GMO irony

[ChickenJesus]

I've been searching a lot of threads on feed, specifically if anybody has found a source of inexpensive feed, and noticed that a lot of discussion goes on about non-GMO feed. Just curious as to why people are afraid of it. And I also find it ironic because every single member on this site has nothing but GMO chickens (with the exception of those who only have the jungle fowl). Dog owners, all of you too. Anybody wth sweet corn in their garden.......


I just don't get why speeding up the process of natural selection is frowned upon when discussing feeding you GMO pets GMO grains.

 

[QueenMisha]

There's a lot of discussion and a lot of pseudoscience that goes around when discussing GMOs. Personally I always recommend the non-GMO feed at work... but that has more to do with the fact that those bags are 40lbs and the conventionals are 50 and I'm the one who has to load them.

Kidding aside... there's no evidence that GMOs can hurt us simply by eating them. There's nothing "foreign" in GMO items, it's just genes that have been moved around artificially. That said, I am somewhat anti-GMO, specifically towards variations like the Round-Up Ready sort. That stuff is pretty dang poisonous, for the environment and in large enough quantities for humans and animals, and I really don't find it to be a good idea to be spraying it in large amounts on food items, and modifying things to make them capable of standing up to that... ick. There's also the concern of GMO strains hybridizing with regular strains - sure, GMOs have lots of potential, but they're also still relatively new creations. It would be wise to keep them isolated from old strains for the time being, and even then - it's important to keep heritage varieties alive and pure.

That said, I'd say you're incorrect about us having "GMO" pets and flocks. Yes, they've been genetically modified, but not in a lab, which is what I'd call a "real" GMO, for the sake of this conversation. The difference being that one form of modification happens over many decades or centuries and is done through simple means, whereas one is new, high tech, and artificial... three words that some people tend to get scared of.

 

[ChickenJesus]

That said, I'd say you're incorrect about us having "GMO" pets and flocks. Yes, they've been genetically modified, but not in a lab, which is what I'd call a "real" GMO, for the sake of this conversation. The difference being that one form of modification happens over many decades or centuries and is done through simple means, whereas one is new, high tech, and artificial... three words that some people tend to get scared of.

So if you and I both want to go from city A to city B, you take advantage of modern technology and fly and make the trip in a couple hours while I walk and arrive in a few months, you didn't really get there? You didn't actually make the trip since you flew while I walked?

As both the son of a farmer and somebody with a PhD in genetics, I do agree roundup ready seed is bad. Monsanto even more vile!

 

[waterouzel]

Defining a GMO turns out to be almost impossible. There are many ways the genes in plants have been altered beyond the 'classic' breeding process. For example, there are over 3,400 fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants that have been created in the lab by subjecting seeds to high doses of radiation and then seeing what grows. This has been going on for decades. Pink Grapefruit being one example. If one is afraid of GMO's then a ruby grapefruit should be terrifying as no one has any idea how its genes were scrambled. There are great benefits from GE technology and the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community is that they are perfectly safe and a povide a powerful tool for the plant breeder. I personally avoid all products labeled GMO free. The company is simply using fear to sell a product.

http://www.realclearscience.com/2015/12/26/it039s_practically_impossible_to_define_gmos_268254.html

 

[marktoo]

Good, bad or otherwise, just from an economic standpoint, it doesn't make sense to produce more & more GMO crops the rest of the world doesn't seem to want. Certainly not when doing so pollutes the gene pool on the remaining non GMO crops! More and more countries are banning GMOs & refusing our farm products. Soon the only way to export our farm goods will be to tie it to an aid package & if we're giving them aid they're not exactly paying customers. A tipping point will be reached at some point & the Biotech companies will win by default! They know this....all they need is a little more time!

 

[ChickenJesus]

Good, bad or otherwise, just from an economic standpoint, it doesn't make sense to produce more & more GMO crops the rest of the world doesn't seem to want.  Certainly not when doing so pollutes the gene pool on the remaining non GMO crops!  More and more countries are banning GMOs  & refusing our farm products.  Soon the only way to export our farm goods will be to tie it to an aid package & if we're giving them aid they're not exactly paying customers.  A tipping point will be reached at some point & the Biotech companies will win by default!  They know this....all they need is a little more time!

People are resistant to change and afraid of what they don't know. Seems to be human nature. We had thousands of years to accept the genetically modified corn we now eat, hundreds of years to make pets out of the various breeds of genetically modified dogs, cats, chickens, et. Misinformation people read on blogs on the Internet is scary.

 

[marktoo]

A hybrid & a GMO are the same thing then? No sir! They are not even close. Yesterday's corn was not roundup ready nor did have a gene strain from an entirely different species inserted into it's DNA.
Believe what you will. You think this stuff is safe? Fine, eat it.
I eat it too but I eat as little as possible cause I don't think it is safe but it is hard to avoid in the US. I believe science has overstepped on this one & no one will ever convince me otherwise.

 

[ChickenJesus]

Huh? Nobody mentioned hybrids. If you are talking about today's breeds or strains of animals and grains, yes, some are hybrids but all are genetically modified from a (or multiple) common ancestor(s) through mutation and selection over hundreds or thousands of years for traits deemed desirable. And some, round up ready grains, for better or worse, just had that process sped up.

 

[ccrow]

Here is the definition used by the World Health Organization: "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms (i.e. plants, animals or microorganisms) in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination. The technology is often called “modern biotechnology” or “gene technology”, sometimes also “recombinant DNA technology” or “genetic engineering”. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between nonrelated species. Foods produced from or using GM organisms are often referred to as GM foods."
So your example 'all are genetically modified from a (or multiple) common ancestor(s) through mutation and selection over hundreds or thousands of years for traits deemed desirable' is not the same thing at all.
As for the process being 'speeded up', as you say, here's a quote from wikipedia: "Roundup Ready Soybeans express a version of EPSPS from the CP4 strain of the bacteria, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, expression of which is regulated by an enhanced 35S promoter (E35S) from cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV), a chloroplast transit peptide (CTP4) coding sequence from Petunia hybrida, and a nopaline synthase (nos 3') transcriptional termination element from Agrobacterium tumefaciens.[7] The plasmid with EPSPS and the other genetic elements mentioned above was inserted into soybean germplasm with a gene gun by scientists at Monsanto and Asgrow." I'm sorry, but selective breeding will never put genes from petunias, bacteria, cauliflower, or anything else into those soybeans.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I was riding around on a tractor last week spraying 2-4d & glyphosate on a fencerow, and you know how your mind starts thinking about things when you're driving a tractor...
I was smoking a cigarette and hoped for the sake of my health the tobacco in my cigarette wasn't from a GMO crop.