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As just one example, if you live in an area where it is difficult to get dietary Vitamin A, you might enjoy the benefits of not going blind due to Vitamin A def

As just one example, if you live in an area where it is difficult to get dietary Vitamin A, you might enjoy the benefits of not going blind due to Vitamin A deficiency by eating Golden Rice[0]. Have you ever eaten a SweeTango apple? It is one of dozens of varieties that have been created in the last hundred years using genetic engineering via cross breeding[1]. Do you know why commercial tomatoes are so bland? Genetic engineering via selective breeding[2]. The fact of the matter is that all of the crops and livestock that we cultivate today are genetically engineered. The main distinction now is that we are technologically advanced enough to introduce beneficial modifications deliberately, rather than relying on random mutations and gene recombinations that occur in nature at random over hundreds or thousands of generations. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice [1] https://mnhardy.umn.edu/varieties/fruit/apples/all-apple-varieties https://mnhardy.umn.edu/varieties/fruit/apples/all-apple-var... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Modern_commercial_varieties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Modern_commercial_varie...

incrudible 5y ago
The vitamin A argument boils down to cost. Genetic engineering goes way beyond the possibility space of selective breeding, which we have thousands of years of experience with. When it comes to diet, science is difficult enough as it is. Introducing such novelties only makes it harder.
- csnover 5y ago
  > The vitamin A argument boils down to cost. It boils down to cost in the same way that you and I not owning a private jet boils down to cost—which is to say, as nice as it would be, there are probably not enough resources on the planet to feed everyone a balanced diet without these continued advances in food production, as the current conventional farming practices are not long-term sustainable, and they are already required to actually feed everybody on the planet today. > Genetic engineering goes way beyond the possibility space of selective breeding, which we have thousands of years of experience with. And inside that possibility space are things like extremely high-yield crops that end hunger forever. Grains like Golden Rice that solve nutritional deficiencies caused by incomplete diets. Nuts that are modified so they don’t trigger life-threatening anaphylaxis. Crops that absorb and sequester CO2 more efficiently. Delicious new hybrids that don’t even exist right now. Foods genetically modified to be low in FODMAPs so people who have gut problems aren’t so restricted in what they can eat. All the problems that exist now with diets have hypothetical solutions in genetically engineering crops to create more of the nutrients that we need to be healthy, and to eliminate the bad stuff that makes us sick, down to the point of being able to provide ideal nutrition for a specific person’s body. However, we’re unlikely to get there if people’s imaginations are always focused on the potential negatives instead of balancing those risks with the obvious potential and need for this sort of technology to be developed.

incrudible 5y ago

The vitamin A argument boils down to cost. Genetic engineering goes way beyond the possibility space of selective breeding, which we have thousands of years of experience with. When it comes to diet, science is difficult enough as it is. Introducing such novelties only makes it harder.

csnover 5y ago
> The vitamin A argument boils down to cost. It boils down to cost in the same way that you and I not owning a private jet boils down to cost—which is to say, as nice as it would be, there are probably not enough resources on the planet to feed everyone a balanced diet without these continued advances in food production, as the current conventional farming practices are not long-term sustainable, and they are already required to actually feed everybody on the planet today. > Genetic engineering goes way beyond the possibility space of selective breeding, which we have thousands of years of experience with. And inside that possibility space are things like extremely high-yield crops that end hunger forever. Grains like Golden Rice that solve nutritional deficiencies caused by incomplete diets. Nuts that are modified so they don’t trigger life-threatening anaphylaxis. Crops that absorb and sequester CO2 more efficiently. Delicious new hybrids that don’t even exist right now. Foods genetically modified to be low in FODMAPs so people who have gut problems aren’t so restricted in what they can eat. All the problems that exist now with diets have hypothetical solutions in genetically engineering crops to create more of the nutrients that we need to be healthy, and to eliminate the bad stuff that makes us sick, down to the point of being able to provide ideal nutrition for a specific person’s body. However, we’re unlikely to get there if people’s imaginations are always focused on the potential negatives instead of balancing those risks with the obvious potential and need for this sort of technology to be developed.