• Question: do you agree with modifying food

    • Keywords:
      • Search for related information:
      Asked by fionn2002 to Andrew, Dilip, Emma, John, Ruth on 16 Nov 2015.
      • Photo: John Gleeson

        John Gleeson answered on 16 Nov 2015:


        Hey Fionn I’d love to know what kind of modification you mean? If you’re talking about Genetic Modification (which I think possibly you are) then I’m very much in favour!

        Golden Rice is the best example. Researchers found a gene in daffodil that makes “pro-vitamin A”. That just means that its not vitamin A yet, but in the body the compound is changed into vitamin A. So then they thought lets try putting this into rice. And they did (and it turned it golden yellow). So then this rice can be grown in poorer areas where they are really low in vitamin A and it negatively effects there health.

        So by using a genetically modified crop they are hoping to change the lives and health of potentially millions of people!

      • Photo: Emma Feeney

        Emma Feeney answered on 17 Nov 2015:


        John’s given a great example of a genetically modified rice that can help people by adding a gene for a vitamin that’s scarce in those rice-based diets otherwise. But we’ve actually been ‘modifying’ food for centuries! Farmers, before the more sophisticated techniques we have now, would select the crops that grew the best for the next year, and cross plants with other plants to try to get the best traits from both. Then, in the 50s and 60s, long before we were able to ‘pick’ the exact genes we wanted, scientists realised that if you bombard a plant with radiation, you would mutate the genes. So this was done with lots of seeds and they would look at whatever grew out of those seeds.

        They got a great variety of a potato this way but – they couldn’t see inside the plants genome, so they didn’t know what else they may have changed. And it turned out some of these potatoes also produced too much of a toxic substance, its found in tiny levels normally but these varieties over-produced it, and lots of kids got sick from it.

        So, in my opinion, we are much better off now, because if we modify a gene we have the ability now to choose the exact one that we want, without the fear of changing something else that we can’t see!

      • Photo: Andrew Quigley

        Andrew Quigley answered on 17 Nov 2015:


        I agree with it as well, for all the great reasons John and Emma have already said 🙂

        Scientists have also created maize, through genetic modification, that is much more resistant to drought than “natural” maize. This will really benefit people that live in drought prone countries and will go some way to ensure that they have a more stable food supply.

      • Photo: Ruth Hamill

        Ruth Hamill answered on 17 Nov 2015:


        I think it can be beneficial but i am very opposed the corporateisation (is that a word?) of the genetic material in food. So if the application is for human health (golden rice), improved environmental health or to improve animal welfare (e.g. genetic modification of cattle to stop them growing horns and having to endure painful dehorning) then yes. If its really only to serve the further enrichment of corporations, not really no!

    Comments