yes & no Have you eaten genetically modified food? probably most people have, without their knowledge. a certain type of genetically modified corn did not pass FDA approval and was supposedly only to be used to feed livestock - but when Friends of the Earth (an environmental watchdog organization) went shopping for products containing corn they found samples of it in a number dozens of products around the world (some farmer somewhere decided to sell it as regular corn) This specific corn had some allergens which would be irritating to insects (as well as humans). It is now "out there" and you cant recall it like a faulty tire. YOu cant recall a virus, either, all the talk above 'we have been genetically modifying species for thousands of years' is beside the point (we have only been changing species through selective breeding and not gene splicing through cross-species pollination. THERE IS NO WAY IN NATURE TO CROSS A FISH WITH A STRAWBERRY but the idea has been proposed (although not implemented) to take genes which allows fish to live in below freezing temperatures under arctic ice and put it into strawberry or tomato crops so they survive low temperatures.

The act of gene-splicing is by no means completely accurate - it is more like a shotgun blast of genes and hope that some of them will take. The problem is that most DNA (something like 90% is genetic material along for the ride that serves no purpose for the living organism and can contain viruses). Who can say what will happen?

Is gene modification always necessary? Monsanto has taken BT (an insecticide naturally occuring in the soil, discovered by the Japanese a hundred years ago - and by the way used on organic farms (as it is a completely natural substance)) and spliced it into corn, thereby producing a corn that is resistant to corn eating insects. THe drawback is that it also kills Monarch butterflies (this was in fact the one spark that got the American public up in arms on the GMO issue) the other problem is that the BT corn is in fact laden with way too much insectide that stays in the soil. and after a number of generations will result in a large population of SUPER pests (insects resistant to BT). This is something that probably would occur anyway but by doing so MONSANTO has decreased the usefulness of BT for everyone by decades.

THere is no evidence that BT-corn Is harmful to humans, on the other hand and certain gmo's may in fact be useful for developing nations which grow crops in poor soil, and if say a sweet potato can give a much better yield in poor soil and thrive without heavy use of chemical fertilizers.

ITs quite possible that there are many positive possibilites with genetics - ie. treatment of diseases or possibly growing organs for transplant with ones own dna in a pig. (which may be a rather scary but intriguing idea as well)

Its certainly good to be informed (NOVA on pbs recently ran an excellent documentary on GMOs) and not have blind faith in Science, remember DDT, Thalidomide, etc.

THe case mentioned above, may have been the (Canadian)Saskatchewan farmer sued by MOnsanto for growing genetical modified soybeans on his property that were patented by MONsanto. His defense was that the gmo seeds blew in and that he could not help it, whereas Monsanto claimed that he used the seed without paying as there was (allegedly far more than would blow in by chance) they had sampled his crops supposedly. The farmer lost the case, and had the support of many environmental organizations but is now bankrupt, and Im not sure if it will be appealed.

Monsanto had announced (earlier this year) that it will not market its so-called 'terminator' seed, that would require farmers to buy new seed each year. At the same time it is experimenting with gmo's that will take firefly genes to grow tomatoes that glow in the dark.

in short my view is that I would be cautious, gmo food is already out there and cannot be recalled (something like 25% of soybean products contain gmo soybeans. AT the very least products should be labelled if they contain gmo's (the industry is fighting this and with some valid points as well, the fact is that even organic farms may be contaminated with gmo foods.) petr