My main concern with GM crops is not that there's anything unhealthy or dangerous food-wise about them, but that they are unhealthy and dangerous for the agricultural environment. GM crops are engineered to incorporate specific "advantages" into their growth patterns. Disease resistance, insect resistance, ability to withstand herbicides that are used to control weeds, and increased crop yield are some of the "advantages". The problem is that if GM crops are successful and widely planted, before long, practically every grower would be using the GM varieties. The problem with this type of monocultural agriculture, where everyone plants the same varieties, is loss of genetic diversity. What's going to happen when Mother Nature's natural propensity toward mutation hatches out a bug that just loves that GM crop? That GM corn variety everyone is growing is going to get wiped out and there won't be enough seed of other varieties available to fall back on.

There is a line of GM plants that have DNA from the bacterium bacillus thuringiensis (BT) encoded into their genetic structure. BT is a naturally occurring bacteria that infects and kills caterpillars. It is one of the handful of approved pesticides for use by organic farmers and gardeners. The introduction of BT on such a large scale, through the BT-modified crops, almost insures that BT-resistant strains of caterpillars will develop in just a matter of years. So, then, what's going to happen to all those BT-modified crops? They'll have to be sprayed with the same old nasty pesticides as conventional crops. Meanwhile, the organic farmers who haven't been growing the GM crops, but have been applying BT on an as-needed basis, and don't use chemical fertilizers, are going to see their crops get devoured by the BT-resistant caterpillars.

Bruce