Controversies

Controversies

Safety
-Potential human health impact: allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects
-Potential environmental impact: unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity

Access and Intellectual Property
-Domination of world food production by a few companies
Increasing dependence on Industralized nations by developing countries
Biopiracy—foreign exploitation of natural resources

Ethics
-Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values
Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species
Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa
Stress for animal

Labeling
-Not mandatory in some countries (e.g., United States)
Mixing GM crops with non-GM confounds labeling attempts

Society
-New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml