GM Sweetcorn

I have heard a report on the radio a couple of days ago about the first lot of GM sweetcorn being sold. As far as im aware it has been grown in the u.s.a and is being sold over here. With all the hype about GM crops etc would the modified corn cause issues with using it as bait? I admit im not that switched on with the gards to the whole GM debate but are not grown to with stand certain pests etc.

Given the amount of pesticides & other chemical crap(Oestrogen from the pill etc ) that gets into our watercourses, GM corn would not be high on my list of concerns even if GM food was dangerous in the first place.

That's true Nigel i never thought of it like that.

Cheers

its got to be safe for us to eat, or they wouldnt sell it.

GM Sweetcorn is safe to eat and I have eaten quite a few of them, lots of times while in the United States. (Kellogg's Cornflakes,Corn on a Cob, Tin sweetcorn)I am sure it won't harm the fish as hookbait/loose feed. I have to agree with Alan about being safe for us to eat, other wise they wouldn't sell them

I don't think there is ever going to be a problem with eating any of the GM crops.

The real concern should be towards what happens in the fields, once you have any sort of cross pollination or hybridisation with any other species it's too late to go back.

That species has then been changed for ever.It's not something that could ever happen naturally, it's something that can only be engineered by man.

Genetically modified living organisms.

The problem today is that people are not really educated as to what these things are. Man has been genetically modifying living things for thousands of years!!

Look at how many breeds of dogs we have for example. Look at the carp? Look at the strains of wheat, mainly produced by selective breeding - another form of genetic modification.

During the past 20 years, man has learned how to adjust the basic structure of the DNA of certain living things, from plants to animals. In terms of plants, we are learning how to grow these to provide food without the necessity of using poisonous agro-chemicals such as herbicides and pesiticides. Also these crops are capable of producing good yields without the necessity of using artificial fertilisers.

All this is positive stuff.

I do get annoyed by people who criticise GM crops without really studying and understanding what they are.

We have been genetically modifying animals, fish and plants for eons.

The tomato.

Selective breeding is a totally different thing to tampering with the genetics of a species in a laboratory.

As you point out yourself Ron it's only in the last twenty years that this (GM)has been happening, whereas dog breeding etc has been done for centuries.The wolf still exists unchanged.

Without a wanting to be termed a scaremonger, the honest answer is, “We just don’t know whether such GM organisms will have any effect on US, fish or the environment.”

What I can say with absolute certainty is that it’s up to those who design, make invent, etc, such products/organisms to prove they are safe, it really isn’t up to us, or the scientist like myself to prove they are not. This is known as the “Precautionary Principle.”
A principle I will defend to my dying breath, because, sadly history is littered with products that at first appeared to be “Safe.” Only to be found 20-30 –50 years later they were not! Some of which, have turned to be very dangerous to man’s health, fish/aquatic life and/or the wider environment.

To those who think they would not let then be used, sold, consumed, etc, I say wake up and smell the coffee - Asbestos, coalmining, DDT, heavy metals, washing up liquid the pill, infected beef, blare! blare! blare!…. all of which are a legacy impacting on man, wildlife and/or the environment.

Again what I can say with absolute certainty is, once the GM genie is out of the bottle it CANNOT be put back in!
Therefore it up to those who design, produce make such organisms, to prove beyond all reasonable doubt, they are SAFE!
Not for use to prove they are not!

I’d ask you to think on one final point - one Co tells us, its crops are pesticide ready and therefore it needs less pesticides using on it. That when turned around, means, it’s organism(s) is/are resistant to that certain pesticide. But does not say at what threshold level that pesticide becomes both a dangerous to man and the environments heath.
In short, anything that is resistant to something means it can, and probably would take far higher levels than is good for things around it.

Now I don’t know about you, but I find this fact somewhat mystifying, given that such claims can and are be made????

Safe to eat yes, safe for the gene pool of the item being modified only time can tell. You just have to look at the Scottish Salmon problem farm salmon weakening the natural gene pool with escapes from the farms.
We also have the BSE scare they said that was safe at first. Only time can answer these problems. The real question is do we need it with the food mountains you hear about to keep the price inflated.