I semi-agree here- the likelihood of peanut genes inserted thru GMO being dangerous is pretty low- much lower than using traditional hybridization methods (because genetic engineering can *choose* which genes to insert and leave out)
On the flip side, I've read some things that indicate that peanut allergies (among other things) have been around for a really long time, they just werent recognized as such until the last 20-30 years. One reason for this is that children who got the allergies died of them- and it was chalked up to "food poisoning" (or simply "unknown causes"- infant mortality was HIGH before WWII) My grandfather's little brother died at age 3 of "food poisoning" after eating nuts. From the description my grandfather recalled, it sounded much more like an anaphylactic reaction than a true food poisoning. This would have been in the early 1920s. Children growing up prior to 1950 would not likely know someone who was living with a peanut allergy. But they probably knew someone whose sibling had died as a baby or toddler of unknown causes.
That said, I think GE is the ONLY possibility currently available that offers a future variant of peanuts made without whatever might be in them that triggers the allergies. (or conversely, GE of children with the allergies to make their immune system not respond to that protein)
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Date: 2008-06-11 08:11 am (UTC)On the flip side, I've read some things that indicate that peanut allergies (among other things) have been around for a really long time, they just werent recognized as such until the last 20-30 years. One reason for this is that children who got the allergies died of them- and it was chalked up to "food poisoning" (or simply "unknown causes"- infant mortality was HIGH before WWII)
My grandfather's little brother died at age 3 of "food poisoning" after eating nuts. From the description my grandfather recalled, it sounded much more like an anaphylactic reaction than a true food poisoning. This would have been in the early 1920s.
Children growing up prior to 1950 would not likely know someone who was living with a peanut allergy. But they probably knew someone whose sibling had died as a baby or toddler of unknown causes.
That said, I think GE is the ONLY possibility currently available that offers a future variant of peanuts made without whatever might be in them that triggers the allergies. (or conversely, GE of children with the allergies to make their immune system not respond to that protein)
B
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Date: 2008-06-11 02:31 pm (UTC)