Regional News of Sunday, 5 August 2012
Source: GNA
Professor Jonathan Padi Tetteh, a biotechnology expert has debunked public perception that Genetic Modified foods pose health risks to humans.
He said GM foods posed no health risk since extensive test was made on them before they were released.
GM foods, he noted, had been consumed in many countries including USA, Canada, Brazil, India and China for over 16 years without any reports of adverse effects.
Prof Tetteh was speaking at the monthly session meeting of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) on the theme: Impact of biotechnology on Food production in Accra.
He said: Most of the imported foods into the country are GM foods, yet we eat and have no adverse effects and we speak against GMOs as if is the work of Satan.
God created man and impacted knowledge into man to discover and explore what He (God) created and that is what GMOs is all about. It is Gods creation and man only discovered it, he said.
On the environmental hazard of using biotechnology, Prof Tetteh said a toxin known as Bt toxin had been produced by the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, which was toxic to insects of the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera families only, but not to man and other animals.
This toxin is formulated into insecticide, and used safely by organic farmers to control insects on their crops. The biotechnologist introduced the Bt gene from the bacteria, into crops now referred to as Bt crops. Bt crops can produce their own Bt toxin to protect themselves, he said.
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Biotechnology has no health and environmental hazards - Expert
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