food

What is bioengineered food?

7 Comments
By Kathleen Merrigan

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When Brexit Britain downgrades its food standards and allows GMO in, I'll be switching to organic only.

It's unfortunate that just as vegan food products are finally hitting the mainstream, I'll stop buying them and revert to the endless checking that I had to do in the 80s and 90s when it was difficult to tell what was in foods.

The industry and government will be working together to sneak this stuff into diets with inadequate labelling regimes, and you will have to work hard to maintain a supply of non-GMO food.

My diet will improve as I'll stop eating most mainstream processed snacks. Luckily, in the UK, we are likely to have a lot of food producers that will do the extra work and source ingredients from reliable non-GMO suppliers, especially from within the EU. It will cost more, but I place a high priority on what I eat and am willing to pay a higher % of my weekly expenditure to maintain my standards.

Being vegetarian and then vegan required extra effort. I expected Brexit Britain to have lower standards, and living in 'occupied territory' is always extra work.

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I am past the age of 80 and don't have any long term plans. I still enjoy eating and would fill my belly with GMOs before I would voluntarily go hungry. People have adapted to change before and done okay. At one time in our history potatoes were eschewed by some religious Europeans because they weren't mentioned in the Bible. We seem to eventually have gotten past that idea.

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There is a widespread disappearance of insects across America, and while supposedly the cause is unknown, is it only a coincidence that GMO crops with built-in insecticides are now the norm here in the US?

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So what about insulin? I have been a Type 1 insulin dependent diabetic for 40 years and I remember when "human insulin" was introduced. Prior to that we were using insulin taken from beef and pork in the slaughter house. If you are vegan or vegetarian would you like to inject insulin from a dead cow or pig?

By modifying the DNA of E Coli bacteria or yeast scientists were able to produce an insulin that is the same genetic structure as a human. With the beef and pork insulin that same insulin needs to be worked on by the body before it is appropriate for the body to be used.

We get a better product with fewer side effects and better, more predictable action curves. Would you like to go back to the prior insulin and have a shorter less fulfilling life?

Most people who are against bioengineering are completely unaware of what it has done for people with specific issues. We will need higher yielding crops and fewer pesticides to make the amount of food needed to feed our growing population at a reasonable price all can afford.

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Thank you@JC Clark 12:34pm for that enlightenment information of some additional benefits of bioengineering.

“Most people who are against bioengineering are completely unaware of what it has done for people with specific issues.”m -

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Frankenfood, natural is always, always best. I don't even like to buy perfect-looking strawberries at the Supermarket, creepy.

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