3 ms·

All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified.

by alex_sf 5y ago

karottenreibe 5y ago
Are you saying that's not a significant difference? It seems to me.
- laburn 5y ago
  It seems to you what?
  - hoseja 5y ago
    Probably that letting the slow-GMO survive in a natural environment for hundreds of years does wonders for ironing out the really bad bugs. I'm not anti-GMO but i've been more wary ever since I realized it will inevitably be used to make better citizens (and not by making them better humans).
    - petre 5y ago
      It depends. There's a number of dog breeds with known genetical issues. GE is a double edged sword just like nuclear energy. With great power comes great responsability.
      - hoseja 5y ago
        Those are mostly innovations of the latest century or so, bred "scientifically", regulated by dog breed foundations and chasing dog-show metrics.
- alex_sf 5y ago
  Not really any more alarming to me than the initial domestication I guess. Manipulating the world around us is kinda our whole deal as a species.
null_object 5y ago
> All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified. This is often said in defense of GMO, but surely cross-breeding and hybridization - a farmer or gardener attempting to combine the entire genetic entity of one plant with another one (which must therefore be naturally compatible), to increase the potential utility of the result - is totally different to inserting a single gene from a totally arbitrary source (which can therefore be a completely separate life-form)?
- _0ffh 5y ago
  And then there's Atomic Gardening which has been done for ages and does not officially count as producing GMOs, IIRC.
- drran 5y ago
  If I make a sandwich (wheat genes + chicken genes + cow genes + yeast genes) and cover it with honey (insect genes), what will happen to me when I will eat it?
- pas 5y ago
  With enough time that trait would show up by simple selective breeding too. GMO does it faster. (Of course so much faster that there is an argument that it's qualitatively not the same as good old breeding. And if someone comes up with some kind of killer trees that release anthrax in the spring that too counts as GMO too, but they are unlikely to be deterred by labeling requirements or GMO bans.)
rorykoehler 5y ago
This is false. The distance between selective breeding and GMO is horizontal vs vertical gene transfer.

All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified.

karottenreibe 5y ago

Are you saying that's not a significant difference? It seems to me.

laburn 5y ago
It seems to you what?
- hoseja 5y ago
  Probably that letting the slow-GMO survive in a natural environment for hundreds of years does wonders for ironing out the really bad bugs. I'm not anti-GMO but i've been more wary ever since I realized it will inevitably be used to make better citizens (and not by making them better humans).
  - petre 5y ago
    It depends. There's a number of dog breeds with known genetical issues. GE is a double edged sword just like nuclear energy. With great power comes great responsability.
    - hoseja 5y ago
      Those are mostly innovations of the latest century or so, bred "scientifically", regulated by dog breed foundations and chasing dog-show metrics.
alex_sf 5y ago
Not really any more alarming to me than the initial domestication I guess. Manipulating the world around us is kinda our whole deal as a species.

null_object 5y ago

> All crops are GMO. The only difference is how fast they were modified. This is often said in defense of GMO, but surely cross-breeding and hybridization - a farmer or gardener attempting to combine the entire genetic entity of one plant with another one (which must therefore be naturally compatible), to increase the potential utility of the result - is totally different to inserting a single gene from a totally arbitrary source (which can therefore be a completely separate life-form)?

_0ffh 5y ago
And then there's Atomic Gardening which has been done for ages and does not officially count as producing GMOs, IIRC.
drran 5y ago
If I make a sandwich (wheat genes + chicken genes + cow genes + yeast genes) and cover it with honey (insect genes), what will happen to me when I will eat it?
pas 5y ago
With enough time that trait would show up by simple selective breeding too. GMO does it faster. (Of course so much faster that there is an argument that it's qualitatively not the same as good old breeding. And if someone comes up with some kind of killer trees that release anthrax in the spring that too counts as GMO too, but they are unlikely to be deterred by labeling requirements or GMO bans.)

rorykoehler 5y ago

This is false. The distance between selective breeding and GMO is horizontal vs vertical gene transfer.