Ontario Agri-Food Technologies – FAQs

Numerous questions have been asked about agricultural biotechnology. In
this section, we try to answer these as accurately as possible.

• What is “Biotechnology”?
• Plant biotechnology is
  so new – can we determine any problems that might be associated with
  it?

• Are genetically modified foods
  labelled?

• Can genetically modified
  foods be placed on the market without proper testing?

• Are there some unknown,
  dangerous aspects about transgenic plants that have not been
  considered?

• Does biotechnology
  allow the large corporations to control food supply?

• Will transgenic
  plants cross with wild relatives and cause environmental damage?

• What is the
  terminator gene?

• Is the
  terminator gene unfair to the farmer?

• It is wrong for
  biotechnology companies to be able to patent new varieties of crop
  plants, charge a premium for the seeds and then prosecute farmers who
  save seeds?

• Isn’t it true
  that there is plenty of food, and that the main problem is the
  distribution?

• Why can’t “normal
  breeding” and organic farming supply the world needs for food?

• Will
  biotechnology will increase the use of herbicides?

• What are insect
  resistant crops?

• Could
  insect resistant crops eliminate beneficial insects?

• Since there is no
  control over where the transgene is inserted into the plant genome,
  could this cause unknown effects?

• Can the use of
  antibiotic resistance in plants make harmful bacteria resistant to
  antibiotics?

• Can transgenic
  plants become weeds in other crops if they are herbicide resistant?

• Do
  herbicide resistant crop plants cause any environmental problems?

• Will biotechnology eliminate
  traditional breeding methods?

• Can you be 100% certain
  that GM foods are safe?