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[alarimer]

96. Yes there are.

Some forms of rice have been engineered to provide extra vitamins to prevent blindness, in places where not a lot of other vegetables are grown or available. What's most disturbing about this thread to me is the blanket condemnation of all GMO foods.

There is simply no scientific evidence that they are harmful to human health. In fact, one could argue that all foods we eat or genetically modified. There is also the blanket assumption that all organic foods are better, when in fact most studies have shown no nutritional difference between so-called "organic" foods and others. I use scare quotes there because the organic label is abused and misunderstood. Organic does not mean pesticide-free, for example. They simply use organic pesticides (pyrethrins and so forth). But mostly the label had been stripped of almost all meaning.

Now, I am not saying this homework assignment is good or bad. I don't agree with corporations being allowed to have any input into the curriculum. That goes for ALL corporations, even "good" ones, like Apple. Monsanto is definitely not one of the good ones.

Having said that we should not dismiss GMO crops or lump them all in the same basket. There are certainly issues with GMO crops, but from a human health perspective, there are no issues there. There is too much fear-mongering by anti-science liberals and crunchy granola types that has crowded the issues. I follow the science and pay no attention to what activists (who are anti-science to begin with) say.

But this homework assignment in problematic for sure.