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> 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
by 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 agoAnd then there's Atomic Gardening which has been done for ages and does not officially count as producing GMOs, IIRC.
- drran 5y agoIf 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 agoWith 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.)