It's Just A Fish

[howeird]

Why does the phrase "genetically engineered" throw people into such a flurry of mindless panic? How could gene splicing possibly make an animal unsafe to eat?

Comments

[melchar.livejournal.com]

... because most people are completely removed from having any notion about what the natural state of unmodified food is? They expect corn to be a uniform color with large kernals on a big cob - and not something of varying color that is maybe the length of 2 thumbs? [my sized thumbs] That a natural strawberry is the size of a thumbnail?

'Genetic engineering' has been used as a term to scare the bewilickers out of folks for 40-odd years now, whereas animal husbandry is a term that leads to rude farmer jokes ... probably because virtually no one lives on a farm any more.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

General ignorance aside, there are elements in GM research which certainly cause me great concern, such as splicing genetic traits from marine life into crops or inbuilding sterility into seeds in order to ensure a regular customer base. The long term impact of these alterations, should they leak into the wider organic population, is simply unknown at present.

[howeird]

We have been eating genetically engineered food for our whole lifetimes. Gene splicing is simply a shortcut to what used to take decades of selective breeding. For example, in 1969 I worked as an intern at the National Marine Fisheries Services lab in Seattle, where I helped log tagged salmon which were selectively bred in their hatchery and released to the wild. An enormous amount of data was gathered about their migration paths and feeding habits, and when fishermen caught a tagged fish they had to turn the tag in to us with location and size data. At the same time the UW fisheries department had developed the Donaldson trout, much larger than most strains of trout, and tasted better too.

The long term impact of these alterations, should they leak into the wider organic population, is simply unknown at present.
This is silly. If I said the same thing about eating monkey brains, you would laugh at me. Genetic alterations don't "leak into the wider organic population." The wider organic population can't interbreed.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I'd be very interested to hear how you can "selectively breed" genetic elements of a salmon into a strain of wheat, which is parallel to certain of the GM experiments.

Eating monkey brains is known to cause a condition similar to Alzheimer's, but that irrelevance aside, it's perfectly possible for a genetic modification designed for one purpose to enter the larger gene pool. Some - such as immunity to a disease - might be welcome; others - such as inbuilt sterility which forces farmers to buy new seeds every year - not so. How is this "silly"?

The wider organic population can't interbreed.

Really? Were you the result of an immaculate conception?

[howeird]

I was the result of two members of the same species breeding, as I hope you were. Your first sentence proves my point.

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

So, do you think inbuilt sterility for crops is a good idea? How do you feel about corporations suing neighboring farmers for having crops that ended up cross pollinated by said corp's GM varient because the farmer didn't pay to use their GM crop.

The questions around GM crops aren't just health related, things like IP law are a factor as well.

[howeird]

My post was about the safety of eating genetically engineered food. I don't give a crap about what the lawyers think.