3 ms·

Is anybody going to mention the elephant in the room here? Viz., We are all discussing a legitimately framed wariness/fear of GMOs. Correct me if I'm wrong.

thriftwy 9y ago
Currently, when non-modified crops have offspring with GMOs, the result is usually unviable (because that's what GMO owners would like) or distributed accordingly to Mendel laws. If modification is maladaptive, it's going to disappear. If it's cosmetic, it's probably not going to dominate. But with gene drive, virtually every offspring will be modified to, and their offspring too, leading to modification of the whole species to monoculture gene.
macawfish 9y ago
Thank you for highlighting this. There are reasons why European countries are hesitant to adopt GMO technologies blindly in the name of progress. Ecology is nonlinear. Yet there are people in this discussion who are still advocating for the eradication of entire species of insects, based on the idea that they spread disease. Do they not see that gene drives are themselves essentially just powerful diseases? Who says they couldn't hop the species line? This is straight up foolishness. Us humans can't even moderate our glorified communications platforms (social media, TV, etc). What makes people so confident that our corporations are ready to test technologies like this out on planet earth itself?
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago
This is nothing like existing GMOs, though. The genetic modification per se isn't the issue, it's the nature of the particular modification that matters. This is what scientists have been saying since transformation became practical. If you're under the impression that there was no legitimate fear of GMOs, then you were mistaken. There are numerous risks, such as the generation of noxious pests (i.e. super weeds), contamination of wild populations, dangerous metabolites, etc. The important realization is that these are tractable concerns that are relatively easy to avoid. The kinds of commercial transgenes that are at issue are carefully chosen to avoid these potential issues. To wit, glyphosate resistance was chosen because 1) glyphosate is a relatively benign herbicide and 2) the shikimic acid pathway is limited to plants.

thriftwy 9y ago

Currently, when non-modified crops have offspring with GMOs, the result is usually unviable (because that's what GMO owners would like) or distributed accordingly to Mendel laws. If modification is maladaptive, it's going to disappear. If it's cosmetic, it's probably not going to dominate. But with gene drive, virtually every offspring will be modified to, and their offspring too, leading to modification of the whole species to monoculture gene.

macawfish 9y ago

Thank you for highlighting this. There are reasons why European countries are hesitant to adopt GMO technologies blindly in the name of progress. Ecology is nonlinear. Yet there are people in this discussion who are still advocating for the eradication of entire species of insects, based on the idea that they spread disease. Do they not see that gene drives are themselves essentially just powerful diseases? Who says they couldn't hop the species line? This is straight up foolishness. Us humans can't even moderate our glorified communications platforms (social media, TV, etc). What makes people so confident that our corporations are ready to test technologies like this out on planet earth itself?

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago

This is nothing like existing GMOs, though. The genetic modification per se isn't the issue, it's the nature of the particular modification that matters. This is what scientists have been saying since transformation became practical. If you're under the impression that there was no legitimate fear of GMOs, then you were mistaken. There are numerous risks, such as the generation of noxious pests (i.e. super weeds), contamination of wild populations, dangerous metabolites, etc. The important realization is that these are tractable concerns that are relatively easy to avoid. The kinds of commercial transgenes that are at issue are carefully chosen to avoid these potential issues. To wit, glyphosate resistance was chosen because 1) glyphosate is a relatively benign herbicide and 2) the shikimic acid pathway is limited to plants.