Can (genetically engineered) crop plants that make their own pesticides endanger human health?
To greater and lesser extents, all plants make their own pesticides. Plants that have been bred to resist insects better probably make more pesticides, but we don’t really know in most cases. Some of the pesticides plants make do sometimes make people sick. However, we rarely test conventional foods for possible poisons until after there’s been an outbreak of illness. In general, only crops genetically engineered to make pesticides are well understood, because somebody had to decide what pesticide they would make, and in what quantity, and then test to verify that that’s what’s happening. See these topics in Life’s Big Instruction Book: What’s that? artificial selection, genetic engineering • Why not label genetically engineered crops? We don’t believe that genetically engineered crops pose any new risks compared to crops developed by artificial selection. Despite extensive testing, nobody has found anything different between them that poses a risk to human health. Political opponents
