Adding further impetus to the reaction is the decision by British supermarket chains to only buy produce that has not been genetically modified. Australia has its own form of food censorship - two Australian councils have banned GMFs from their food services. Moreland City Council in Victoria has eliminated genetically altered food from Meals on Wheels and council-run child care centres. Sydney's Waverley City Council has banned genetically engineered food in child care centres. Misconceptions about genetically modified foods abound because of the highly technical nature of the science involved in creating these foods.
Most genetic manipulations are within or between plant species.
They are mainly used to create plants that are resistant to pests or herbicides or to produce frost resistance in fruits such as tomatoes and strawberries. Genetic engineering may also be used to improve the flavor, yield or longevity of products. Genetically modifying food is not as simple as taking a gene from one organism and putting it in another. For example, to make cotton plants resistant to pests, a gene for pest resistance is copied and then inserted into a cotton plant via a bacteria. Neither the bacteria nor the pest resistance gene end up in the clothes we wear.