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We are a part of nature. Don't we adapt?
Your use of antibiotics as an analogy is a bit weak.... but I understand your point. Over riding all these points is the increase of human population on this planet. We are generally fortunate on the Big Island.
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Yes, but see above: evolution works best when the adaptation occurs at a "natural" pace in order to level the playing field. Splicing disparate species together may have long-term consequences; the problem is that nature and man have very different definitions of "long-term".
Monsanto (or whomever) says "we've tested this in the lab for 20 years" -- but to nature, 20 years is the blink of an eye, and the lab test environment represents a very very small fraction of the real-world ecodiversity.
Considering the other things going on (jellyfish blooms from ocean acidification, climate change well past the tipping point, the 1%-vs-99% issue), anti-GMO sentiment suddenly seems ... quaint. The time of Man is basically over (unless we find new planets to poison).
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I tend to agree. Meanwhile...... here we all are.
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Depending on the phase of the moon, we're either here "because of" or "in spite of".
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Have you read kim stanley robinsons Mars trilogy kalakoa? - if not I recommend.
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Yes, some years ago; another trilogy by same author:
Forty Signs of Rain
Fifty Degrees Below
Sixty Days and Counting
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The below link shows an instance of business as usual for monsanto
http://www.projectcensored.org/24-widesp...-approval/
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"evolution works best when the adaptation occurs at a "natural" pace in order to level the playing field"
Apart from the serious hubris of claiming knowledge of how "evolution works best" (whew!) there is no "natural" pace of evolution. How could there be just one pace over a 3+billion year process here on earth? For instance, during the Cambrian Explosion (over 500 million years ago) the number of phyla increased at much faster rate than later.
As far as "Splicing disparate species together" that goes on all the time without any human intervention. We just don't notice. After all, every one of our human cells (as well as all higher life forms) contains mitochondria, once upon a time an entirely separate organism that still has its own chromosomes.
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'As far as "Splicing disparate species together" that goes on all the time without any human intervention. We just don't notice. After all, every one of our human cells (as well as all higher life forms) contains mitochondria, once upon a time an entirely separate organism that still has its own chromosomes.'
pete is 100% right... mitochondria (the organelles in your cell that respire to produce ATP) entered the cell and were once single celled prokaryotes - of a completely different organism.
also, on a semi-related note, certain species of bacteria (agrobacterium) use enzymes to 'cut' out pieces of DNA (genes) and add them into entirely different species.
this is one of the ways we discovered genetic modification...by observing it in nature.
however, none of the above constitutes a reason for food to be grown genetically modified (just my opinion)
great input imo pete.
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Could anyone please list what GMO crops are affected locally by Bill 113?
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