GMO animals

[Gleb]

Re: GMO animals

I said nuclear power not nuclear weaponry. They aren't the same. As for the value of nuclear weapons, it's an argument I've been through before and don't see a point in revisiting.

Oh.. Right. Sorry.

[kalynraye]

Re: GMO animals

You say GMO animals are wrong, but what about GMO veggies and fruits? There's really no difference except for the fact that we have come to value animal life over plant life due to the fact that animals are obviously sentient (that's a whole discussion right there, but let's just leave it at that for this purpose). If you say genetically modified anything is wrong, theoretically you should feel that way about applying it to all things. So it is then wrong to tweak a potato so that it is the size of your head, and contains a massive amount of the dietary needs we require with just a few bites? Or to create them so that they can survive without as much water, thus making it more cost effective, easier to produce, and easier to transport so that more food can be gotten to more people?

As for the t-rex thing, I'd think that you could make one hell of a bbq drumstick out of those guys, like those turkey legs you can get at fairs.

I'm also not ok with GMO veggies and fruits. As I said we aren't responsible with what we have now. Instead of tweaking and changing them so they are bigger or easier to produce how bout we relearn how to take care of the land and be responsible with how we grow and produce things. We are a world of convenience, we don't understand eating things in season or rotating our crop rotation to give nutrients back to the earth instead of completely depleting it. I value no life more then the other and that includes plants or animals. We need plants just as much as animals.

[SonoftheWaters]

Re: GMO animals

At this point and time they don't know enough about genetics to be playing with it. As it is they just figured out there are actually three parts to DNA.

The example of a problem with there lack of understanding happened a few years back in TX, they had a GMO feed grass that they was being test for a couple of years and they had no problems with it and then one really hot summer, the cows that had been eating it started to die, upon testing the grass they found out that it started producing arsenic on it's own. There is too much of a chance of this happening with our own food source for me to be comfortable with the playing with it. Keep selective breeding, get rid of GMO for now.

We need another 50 years before it should even be thought to be used in the general public. To bad they already using it in our foods, yummy, carrots spliced with beetle to make it a brighter orange color with less nutritional value because it sales better.

[anunitu]

Re: GMO animals

I checked this grass out,and there seems to be some disagreement if it was GM or hybrid. I do not know enough to filter through the back and forth,BUT I was surprised to learn this production of Arsenic does actually happen even with some types of natural grass. What struck me was climate and plants do not always create a good outcome. I had no idea the complexity of growing plants,and providing feed for cattle.

[Juniper]

I'm not OK with GMO food of any kind. That stuff is so bad for our bodies and contributes to so many illnesses. It messes with us on a cellular level. Speaking from personal experience. All my primary care physician wanted to do was tweak my medication when I spent months upon months ill and throwing up numerous times a week, sometimes even daily. I started eating non GMO foods and I got better. Therefore, I believe, for the good of our species, we should not allow GMO foods of any kind.

[anunitu]

Re: GMO animals

I have read that the GMO stuff can cause allergic reactions in people with no history of allergies to foods. I think people are allergic to certain chemicals in food,and the alteration of food can at times create a chemical reaction. In the case of the grass above,it happens when outside conditions and the presence of chemicals interact..with the grass it was drought that switched to non drought that triggered the chemical reaction.

- - - Updated - - -

As an after thought,would altered plants or even animals react differently in different soil or climate conditions. so safe in one,not safe in another.?

[Rae'ya]

Re: GMO animals

... The first thing that comes to my mind when we talk about GMO engineering is Jurassic Park.

The scary thing is that we're already doing this, with the Passenger Pigeon and now the Woolly Mammoth.

For instance potatoes - there are ordinary ones, white and red ones. I want to say apples but I'm not sure. However.. It happens with animals. I mean, why? There are always side effects when people deal with it.

Ironically enough, most coloured potatoes, tomatoes and carrots are actually 100% natural... they're just heritage/heirloom strains that are no longer grown except in people's backyards. The 'ordinary' big white potato, or the big orange straight cylindrical carrot... THOSE are GMO. Most commercial fruit, veg and grains are highly altered and are some of the earliest GMO projects, because they wanted crops that would grow consistently, grow in places they wouldn't naturally grow, require less nutrient input, require less pesticides, produce for longer, and produce consistent fruit that looked beautiful.

You say GMO animals are wrong, but what about GMO veggies and fruits? There's really no difference except for the fact that we have come to value animal life over plant life due to the fact that animals are obviously sentient (that's a whole discussion right there, but let's just leave it at that for this purpose). If you say genetically modified anything is wrong, theoretically you should feel that way about applying it to all things. So it is then wrong to tweak a potato so that it is the size of your head, and contains a massive amount of the dietary needs we require with just a few bites? Or to create them so that they can survive without as much water, thus making it more cost effective, easier to produce, and easier to transport so that more food can be gotten to more people?

As for the t-rex thing, I'd think that you could make one hell of a bbq drumstick out of those guys, like those turkey legs you can get at fairs.

I'm in complete agreement with Kalynraye and Juni here. I dislike GMO plants as much as I do GMO animals. I am absolutely 100% an advocate of heritage/heirloom vegetables and do NOT want the head-sized potato that contains more dietary needs per inch than traditional ones.

The thing that we forget is that we already have (or had) highly nutritious foods that grow in the places industry wants them to grow, which are naturally resistant to certain pests, which need less water, and which in some cases can feed more people per hectare of crop... it's just that the commercial monocrop culture doesn't want those. It wants the big white potatoes, the perfect orange carrots, the yellow corn, the wheat, the shiny red apples... we've been conditioned to think that bigger is better, cleaner is better, crisper is better... we've been conditioned to think that small, lumpy, oddly coloured, twisted fruit and veg with blemishes on them are second rate. We've been conditioned to want our favourite fruit and veg all year round at the same price, and available wherever we live at the same price. We want our chicken breasts to be enormous, cheap and tasteless. We want our beef a certain shade of red. We want our bacon with a certain amount of fat on it. And industry will do that for us. Meanwhile small home producers are learning that chicken doesn't really taste like that, and sometimes your egg yolks are a funny shade of orange or red because you fed the chooks or ducks a different veg scrap this week, and potatoes are often small and lumpy, and carrots are purple and twisted and have conjoined twins, and the quality of your apples is directly related to how well you kept the birds and bugs off your orchard.

There are a number of problems I have with GMO foods, and in many cases I actually think that GMO plants are worse than GMO animals. I would love for us to lose that particular technology. Yes, it would mean losing some valuable contributions to medicine and nutrition, but on balance I'd rather lose those few valuable contributions, than lose the vast array of heritage breeds and cause the sort of environmental and ecosystem imbalances that we are currently facing.

[thalassa]

Re: GMO animals

The thing that we forget is that we already have (or had) highly nutritious foods that grow in the places industry wants them to grow, which are naturally resistant to certain pests, which need less water, and which in some cases can feed more people per hectare of crop... it's just that the commercial monocrop culture doesn't want those. It wants the big white potatoes, the perfect orange carrots, the yellow corn, the wheat, the shiny red apples... we've been conditioned to think that bigger is better, cleaner is better, crisper is better... we've been conditioned to think that small, lumpy, oddly coloured, twisted fruit and veg with blemishes on them are second rate. We've been conditioned to want our favourite fruit and veg all year round at the same price, and available wherever we live at the same price. We want our chicken breasts to be enormous, cheap and tasteless. We want our beef a certain shade of red. We want our bacon with a certain amount of fat on it. And industry will do that for us. Meanwhile small home producers are learning that chicken doesn't really taste like that, and sometimes your egg yolks are a funny shade of orange or red because you fed the chooks or ducks a different veg scrap this week, and potatoes are often small and lumpy, and carrots are purple and twisted and have conjoined twins, and the quality of your apples is directly related to how well you kept the birds and bugs off your orchard.

Holly-effing-loo-lah!

There are a number of problems I have with GMO foods, and in many cases I actually think that GMO plants are worse than GMO animals. I would love for us to lose that particular technology. Yes, it would mean losing some valuable contributions to medicine and nutrition, but on balance I'd rather lose those few valuable contributions, than lose the vast array of heritage breeds and cause the sort of environmental and ecosystem imbalances that we are currently facing.

Also, yes. Particularly because of how plants reproduce.

Look, a GMO animal isn't making it with stray non-GMO animals on a nearby farm by chance, just because the wind blows. GMO plants are *way* scarier.