According to the May 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Chiropractic Association, genetically engineered foods are not tested adequately for the effect they may have on the people who eat them. They were introduced into the food supply in the mid-1990s, with very little testing and very little information provided to the public. Journalist Barbara Keeler, a health and nutrition expert, in the JACA article states that the hazards of genetic engineered food could directly harm patients who eat it. Other problems are indirect, operating through the corruption of other food species or through unintended effects on the ecosystem.
Some of the problems with these foods are serious. Corn and potatoes have been engineered to produce toxins that kill insects. The article quotes FDA articles that state that such vegetables are, “classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as pesticides, rather than vegetables.” Some of the genetically engineered food is resistant to a specific herbicide made by the company engineering the seed, enabling the company to use a lot of that herbicide (which in turn ends up in our food supply).
Genetic engineering presents problems for people with allergies. Genetic engineering introduces new proteins from one food into another. People with allergies have no way of knowing if the food they are eating contains protein from a food to which they are allergic.
Bees consuming pollen from genetically engineered plants have shortened life spans and loss of sense of smell. Cows fed genetically engineered soybeans have changes in hormone levels and milk content. Toxicity is moving up the food chain. There is death or impaired health in animals from consuming insects that were fed crops with bacillicus thuringiensis toxins. In short, genetically engineered food can be harmful to our individual health and to our environment.