Genetic foods face trial by shopping In our high-tech world, more and more products in our supermarkets and shops are modified with special substances, and also genetic modification is used. Measures to label such genetically modified food clearly have been pushed through by the European Parliament. So the questions are: Will shoppers boycott products engineered by scientific advances ? or Will they take the bait when the products reach the supermarkets ? At first, what is genetic engineering ? The process of genetic engineering means, that DNA from completely unrelated species can be grafted together to create a new type. For example, it is possible to make maize crops resistant against insects, by adding scorpion poison DNA. Another example is the boosting of proteins from the soya beans, with brazil nut genes. The European Commission wants to pass a labelling law for genetically modified food. So manufacturers will have to label such food, and also food, shown by scientific analysis to be significantly different from conventional food. But the problem is, that the genetically altered raw materials, which are used for food producing, are no longer present in the final product. For example, the milk from cows fed with modified grain, will not be labelled. An opinion poll, organized by the environmental group Greenpeace showed, that 67 per cent of the Europeans were unhappy about the thought of eating genetically engineered products, and only 22 per cent were in favour of modified foods. For the giant chemicals companies, the food represents a lucrative trade, and so scientists want to persuade the public that these products are free of risks. ( On my point of view, this is also true for other sectors [Handy, microwave-oven, ..] à The only thing that counts is money, because money is power. ) Because of the BSE scandal, a lot of people are nervous of biotechnology, and so the trend towards organic food has been gathering pace in Europe for many years. So scientists and manufacturers have to do a lot persuading work, because protesters claim that the resulting plants pose an unpredictable risk to human health. Another problem the protesters mentioned, is the soya bean (mentioned before), which's proteins are boosted by adding brazil nut genes. So people with nut allergies would also be allergic to the finished bean. So the people have to know what they are eating, where it comes from or what else it may contain. That way they can decide whether to buy it or not. If people choose not to buy the products, then it will show the growers that this is simply not acceptable, and genetically modified food will not succeed.
