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Here's a classic case of Caution Before Proliferation. If the thing that you make can grow and multiply, whether it's engineered in DNA or C, a responsible crea
by eksith 13y ago
Here's a classic case of Caution Before Proliferation. If the thing that you make can grow and multiply, whether it's engineered in DNA or C, a responsible creator has an obligation to ensure the end result can be rendered safe and inactive with reasonable care.
When there are so many middle-men in the distribution, from truckers to the actual farmer involved, this reasonable care becomes harder and harder. Every link is a potential failure point in the chain of security.
- kiba 13y agoEvolution says that GM wheat in the wild will be weeded out in the process of natural selection, because GM wheat are made to grow big and resists certain pesticide, which is costly uses of its resources in a wild environment. Instead of growing big and juicy, maybe it needs to compete against other plants. In other words, GM wheats and plants varieties need humans to proliferate.
- Ygg2 13y agoTrue, however selection pressures don't always prevent junk DNA from spreading (in terms of GM, the junk DNA could be the patented DNA spreading).
- StavrosK 13y agoBut it's safe already! The only thing that's different is that you can spray it with RoundUp and it won't die. What's the problem?
- eksith 13y agoBut it's safe already! Extraordinary claims etc... etc... You make this assertion based on what data? Was it studied with the same scrutiny of the FDA? Because I can recall at least 4 medicines off the top of my head approved by the FDA that were recalled in the last few years for causing very serious unforeseen side-effects. Now those are drugs, things we (presumably) have an option of not taking. What about things that grow on their own and we don't have an option of saying no to? I.E. Food?
- Xylakant 13y agoMethinks your irony detector could use a little adjustment.
- eksith 13y agoNothing I've said is extraordinary. "But it's safe already!" is an extraordinary claim. "The only thing that's different is..." is an extraordinary claim. "Methinks" is pretentious snark - eksith ...That's an extraordinary claim too, so feel free to call irony on that.
- StavrosK 13y agoWas the strain of wheat you're eating now, that was cross-pollinated with another one, safe to eat? Is it more or less safe than the GM one? Was it studied by the FDA?
- eksith 13y agoThe strain of wheat I was eating already has hereditary homogeneity that my digestive tract is already accustomed to and countless numbers of my peers including my parents were already exposed to in the first place. What we have here is a massive overdose of "engineered", and that's the operative word here, homogeneity of a new strain which, besides being abandoned by this company for reasons they claim is a lack of market, could have unforeseen effects. My original line was "Was it studied with the same scrutiny of the FDA?" As in people are fallible and new medicines, like new breeds of wheat, can have unexpected effects on the human body regardless of how emphatically the investigators of said products claim they are safe for human use. "New" anything takes time for such a claim. We haven't spent enough of it.
- StavrosK 13y agoEvery one of the millions of random mutations in a new generation of anything makes it "new". The only difference is that GM wheat has a targeted mutation, rather than a random one.
- darkarmani 13y ago> But it's safe already! Didn't they say the same thing about DDT?
- StavrosK 13y agoYes, and about Aspirin, too.