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A lot of people think we could be headed for trouble by tampering with Mother Nature and producing genetically altered food. But those who
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say it"s no more unnatural than traditional selective breeding, to say nothing about
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and chemical pesticides.
Most Canadians regularly eat bio-engineered food. Anyone who consumes cheese, potatoes, tomatoes,
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is taking in genetically modified (GM) food. In addition,
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contain GM ingredients. In fact, around 65% of the food we get from the shops has some genetically modified component. GM food does not
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in Canada, so most of us don"t know we are eating it. Some of the items that have
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GM material might surprise you. They include chocolate bars, baby food, margarine,
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, ice cream,
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, cereals, and cookies.
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have used GM foods for centuries; if they hadn"t, we"d probably still be
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. They"ve refined the foods we eat through selective crossbreeding, combining different types of wheat, and
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. Today, however, genetic engineering is no longer just a case of mixing different varieties of
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. Now, genes from completely different life forms are being combined—fish genes into tomatoes to
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, for example.
Such "tampering with Nature" makes a lot of people anxious. They wonder if the foods that come out of genetic modification are
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. Scientists say they are completely safe; GM is just a way of
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to make it possible for them to survive without the use of pesticides and to
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. But the
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that scientists said that nuclear power and the toxic insecticide DDT were also completely harmless.
Supporters of GM foods
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. They say producing GM food is a move in the right direction, that it will
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, the environment, and the economy. They are convinced it will solve the world"s hunger problems, lead to a drop in pesticide and herbicide use, and result in
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.