转基因食品安全吗

Traditional plant breeding involves crossing varieties of the same species in ways they could cross naturally. For example, disease-resistant varieties of wheat have been crossed with high-yield wheat to combine these properties. This type of natural gene exchange is safe and fairly predictable．

Genetic engineering（GE）involves exchanging genes between unrelated species that cannot naturally exchange genes with each other. GE can involve the exchange of genes between vastly different species―e.g. putting scorpion toxin genes into maize or fish antifreeze genes into tomatoes. It is possible that a scorpion toxin gene, even when it is in maize DNA, will still get the organism to produce scorpion toxin―but what other effects may it have in this alien environment? We are already seeing this problem―adding human growth hormone genes to pigs certainly makes them grow―but it also gives them arthritis and makes them cross-eyed, which was entirely unpredictable．

It will be obvious, for example, that the gene for human intelligence will not have the same effect if inserted into cabbage DNA as it had in human DNA―but what side-effect would it have？In other words, is GM food safe to eat？The answer is that nobody knows because long-term tests have not been carried out.

Companies wanting a GM product approved in the UK or USA are required to provide regulatory bodies with results of their own safety tests. Monsanto’s soya beans were apparently fed to fish for10 weeks before being approved. There was no requirement for independent testing, for long-term testing, for testing on humans or testing for specific dangers to children or allergic people.　　

The current position of the UK Government is that “There is no evidence of long-term dangers from GM foods.” In the US, the American Food and Drug Administration is currently being prosecuted for covering up research that suggested possible risks from GM foods.

转基因食品安全吗

    传统农作物实行一种自然的杂交手法,人们把许多同种的农作物放到一起，使之能够自然杂交繁殖。比如说，高抗虫性的小麦通常会和高产性小麦种植在一起，以得到具有这两种优良性状的新品种。这种类型的基因杂交方式既安全又可以一定程度地进行预见。

    基因工程（GE）主要是将两种没有亲缘关系的物种进行基因置换以得到新型物种。GE可以把众多毫不相关的基因转接到一起，例如把蝎子身上的有毒基因转嫁到玉米或鱼身上，把抗冻基因转嫁到西红柿上面。当然，被转嫁到玉米上以后，毒蝎基因仍然可以发挥一定的作用，产生蝎毒素——但是，这种转基因的方法会对其新环境产生什么不利影响吗？我们已经觉察到了问题的出现——把人的生长素基因转移到猪身上当然会促进猪的生长——但也会使他们得关节炎和斗鸡眼，这些是完全曾预料到的。

    显然，那些可以增进人类智慧的基因如果被转入卷心菜的DNA中便不能发挥在人体内相同的作用——但会产生一定的副作用吗？换句话说，GM食物是否是安全的？问题的答案并不能可靠给出，因为长时间的实验还没有完成。在美国和英国，如果一家公司想要推出GM产品的话，必须向有关部门出具相关的证明和安全测试结果。Monsanto公司的转基因蚕豆在获得批准前的十个礼拜就已经提供给鱼类进食了。对于那些长期的安全测试，人体测试，高危人群或过敏性人群测试实验，则不需要提供独立的测试结果。

    英国现政府发表申明“就目前为止，还未发现任何长期测试出现危险。”在美国，药品食物管理中心将对隐瞒转基因食品危险性的行为进行控诉。