Need for GM Food is Not a Mystery

[artistchick]

Today I read this article in which the AquaBounty corporation addresses public questions about their new genetically engineered salmon. In September, the FDA opened a 60 day public comment period about whether the salmon should be labeled or not. Here is my response

Comments

[shirou]

A datum for you:

Almost all crops are genetically modified. For centuries farmers have bred crops to improve their suitability for human consumption. For example, the sweet and juicy corn we eat today would be unrecognizable to the American Indians of a thousand years ago; the corn they knew was, by our standards, virtually inedible. Genetic modification is by no means a new phenomenon. Long before scientists were able to effect genetic changes in a laboratory, farmers were able to make profound genetic changes in their crops by the selective cross-breeding of plants. It was a much slower process, but it ultimately made huge changes in what people eat.

I'm not arguing against any of the points you made, nor am I arguing against your position. I just wanted to add a new perspective. One could argue that none of the produce we eat could be considered genetically "unmodified," as centuries of selective breeding -- performed by farmers for their own sake, just as companies seek to raise their own profits -- have left us with produce cultivated specifically for human consumption. And probably we are better for it.

[artistchick]

Thanks for your thoughtful comment, shirou. The point about us already eating genetically modified foods is something I have considered myself, but of course it is simply a question of semantics with the use of the words "genetically engineered" or "genetically modified". The industrial process of engineering seeds is, as far as I have researched, far different from and hardly comparable to the process of breeding plants. Perhaps a geneticist would argue differently; I would love to hear from an expert on this.

At any rate, the point I was trying to make is not one about the safety or lack thereof in genetically engineered technologies. Rather, this issue is a political one that has some rather far reaching consequences and as such should not be decided on based solely upon the needs of a corporation, and the "feed the world" advertising tactic of the bioengineering companies is not only despicable, but, as I tried to point as, nonsense. This would be the first FDA approval of a genetically modified animal for human consumption, and there are still many countries (the EU requires GM food labeling, for example) opposed to GM foods. Now, I'll try to emphasize a point which perhaps fell by the wayside in my original entry, where I seemed to have gotten distracted in talking about biodiversity (an important point, but not the main one I meant to make there): The infectious nature of GE seed technology suggests there could be unseen consequences with the salmon technology. The danger of allowing corporations to patent life is that you cannot control it; it will spread and breed and the gene will make its way into the general population. Then corporations such as Monsanto or AquaBounty own any organisms containing one of their altered genes, regardless of the location of the organism or the identities of the parents. Since these organisms are genetically engineered to perform better, they do. Thus they out compete indigenous organisms and the corporations owning them get greater and greater control over the markets. Since this market is one for a basic human need--food--I find this disturbing. In addition, the infectious nature of this affects people in other countries as well.

There are only 2 steps needed for the salmon to infect the indigenous ocean supply. 1. Salmon from farms get into the ocean (this has already been shown to happen from regular salmon farms). 2. Female salmon that escape somehow reproduce (Aquabounty says it is producing only producing female fish, but fish can sometimes change sex; it's amazing what nature can do . . . ) Perhaps the probability is quite low, but (I can't help but make use of this quote here) "life finds a way".