Tumour Pong: Fake Food Is Not Good

            Genetically modified foods, also known as transgenic foods, are the kind of nourishment which composition has been altered by adding some element provided by the genes transferred from another organism; this helps not only to prevent disasters caused by drought or plagues, but also to resist against herbicides. Furthermore, this genetic manipulation enables an increase in production—in both harvests and aliments for livestock—and durability, which means that it is possible for more people to obtain their provisions.

            However, many of us are aware about the controversy that transgenic foods have caused even from their beginning; production may have increased, yet costs have as well. In addition, these transformed products are the main cause of ecological disasters such as the death of numerous pollinators, resistance to antibiotics or secretion of toxic waste.

            According to a research conducted by the French scientist Gilles Eric Séralini, genetically manipulated food is not only potentially harmful for humans or insects, but it also is for animals such as rats; in the University of Caen, an experiment was being held with these little creatures who turned out to develop shocking tumours which had a size similar to a ping-pong ball.

            These laboratory rats had been fed their whole life with genetically altered corn from Monsanto (an American agricultural biotechnology industry) which grew from NK603, a variety of seeds that is resistant to herbicides such as “Roundup”—Monsanto’s own product. Unlike the lamentably diseased group, the rats that were fed with their usual diet lived longer.

            Given this concrete—and recent—state of affairs, do you still think that transgenic foods should stay in the market? Rats were the first grievous victims; what comes next? We cannot even trust in what we eat nowadays.

Transgenic food: To eat or not to eat

Lately, I have heard a lot of people complaining about the taste of some vegetables and meat. I don’t know if this is actually real, but one thing is certain, transgenic food has entered to the market and our houses causing changes in flavor and size.

Transgenic food can be defined as meat and vegetables modified through genetic engineering. Food modification is not new since a long time humans have being using a technique called selective breading which is possible only within the same species and using natural reproduction. But now food engineering allows humans to transfer genetic material from one organism to another, it doesn’t matter if it is from the same species. The problem with this is that the alien gens are forced in the animal or plant producing mutated food which long-term effects for the human health are still unknown.

Many people like farmers and Scientifics argue that transgenic food may result harmful for our health and the environment. One of the most worrying claims is that transgenic food cause cancer. According to Dr Samuel Epstein of the University of Chicago and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, a growth hormone (GH) injected in cows to make them produce more milk is responsible for several cases of breast cancer. Canadian studies proved that the growth hormone induces malignant transformation in the breast cells.

Monsanto whom are one of the biggest owners of transgenic seeds and food (if not the only ones) argued that the hormone was killed after the process of pasteurization therefore the breast’s cancer cases had nothing to do with their products.

Whether to eat transgenic food can cause cancer and others diseases or not is still under investigation. There are many experiments and studies around the world that prove that genetically altered food represent a menace for the human being and fewer studies that claim the opposite. In my opinion, until we don’t have a clear answer, I will try to avoid this new kind of mutant food.