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'Vaccine lettuce' bill (food containing a vaccine is a drug) passes in Tennessee
- monkburger 3y agoThis is the most ridiculous 'bill' I have seen in quite some time.
- seattle_spring 3y agoSeems kind of odd that the “party of small government” makes completely frivolous laws like this to prevent something that very likely will never happen. Should we also make sure “food with extra-terrestrial genetic material” is outlawed, just in case?
- rob74 3y agoDon't forget "food which will cause you to be susceptible to remote control via 5G networks"...
- dude187 3y agoI don't see that in the article
- seattle_spring 3y agoIt’s about as real and likely as “vaccines in the grocery store lettuce.”
- ejb999 3y agoSo they should wait until after the food supply becomes contaminated, then study the problem for a few years and only then pass a law to regulate it?
- ceejayoz 3y agoSuch things are already highly likely to fall under the FDA’s purview.
- dude187 3y agoIt's the legislative branch that determines that, with legislation exactly like this...
- ceejayoz 3y agoNot the TN one, and the US legislative branch has already given the FDA authority to regulate vaccines.
- dude187 3y agoStates have a similar setup patterned off the federal government, with most things falling only in the purview of the states. In this case they're correctly making sure that vaccines delivered as food are correctly treated as such under the framework here https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r73/gov.tn.tca.title.53.html#t53c01s53-1-102 https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-tn/transforms/tn/octn/r7... Considering the active development this is very forward thinking and timely
- ceejayoz 3y agoAgain, under Federal law and regulation, these theoretical products are likely to already be deemed drugs (and this determination would almost certainly preempt any state decision in the opposite direction). The legislation is, at best, redundant.
- dude187 3y agoStates enforce state law, not federal
- 3y ago
- jerf 3y agoNot only is it likely to happen, it is happening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_vaccine#Vaccines_in_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_vaccine#Vaccines_in_dev... I think there's a lot of people reacting to this article as if "vaccines in food" is a "baseless conspiracy theory" when in fact it's in the study phase. The world moves fast. While the science and engineering of it is interesting and all, it's bad medicine to put things in the food supply, no matter how convenient it may seem superficially. There's always someone who is going to have a bad reaction, and the more it becomes normalized, the more stuff is going to become worrisome. The entire idea of dosing populations with effectively no ability to control doses is insane. What happens to people who pair these with grapefruit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit%E2%80%93drug_interactions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit%E2%80%93drug_intera... (and I also highlight the "Mechanism" section) Passing a pre-emptive law against just lobbing it into the food supply to see what happens is nowhere near as nonsensical as it sounds. It may not be a serious threat right this second, but the cost of a law of this sort is cheap too. (The stealth mRNA vaccine concerns some people have are silly, though. Given how hard it is to even inject them, they're not about to be passing through the digestive system any time soon.)
- jkaplowitz 3y agoWhatever the substantive merits, passing a law like this at the state level seems like a waste of everyone's time and legal fees: the food and vaccine supply chains are pretty much archetypal examples of interstate or foreign commerce, so it's really going to be the federal Congress and the federal executive branch that decide these policies. State policies running contrary to those federal decisions will get invalidated on constitutional grounds, no matter which level of government enacts its law first.
- ceejayoz 3y ago> I think there's a lot of people reacting to this article as if "vaccines in food" is a "baseless conspiracy theory" when in fact it's in the study phase. Eggs are used to produce flu vaccines, but that doesn't mean those particular eggs can be sold as a food product. The same is going to be true for vaccine lettuce; as with any other vaccination, they'll fall under FDA regulation as drugs.
- akira2501 3y agoThey're responding to research and articles that are publicly presaging and promoting this technology along with the idea that blind mass medical interventions are somehow ethical as long as it's a vaccine. Finally.. how hard do you think it's going to be to actually implement this law? Would it require a new cabinet position? A new department? A single new hire? Then how did the government "get larger" as a result?
- ceejayoz 3y ago> It’s changes your DNA, mRNA changes your DNA when if you have your DNA tested now, and you eat a bunch of this, lettuce take a bunch of these MRNA vaccines, and you go back and get your DNA tested again, it’s gonna be a little different. It’s not going to be the same as it was that you were born with that you got from your parents. Sigh.
- micah94 3y agoI thought this little gem was going to be in the comments section of the article. Surely not in the article itself. Nope.
- singleshot_ 3y agoThis guy has a BachSci in “soil sciences” from University of Tennessee.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y agoI think soil scientists know more about soil than plants.
- kstrauser 3y agoAnecdotally we have at least one soil scientist who knows less about DNA than plants.
- tekla 3y agoDoes Tennessee not require a Biology 1 class?
- ceejayoz 3y agoThe legislator in question was born before the discovery of the structure of DNA.
- mrguyorama 3y agoBelieving he is ignorant, rather than being purposefully wrong, is no longer reasonable. They lost the benefit of the doubt a long time ago.
- rilindo 3y agoI am certain that this is going to eliminate most beef and poultry products. The meat-industrial-complex will not be pleased.
- jrockway 3y agoAccording to the linked executive summary, there are no tests for this condition, so the Department of Agriculture won't be testing for anything. The big worry is what happens when unicorns start eating this stuff.
- barryrandall 3y agoAs long as they don't feed them after midnight (local), it's completely harmless.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoThe question I've always had - when can you feed them after that? Ok, we stop at midnight, when can we resume?
- munk-a 3y agoWhen the new day starts - at 12:01 AM or sunrise depending on local customs.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y ago12:01 AM? These intermittent fasters are really watering down the definition.
- iamthirsty 3y ago> when unicorns start eating this stuff. Oh — dude — more people need to be talking about this!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- NEETPILLED 3y ago[flagged]
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoIs it in any way, shape, or form, addressing a current or even feasible problem? Are there any vaccines currently administered via food?
- steveklabnik 3y agoFrom the article: > “So does the sponsor know of any instances of there being food offered in the state of Tennessee that contains vaccines and some kind of a retail or public forum?” Campbell asked." > > “No, I do not know any specific examples."
- scotty79 3y agoIt addresses mental issues of the legislators and their constituents.
- EligibleDecoy 3y ago“”” Actually I’ve been reading about data for a couple of years now and evidently with this new technology, they can raise this lettuce is what they’re talking about first. They can raise this stuff so cheap, and I’ve been reading about it talking about putting it in and lettuce and mass medicate everybody, like they do with fluoride in the water. I mean, who could control the dose? If you’re if you eat a lot of lettuce, you’re gonna get a lot of mRNA if you don’t eat any won’t get any. … it was voted on and passed in the Senate. “”” You can’t make this up
- ajdude 3y agoI end up accidentally eating a lot of DNA and consequently MNRA, every time I eat a strawberry
- leereeves 3y agoTIL that researchers are working on edible vaccines. > Edible vaccines are genetically modified crops that contain antigens for specific diseases. Edible vaccines offer many benefits over traditional vaccines, due to their lower manufacturing cost and a lack of negative side effects. However, there are limitations as edible vaccines are still new and developing. Further research will need to be done before they are ready for widespread human consumption. Edible vaccines are currently being developed for measles, cholera, foot and mouth disease, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_vaccine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_vaccine
- RajT88 3y agoThere already are vaccines you ingest orally, but they aren't well known in the West. They are much cheaper to product, but also not as effective (so much more common in developing countries).
- ghaff 3y agoTyphoid for example.
- lupusreal 3y agoThe oral polio vaccine is not only less effective but also more dangerous. It, unlike the injected polio vaccine, can actually give you polio.
- leereeves 3y agoThat's something different. Those are live or killed pathogens that can be ingested orally. These are transgenic crops (like lettuce) that have been modified to express some proteins shared with the pathogens.
- Sniffnoy 3y agoOddly that article doesn't mention polio, which has had an edible vaccine for a long time. I'd edit it in but I'm not sure exactly how it relates to these others...
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoCan an entire state legislature be pulled into a conspiracy theory? Maybe an April Fools joke gone wrong?
- freitasm 3y agoFrom the article: "This bill merely would require any food that contains a vaccine..." If someone uses "merely" in a sentence, I automatically think it is at the same level as "I'm just asking questions".
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoTennessee also just passed law against Chemtrails. So think it might be safe to assume that an entire legislature has gone down some internet conspiracy rabbit hole.
- quantified 3y agoThis is the right day of the year to put something outlandish into the news cycle.
- andrewflnr 3y agoIt's pretty goofy, yes, but on the other hand, don't we always bemoan how legislation takes years to catch up to malicious practice and wish legislators would take initiative?
- babypuncher 3y agoIs this a malicious practice? The entire bill seems predicated on nonsense masquerading as science. > It’s changes your DNA, mRNA changes your DNA when if you have your DNA tested now, and you eat a bunch of this, lettuce take a bunch of these MRNA vaccines, and you go back and get your DNA tested again, it’s gonna be a little different. It’s not going to be the same as it was that you were born with that you got from your parents. Whoever wrote that drivel doesn't even have a basic high school understanding of how RNA/DNA work, let alone what an mRNA vaccine even is.
- everforward 3y agoYep, this was my take. I don't even think the law is necessarily bad. In vague terms, if someone combines a food and a vaccine, we probably should treat it like a vaccine rather than a food. I don't know if the law reasonably defines the terms, that would be my only holdback. I fear that in their attempt to legislate away something that doesn't exist, they may cast an overly broad net and break mundane farming methods.
- andrewflnr 3y agoIt might get really interesting when we get more modern farming developments that "vaccinate" against plant viruses or fungus or someone, which someone who doesn't understand RNA can then get confused about and call on this law to label otherwise-boring lettuce as a vaccine.
- everforward 3y agoThis is kind of what I was thinking about. Or even something less sophisticated; I vaguely remember a story about some plants that were cross-bred or spliced onto tobacco, because the resulting nicotine in the leaves kept plant-eating insects away (and I believe there was some biological reason the nicotine couldn't cross into the edible parts, but it's been forever so I don't really remember). Frankly, I don't even know that "vaccine" is a useful categorization for this. Vaccines, as a category, are defined by their outcome and intent, not their constituent parts or methodology. A properly refrigerated mRNA injection for COVID is a vaccine. If you heat that same vial up to 100C, it's not a vaccine anymore, it's just some junk in a vial. At the same time, a properly-refrigerated mRNA shot and a deactivated virus shot are both vaccines, even though their method of action and production share little in common.
- erickhill 3y agoI'm still waiting for Star Trek's hypospray. That, and the medical tricorder so I never need another needle-based biopsy procedure ever\ again.
- saalweachter 3y agoThe hypospray was actually a real technology predating Star Trek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector
- wrp 3y agoThat Wikipedia page goes into detail on why jet injectors are no longer used, but there is no mention of the scarring. It used to be common to see people with a circular scar on their upper arm where they got the injector shot as a child.
- saalweachter 3y agoAre you thinking of smallpox vaccination scars? https://www.verywellhealth.com/smallpox-vaccine-scar-7096798 https://www.verywellhealth.com/smallpox-vaccine-scar-7096798
- wrp 3y agoThat's something different. The scars I'm referring to were shaped like two half-disks facing each other. Edit: I asked around and nobody seems to know what I'm talking about. Seems either it was a local peculiarity or a misremembered childhood.
- fallinghawks 3y agoNo, I remember getting a vaccine that way, and it was different from the smallpox vaccine which was a bunch of little needles that left a scar. I got it in elementary school -- I want to say 2nd grade. I don't think the spray thing left a scar.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- thrill 3y agoEnhanced. Double. Jello. Shots. ... for a long and happy life.
- Glyptodon 3y agoDoes it clarify that things like water or salt solution don't can't as "vaccine ingredients" somewhere? Or is that like a default legal standard of some kind?
- Jimmc414 3y agoObviously, these lawmakers are not the subject matter experts on the topic, but I don't think it is accurate to call this a conspiracy theory. NSF has awarded at least one $500,000 grant to study plants as an edible mRNA vaccine delivery method. https://www.genengnews.com/news/plants-as-mrna-factories-for-edible-vaccines/ https://www.genengnews.com/news/plants-as-mrna-factories-for...
- jMyles 3y agoA theory being a conspiracy theory is unrelated to whether or not NSF has funded a particular study. The two question are very simple: * What is the crime being planned? * Who are the conspirators? If there are cognizable answers to those - in the theory - it's a conspiracy theory. Whether it is true or not is not part of the calculus.
- xhevahir 3y agoI think most people take "conspiracy theory" to imply falsehood, or at least exaggeration.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lupusreal 3y ago[flagged]
- mcphage 3y ago> And when Tennessee bans GMO foods Is that what you think is happening here?
- lupusreal 3y agoClose enough; they're banning one specific application of GMO foods while the Euro bans are more sweeping. The research that prompted this ban is talking about injecting DNA into plants which makes the plants produce a vaccine. That is a genetically modified food if ever there was one. > The project’s goals, made possible by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, are threefold: showing that DNA containing the mRNA vaccines can be successfully delivered into the part of plant cells where it will replicate, demonstrating the plants can produce enough mRNA to rival a traditional shot, and finally, determining the right dosage... So what's my point? I'm not opposed to GMO food at all, I'm just pointing out that the origin of the law sets the tone for the discussion. If the law is European, the discussion will be about how the lawmakers are enlightened, but if the law comes from America, particularly a red state, then the conversation will be decidedly negative.
- mcphage 3y agoIt could be that it’s the origin, and it also could be that one law is about thousands of products that are currently being sold, and the other is about something that a single project is trying to see if it’s even possible.