View Single Post
  #9 (permalink)   Report Post  
Posted to sci.agriculture,sci.skeptic,alt.food.vegan
David Hare-Scott
 
Posts: n/a
Default Coming Soon to a Paddy Near You: Frankenrice !


"rick" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>
> "David Hare-Scott" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > "rick" > wrote in message
> > nk.net...
> >>
> >> > wrote in message
> >> oups.com...
> >>
> >> Bionic Growth For Biotech Crops
> >>
> >> Gene-Altered Agriculture Trending Global
> >> By Justin Gillis
> >> Washington Post Staff Writer
> >> Thursday, January 12, 2006; D01
> >>
> >>
> >> snippage...
> >>
> >> You do realize don't you that every crop food you eat has been
> >> "genetically modified" don't you? You don't really think you
> >> are
> >> eating whatever the original plant was do you?
> >>
> >>

> >
> > GM by direct intervention at the gene level may turn out in the
> > long run to
> > be good, bad or indiferent but lumping it in with selective
> > breeding over
> > thousands of years is just pointless. So you can call both
> > techniques
> > "genetic modification". What does this tell us that is
> > relevant to the
> > issue? Nothing, it's just playing with words.
> > =================================

> Really? then why do these people talk like the foods they ate
> before GM are the same as they have been for eons? It just ain't
> so.


Because "people" may be ignorant. Whatever the reason it doesn't make the
two methods the same.

>Besides, selective breeding doesn't mean safety anyway.


True there are no certainties but given the amount of time we have been
doing it and the number of cases of development of new varieties through
selective breeding mean that we have reasonable confidence in the kinds of
results that will be obtained.

> There have been selective breeding programs to produce pest
> resistant strains of food that have turned out toxic just to
> handle.


Please cite your sources for this information.

David