Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Ian Meyer <ianmeyer AT mac.com>]

On Jun 23, 2004, at 10:33 AM, Jeremy Portzer wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 10:20, Ian Meyer wrote:
>
> > because those thousands of genes were already in the plants, as 
> > opposed
> > to just inserting genes that may end up doing all kinds of unexpected
> > weird stuff
>
> But the point is they DO NOT do "all kinds of unexpected weird stuff".
> Genes are codes to make proteins.  In the case of the RR gene, it makes
> a protein that alters the mechanism by which Roundup normally works.
>
> Now, I agree that protein mechanisms are extremely complex, and it's
> important to test things to be sure there aren't unexpected side
> effects.  But you are just changing one SMALL aspect of the whole mix,
> unlike hybridization which changes THOUSANDS of proteins unknown to the
> hybridizer.  Why are thousands of unknown changed genes somehow better
> than one well-studied carefully known gene?

those thousands of proteins come form the plants, proteins that work, 
that do their job properly, whereas the inserted genes, although they 
may work right themselves, who's to say that they don't have some 
strange side effects on the other genes and protein production? 
frankly, with the recent stuff of pharmaceuticals being misused and not 
properly tested, im not that trusting of Big Corp's custom veggies.

> > whats really weird to me is the people against the labeling of
> > (artifically) GM foods...
>
> It's because theses labelling ideas usually latch on to this paranoia
> that artificial genetic modification is somehow a horrible idea, when
> science for the most part has shown it's just fine.

labeling wouldn't acknowledge any supposed dangers, just make consumers 
more aware

> (Same goes for certain processing techniques such as irraditation.)

thats a lot less suspect than GM foods, IMHO, and doesn't need labeling

>  I don't have anything against the voluntary labeling of foods that 
> are made without
> artificial GM though.  And maybe some rules should be made to clarify
> this, like the rules for 'organic' labelling.

yeah, a rule like, if you say is isn't GM, then it can't be GM.