side our health loses.
I of course eat GMO food and i think that our organisms have adapted to it. But maybe not to this level so that every food we eat can be processed and good for us.
Imaging when we would change what and how many nutrition a plant contains. If we would raise the amount of important nutrition. The life of veganism would get much easier and maybe vegan is going to be more popular. Adding a slightly chance to reduce meat consumption.
Unknown said…
Almost everything we eat nowadays is GMO so we don’t really have a choice, do we? ;)
Taking advantage of GMO is great, producing more, healthier, more nutritious food is the way to go.
People are scared of what they don’t fully understand. That’s why I love videos like ones Kurzgesagt makes. That’s an amazing way to spread knowledge.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
I have no enaugh knowledge about GMO to consider if it has more adventages or disadventages. I'm little scared because I don't understand it but everything I can do is to believe that it's developing in the right way. I think that every part of science can improve our life but we have to keep distance and don't believe that everything we read about it is truth.
Unknown said…
It is said, that even eating bread can cause cancer. This is why I do not care that much about what it says on the box of the products I'm buying. It is hard to believe in any qualities. Even if something is labeled as non-GMO, we have no idea if it really is healthy. I know a story about a man, that opened an orchard near the place where I lived with my parents (just outside of Warsaw). His fruit were very expensive, sold as non-GMO and ECO. The funny part is, that the orchard began 10 metres from a highly populated road toward Krakow. Knowing how much pollution gets to the fruit I realised, that no matter how it's advertised doesn't mean it's healthy. Only way of getting good food right now is to either have someone trustworthy that has a farm, or have one yourself. Otherwise there is no way of knowing the quality of the food, which makes the sole fact if it's GMO or not totally irrelevant.
Wojtek Protasik said…
I think there are some advantages as disadvantages of GMO food. The big advantage of it is that it's an effective way to provide farmers larger profit while spending less resources and time as well. Another example is that it would lower the costs due to advanced crops so that could be a good solution for families that cannot afford food for everyday living. But we must consider also the disadvantages, which can overbalance the assets. From the human point of view the GMO food may be the main cause of many diseases or illnesses. For environment it can be a threat 'cause it's not the natural way the plants grow.
So by knowing that, i think it's quite a difficult and controversial topic. Some people may be just scared of GMO, however much food is already transformed in GMO so we don't really have a choice.
Unknown said…
I never have fear for GMO products. It does not make sense to me. Everyone should decide for themselves. To be honest I don't have an opinion about it. For me it looks like "a lot of talk about nothing". I don't pay attention what product I am buying.
With GMO or without. It doesn't matter to me. I don't care about that!
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, I agree. People are afraid of GMO while eating food with harmful substances.
Magdalena Popek said…
I think media are spreading the "bad GMO" myth because of more views. People prefere to listen to controversial news so they will more likely watch "the government allows growing GM crops and we all know GMO is bad" than "the government allows growing GM crops which will result in less pesticides used and more resistant crops".
Magdalena Popek said…
I am happy it changed your view on GMO! I like this video as it shows both good and bad sides of GM crops.
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, I agree. We never know how huge companies will use the technology for their own profit.
Jakub Lisicki said…
I'm not afraid of GMO products so far. That's because there isn't really a reliable way of knowing what the long-term effects of consuming these products are. Many people fear that it may be harmful, have many negative effects on their health, but there is no fast way to prove it. The only way of knowing how it really works is just waiting for any negative effects to occur - if there would be any. Even after that, we can't be really sure that it was really caused by the GMO.
I think that people who are afraid of GMO may avoid it, we live in times when consuming GMO isn't a necessity. If they would have to face either hunger or trying out something new, I would be really surprised if they'd choose the first option, though.
I’m 100% pro GMO. I think that people need better education on the topic, because they tend to be afraid of anything they don’t understand. They think that because it’s in some way artificial that it must be also harmful to their health.
Magdalena Popek said…
Basically almost all food we eat now is GMO but done by cross-pollination. "Natural" not always equals "good". Many poinsons are natural. And I hope you don't eat sweets as they also cannot be called "natural" ;)
Magdalena Popek said…
On the Internet you can find many scientific-based sources that are as tru as those from books in a library. The point is to be able to distinguish between good and bad source. For example use Google Scholar.

And when it comes to "revealing the only truth" - come on. It sounds for me like trying to make money on naive people. Just like selling them "the best vacuum cleaner you have ever had, now just for 800zł".
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, that's true. And the same people will eat, in some way artificial, chocolate bars, and that would be perfectly okay for them. And probably that chocolate bar will be, in long term, worse for their health than all the GMO they fear so much.
My opinion didn't change since when last time the topic was discussed - http://konwersatorium1-ms-pjwstk.blogspot.com/2017/12/week-8-0412-10122017-gmo.html?showComment=1512522228267#c6732120668824749052
Magdalena Popek said…
This is the biggest problem now - we cannot forsee the future consequences of eating GM food. But nothing bad happened so far.
Magdalena Popek said…
Anyway it would be nice of you to post the actual comment, not the link to it. What you did is rude.
Magdalena Popek said…
There will never be a solution 100% good. In massive crops growing we wll always have to choose less evil and when it comes to GMO I think it's just the best we can get now for a massive food production.
Magdalena Popek said…
I've heard about that situation with Monsanto. Big companies can even sue you if some of their seeds somehow (wind) are moved to you non-GM field and grown there among your crops. That's sick.
I don't get the "all-natural" movement. They think the nature will protect them? No, it won't. As it doesn't protect any wildlife. Nature is, as you said, brutal and if you want to live by its laws... Good luck. I wonder if those people leave in modern houses using all the advantages of technology. If yes - come on, that's not natural at all.
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, it is controversial as we still don't have all the information about it. I think in the future we will be able to actually know all the disadvantages of GMO and then decide to continue using it or come up with something else.
Magdalena Popek said…
If you cannot grow food yourself or check the conditions of growing you can't trust the products you buy. And if you don't decide to start growing your own food - you just have to start being okay with that. We all know income is all that matters now.
Magdalena Popek said…
I hate the fact comanies use this topic to increase their income. They know it's controversial, they know people fall for "natural" products, so they make the advantage of it.
Unknown said…
GMO as many other popular icons is a subject for discussion. As I believe and as I have seen from the video, such icons are created on purpose to make people talk about them and to either criticize them or think they are true.
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, I agree. Showing good and bad sides of a topic in one video is the best you can do! And they do it.
Unknown said…
The problem with the GMO boils down to education and is regular food eating effects are same as GMO food. I guess. I'm no expert by any means but all this ruckus around GMO is just trendy. I agree that most people even don't realize that they do consume GMO products on a daily basis. I don't mind it, I guess it's inevitable in the end given constant population growth. Let's use it to our benefit.
Problem with gmo comes down to peoples beliefs, and fears. We fear that what we eat will visibly affect our bodies, lifes and people around us. From that fear grows anger targeted towards at gmo. If we could we would blame everything at things not connected to us personally, or on things that we have no or little to no control of. I think GMO is good as long as we keep it at moderate percentage of our daily income. Humans have lived for thousands of years without it and survived i think we can do the same, but i also see the need for GMO. Over years we have developed many new allergies to different things and GMO is a solution to som of those nowadays. It is a good thing as long as we dont over do it.
I believe that GMOs are disgusting. As a cynical and calculating person, I understand why this is done. Perhaps many natural crops of grain or other products no longer exist. There are only genetically modified species. But now, when the influence of gene modification has already affected humanity to continue to develop it, it's just a crime. Although we will not rule out the conspiracy theory. Maybe someone just does not need so many people on the planet.
Unknown said…
I think that gmo not good for people and insect. It is food artifical, if they kill insects that can help people, it does't make sense. I really like eating healthy food. My brain works very well when I eat a natural dinner. I dont support modifying food, first food maybe next pepole ? I dont feel the need to change food, I think that you shouldn't interfere in DNA.
Wojtek Kania said…
I think there is no problem with GMO. Someone will buy GMO food because there are cheaper, and someone will buy BIO food because it is healthier. We should modifying organisms in labs because our knowledge about genetics are growing up, when we do modifying.
In my opinion, the problem with GMO pertain to our reluctance to changes, our fear of new things, our hostility to innovations. After all, all the food we buy is less and less natural and ecologic. This is a fact. It is very difficult to find really health food, so as to be sure it will be good for us. Apart from that, the air we breathe is also affecting us strongly (I mean pollution), as much as other civilization factors. It is really hard to say, what to do to ensure reasonable level of good, natural life for humans. Investigating this issue too much, you can exaggerate and instead of improving your life, you can easily go towards making this worse and worse, without friends (because people don’t like extreme outsiders) and joy (because you have to remain vigilant all the time).
That’s why I think GMO can be both and good, and it depends from us, what we choose in life – good attitude without fear, or resistance against any changes? We should’t stop working on food in labs, for me it gives some hope, maybe even to improve something which is not healthy enough? I am for such experiments, with good control procedures, of course, and with proper education system towards giving people honest information in this respect.

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