Are Genetically Modified Foods Safe?
Jaffe agrees that overall, the current genetically modified crops — which he says are generally one-gene additions — are safe. He says no food is 100% safe — genetically modified or not — and the odds of having an adverse reaction to a genetically modified food are slim. “Even though we’ve done all of the tests and everything else, one might say, ‘Yes, there is still some risk and we don’t know the long-term effects.’ That’s true, but we have enough knowledge about the protein and where it’s been introduced, how we’ve been exposed to it in our food supply in other ways without danger, to have confidence that this is a safe food now.” Others strongly disagree. “When you’re doing genetic engineering, you’re getting into a whole different mode of manipulating plants, and one, do we need to do it? Two, have enough studies been done in the past to really make it viable for commercial use?” Margaret Wittenberg tells WebMD. She is vice president of marketing and public affairs for Whole F
