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My favorite and most effective pro-GMO take is to talk to people about how cheese is made. Many anti-GMO people are concerned with animal welfare and love chees

My favorite and most effective pro-GMO take is to talk to people about how cheese is made. Many anti-GMO people are concerned with animal welfare and love cheese, and it's important to make them realize that it's thanks to GMO that you can have cheese without slaughtering a calf. https://io9.gizmodo.com/you-can-thank-genetic-engineering-for-your-delicious-ch-1701156684 https://io9.gizmodo.com/you-can-thank-genetic-engineering-fo...

camiller 10y ago
Interesting, I am/was of the understanding that there are also vegetarian rennet's made by extracting enzymes from certain plants; fig, thistle, etc. The place where I buy my cheese making supplies (well, would buy if the first attempt hadn't been such a disaster) has both calf and "vegetarian" rennet available for the home cheese maker.
- rosser 10y ago
  "Vegetarian cheese". That's cute. Sure, baby cows aren't being (literally) gutted for the lining of their stomachs, but that's hardly the extent of the misery we inflict upon dairy animals. EDIT: not directed at you. Just entertained at the semantic hoops people will set up and then jump through.
fdupoo 10y ago
Sorry dude, don't see the connection. I am a predator. Predators kill prey animals, including (and sometimes especially) the babies. Cheese is delicious. Im anti-GMO and have been killing animals for food since I was 3. GMO and monsanto practices are health issues. The pesticides are a problem in terms of chemical pollution. As for gene editing, it's a question of polluting the gene pool of a life system. Releasing Gene-mod into a complex dynamic self-regulating self-propagating system is like modifying diseases them and releasing them into human society. It may not be a problem, but we can't know if it will be a problem till it's done, and once it's done, it's done. You can't remove or erase your mistakes. We cant know what any particular gene-mod will do in the wild, if it will be harmful or not, but we do know that monsanto and their cronies at the FDA and EPA don't give a flying fuck about systemic consequences of new technologies. We do know that the technology is potentially catastrophic, and there are a lot of disincentives to be responsible baked into the system of those holding the keys to this tech.
- ethbro 10y ago
  > As for gene editing, it's a question of polluting the gene pool of a life system. You mean like life had been doing since its inception? You can gripe about the speed and power with which we're performing genetic modification (and things like gene drives are powerful), but I can't agree with the "It's something that's never been done before!" angle. We're just doing so intelligently. With incomplete knowledge, but a hell of a lot more intelligently than random mutation.

camiller 10y ago

Interesting, I am/was of the understanding that there are also vegetarian rennet's made by extracting enzymes from certain plants; fig, thistle, etc. The place where I buy my cheese making supplies (well, would buy if the first attempt hadn't been such a disaster) has both calf and "vegetarian" rennet available for the home cheese maker.

rosser 10y ago
"Vegetarian cheese". That's cute. Sure, baby cows aren't being (literally) gutted for the lining of their stomachs, but that's hardly the extent of the misery we inflict upon dairy animals. EDIT: not directed at you. Just entertained at the semantic hoops people will set up and then jump through.

fdupoo 10y ago

Sorry dude, don't see the connection. I am a predator. Predators kill prey animals, including (and sometimes especially) the babies. Cheese is delicious. Im anti-GMO and have been killing animals for food since I was 3. GMO and monsanto practices are health issues. The pesticides are a problem in terms of chemical pollution. As for gene editing, it's a question of polluting the gene pool of a life system. Releasing Gene-mod into a complex dynamic self-regulating self-propagating system is like modifying diseases them and releasing them into human society. It may not be a problem, but we can't know if it will be a problem till it's done, and once it's done, it's done. You can't remove or erase your mistakes. We cant know what any particular gene-mod will do in the wild, if it will be harmful or not, but we do know that monsanto and their cronies at the FDA and EPA don't give a flying fuck about systemic consequences of new technologies. We do know that the technology is potentially catastrophic, and there are a lot of disincentives to be responsible baked into the system of those holding the keys to this tech.

ethbro 10y ago
> As for gene editing, it's a question of polluting the gene pool of a life system. You mean like life had been doing since its inception? You can gripe about the speed and power with which we're performing genetic modification (and things like gene drives are powerful), but I can't agree with the "It's something that's never been done before!" angle. We're just doing so intelligently. With incomplete knowledge, but a hell of a lot more intelligently than random mutation.