Labelling of all foods and food ingredients, that are genetically engineered, is absolutely necessary in order to make it possible to trace, as early as possible, unexpected harmful effects of genetically engineered foods. Introduction Proponents of genetic engineering of foods have been maintaining that there is no important difference between this technology and breeding. Therefore they argue that it is unjustified by authorities to treat these products differently than natural or conventionally bred foods. It is therefore most important to critically scrutinise different arguments that are used to justify the above position. This allows genes from completely alien species to be introduced.
Conventional breeding means the combination of hereditary traits by natural mating procedures.
This argument is seriously misleading. Crossbreeding is not a manipulation of single genes as is the case in genetic engineering. It is just natural mating. Only closely related species, having almost the same genes, with the exception of a few percent, can mate. From a genetic standpoint it is misleading to equate interbreedable species with completely different species.