Many people think that changing nature by making genetically modified food could cause trouble. But people who back genetically modified foods say it is no more unnatural than traditional selective breeding, let alone synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides.

Most Canadians regularly eat bio-engineered food. Anyone who consumes cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans, corn, wheat, and salmon is taking in genetically modified (GM) food. In addition, 75% of processed foods contain GM ingredients. In fact, around 65% of the food we get from the shops has some genetically modified component. GM food does not have to be labelled as such in Canada, so most of us do not know we are eating it. Some of the items that have a high likelihood of containing GM material may surprise you. They include chocolate bars, baby food, margarine, canned soup, ice cream, salad dressing, yoghurt, cereals, cookies, and frozen French fries. This practice is not new.

Farmers and plant breeders have used genetically modified foods for centuries; if they had not, we would probably still be eating grass instead of wheat. They have refined the foods we eat through selective crossbreeding, combining different types of wheat, for example, and eliminating weaker varieties. Today, however, genetic engineering is changing the nature of plant breeding even more: it is no longer just a case of mixing different varieties of the same species. Now, genes from completely different life forms are being combined -- fish genes into tomatoes to make the latter more frost resistant, for example.