Oh My Gosh must read makes you want to be more self sustainable

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British cattle? ReallY? Better check on that. Seems to me that had a pretty big (relatively speaking) outbreak of Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease from the beef.
 
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Human Insulin was made from pigs and cows. How is that better than recombinant DNA technology using species specific DNA?

A little knowledge of molecular biology goes a long way.

Everything on the Earth contains recombinant DNA. That is how you get genes from both your father and your mother.

So how is combining DNA in a lab different than combining DNA in an organism?

It isn't. What bothers people is that they don't understand what the scientists are doing. So they shun it. I'm afraid it really isn't all that mystic, the recombinant DNA thing. I did it so many times in grad school it was actually boring and tedious.

And one more thing:

If GMO foods are "dead" then mules are "dead" too. That logic of "DEAD" things won't hold. Clearly GMO corn is alive, as are mules.
 
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This entire discussion is the biggest reason I started growing my own garden and raising chickens. Next comes the milk goat and bees (if I can keep them alive through all the ccd mess). It's very hard to trust what's in the stores and what information to believe. You really have to do a lot of research to get good information.
 
The whole GMO thing has been discussed here before, each time it has been shut down.

Two humans mate, human genes mix and recombine to make a new human, with fully human genome.

GMO foods take different species to combine unrelated genes, in a chimera, which has traits of both species. This is not the equivilent of sexual reproduction within a species; plant or animal.

Yes human have been modifying plant and animal genetics for thousands of years. However, the changes that come from modern molecular genetics are very different.

For now, I use cane sugar and honey. GMO sugar cane is in the pipeline though. I try to avoid corn sweetners, cereals with corn procucts, and am looking for organic cornmeal. I don't like GMO food. I feel that the long term studies are being done general population that uses the products, and that the regulatory process is lagging far behind the science.
 
mom'sfolly :

However, the changes that come from modern molecular genetics are very different.

How so, care to elaborate? Don't worry about confusing me, I assure you I'll get it.​
 
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I would have to respectfully disagree. The genetically modified crops I am familiar with--corn and soybeans--are genetically modified to accept without death a specific chemical (one also made by the company who produced the seed, of course) without the crops being killed.
 
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Again, I have to disagree. Recent history gives lots of examples of chemicals we thought were a great idea but turned out to be carcinogenic or cause birth defects. Unfortunately, no long-term study has been done on GMOs, only short-term studies by the industry that created them.

Secondly, Monsanto, Cargill and a few other companies appear to be gaining control over a thing that everyone should have access to--seeds for food. They can do this because the act of genetically modifying the seeds gives them patents for them. Now, I can buy their seed but never replant it without threat of lawsuit. I find it a bit scary to see variety after variety of food crops bite the dust simply because nobody is buying them any longer and seed companies are selling instead GMO strains instead. I know whereof I speak--my husband is a conventional farmer. He has almost no options in our area beyond GMO crops.

Lastly, a very brief research into Monsanto's (for one example) business practices does not lead most people to trust in their goodwill and charity toward humankind.

ETA: Genetic diversity among the food world seems like a great way to avoid devastating wipeouts from disease, drought, climate change. The narrower our food supply gets, the more susceptible we are to disaster.

Also, oblio, what exactly is the upside of genetic modification besides, of course, fattening the pocketbooks of the huge industries that have created it? A person always hears the "we can feed more people argument," but I tend to believe starvation is much more related to specific governments than a world-wide lack of food.

In response to another comment that genetic modification is basically a natural process, it really is not. Genetic modification can take traits from a peanut and splice them into a soybean, completely impossible in nature and a potentially deadly consequence for someone allergic to peanuts who then eats soy products (this particular one didn't go to market for that reason).
 
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