105. Is genetically modified food good for human consumption? P S Remesh Chandran

105

Is genetically modified food good for human consumption?

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By AkshayaPatra. Graphics: Adobe SP.

‘Is Genetically Modified Food Safe for Human Consumption?’ is a question long standing unanswered satisfactorily. The wisest and normal method to increase food supply is to enrich the habitat and surroundings of a crop, not sabotaging the natural growth of a crop. Only fools and half-wits would do it. We are creating not playthings of prize but food items for people which has to carry them on through generations, centuries and millenniums. All safe food items which the world eats today were tested through centuries and proven to be not only harmless but good also. A new kind of food which is introduced for human consumption would take Three centuries, i.e., at least Six generations to prove itself to be worthy, recommendable and not containing any latent poisons. Genetically engineered and modified food certainly can be produced, as many fools have shown, but they are fit only for artificially created beings; not for human beings. And they are known about only since 1990. Even if the possible and horrible ill effects of these boosted-up food items come out as early as 2040s, the creators of these wicked things could not be held responsible for their evilish designs for they all would have gone to their graves after receiving their Nobel Prizes. Tell them two things. The greatest scientist of all, Cavendish, concealed thousands more of his discoveries than the few which he revealed to the world. Inventing is one thing, but revealing them before a commerce-bound unripe human society is another thing which needs the assistance of long thoughts. Concealing and burying them for ever would most often be wiser. Whenever we excavated and exhumed ancient Egyptian bodies, none of them showed presence of a non-decayed tooth in their life, due to the sandy Nile-Bread they ate. 

[In response to news article ‘Experts advise bio-technology to combat world hunger:’ on 30 October 2011]