MSN article on genetically modified fruits and vegetables

Here is a point-counterpoint on GM fruits and vegetables from the MSN Web site. Mostly standard fare, and nothing in the news to distinguish the piece particularly.

Here are two paragraphs that sum up the report:

You can’t name a food that has not been genetically modified,” asserts Joseph H. Hotchkiss, chairman of food science at Cornell University. “Traditional breeding does exactly the same thing as GE, which is to change the genome of a food crop. Orange juice is a great example; we have a hundred years of breeding out bitterness from citrus. GE has exactly the same goals [as traditional breeding], but it’s much more targeted and extremely more specific. Conventional breeding is hit-and-miss.”
Opponents are not so convinced of GE’s specificity, and they’re concerned about health risks. Rebecca Spector, West Coast director of the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, says, “Our position is that GE foods are inherently unstable. The gene insertion is random. They use a gene gun to insert the gene they’re trying to change, but they don’t know where it’s going to land. Each genetic insertion has the possibility to change formerly nontoxic elements into toxic elements. They’re getting better at it, but there’s a pretty high failure rate