Genetically modified potato wins EU approval

[Malboury]

Conversations by edits are hard to follow!

I believe I just said that this was an example of transgenic's playing a part in evolution. And this is an example of genetic material crossing species, which is transgenic by definition, right? Transgenic means contains dna from another species, not necessarily from plants or animals or whatever. Just from a different species. Though I'm willing to be corrected... ?

[Cincinnatus]

more hysteria about "FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS".
"ordinary" food is fiscally unsound - it's bankrupting us!
Cost of foodborne illness differs by ... - Google News

we can not afford to live like this!!

but have no fear..here comes GM food to the rescue!

[ryson]

More proof of the criminality at the heart of the EU. Serving corporations such as Monsanto at the expense of the basic welfare of the peoples of Europe.

[Malboury]

GM crops, properly deployed, could benefit the people of the world massively. But that aside, I just wanted to post some more info for those interested. Not in this particular story, but in regards to GM in general. I imagine some of the posters here would find it interesting!
(It's a post I made to a blog a few weeks ago, so the article the post was made about is a bit old.)

You can now mail order entirely new genetic codes for around $1 dollar a letter, from these guys; Blue Heron Biotechnology: GeneMaker gene synthesis That said, it's not guaranteed to work, they just put it together, they don't check to see if it does anything. For that, you'd need something like a wiki of prepared genetic building blocks, sort of like biological lego. Oh wait, that's here: Main Page - partsregistry.org. All you need to build synthetic life is there, completely opensource. Now you just need a PCR machine (sometimes as low as $59 on ebay) to reproduce it. They're found in most colleges.

There's a yearly competition where college kids compete to produce the most interesting/useful example of artificial life. So far it's just been bacteria, but projects range from a form of E.Coli that changes colour to detect various toxins, to bacteria that turn sugar into something almost identical to diesel. Apparently, despite the lack of jetcars and flyboots, we really are in the future. Mail-Order super plague anyone?

[fun tzu]

Malboury that is truely frightening.

It's probably mostly frightening because I don't understand the science very well but it still terrifies me.

[Cincinnatus]

So had Deirdre DeBurca won her Euro seat last year she probably would have ended up resigning anyway in protest at this development!

[Malboury]

It's certainly pretty out there. I'm personally rarely afraid of the science, but occasionally afraid of what people might do with it. I'm also very excited by what people could do with it too though, and as with most things, I think the good that comes of these technologies can be made to outweigh the bad. Just look at Golden Rice, or the Spider Goat.

Golden rice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BioSteel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 'Spider Goat' produces arachnid based proteins in it's milk capable of being used to make Bio-Steel, an artificial, but organic material similar in strength to spider silk. PS. When I first heard of the Spider Goat, I thought of something very different!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gU-dN2B__4...ider_Goat2.png

edit: By the way, one of the things those college kids from my previous post made was a type of bacteria that can be used to detect land mines.

[Thranduil]

GM crops, properly deployed, could benefit the people of the world massively. But that aside, I just wanted to post some more info for those interested. Not in this particular story, but in regards to GM in general. I imagine some of the posters here would find it interesting!

Just to point out that GM companies aren't in the business to 'improve the world' or feed the world, they are in it to make money by hook or by crook... did you read the article i wrote about Monsanto's privatisation of water and their reasoning that because water there is going to be scarce the profit potential from exploiting it will increase! They also aren't getting their products through by persuasion of the merits of what they are making or by meeting the criteria of strict testing (in the US GM food isn't even tested by the FDA at all, it is classified as identical to normal food for testing purposes, this means that nearly every study on these things is controlled by the company which makes them, they have complete control - and can screen out any negative test results - ironically they can also apply to get these 'essentially identical to normal foods' products patented!) It happens because of their lobbying muscle which is aggressive at times (such as when the US started a trade war a while back over EU rejection of US GM products).

There may be fantastic uses for some GM products, in fact there already are such as with bacteria modified to produce quality drugs, but we should take care until such things are tested carefully. A vat of bacteria is in a contained environment but not so a GM crop grown in a field, these things should be proven beyond all doubt for safety to humans and risks of ecosphere contamination and secondly should have a significant value attached to them (ie they should be able to do things better than their normal alternatives - which at present they do not). At the moment it seems like there is no need for them except that there is a perceived need to favor certain corporations who have strong lobbying power.

[Dodgy Bertie=Shady Mayor]

I've just won EU approval.

[Malboury]

Just to point out that GM companies aren't in the business to 'improve the world' or feed the world, they are in it to make money by hook or by crook... did you read the article i wrote about Monsanto's privatisation of water and their reasoning that because water there is going to be scarce the profit potential from exploiting it will increase! They also aren't getting their products through by persuasion of the merits of what they are making or by meeting the criteria of strict testing (in the US GM food isn't even tested by the FDA at all, it is classified as identical to normal food for testing purposes, this means that nearly every study on these things is controlled by the company which makes them, they have complete control - and can screen out any negative test results - ironically they can also apply to get these 'essentially identical to normal foods' products patented!) It happens because of their lobbying muscle which is aggressive at times (such as when the US started a trade war a while back over EU rejection of US GM products).

There may be fantastic uses for some GM products, in fact there already are such as with bacteria modified to produce quality drugs, but we should take care until such things are tested carefully. A vat of bacteria is in a contained environment but not so a GM crop grown in a field, these things should be proven beyond all doubt for safety to humans and risks of ecosphere contamination and secondly should have a significant value attached to them (ie they should be able to do things better than their normal alternatives - which at present they do not). At the moment it seems like there is no need for them except that there is a perceived need to favor certain corporations who have strong lobbying power.

I'm not convinced that corporate development of GM is for the best, no. Nor am I convinced that anything should be copyrighted, let alone genetic codes. But undoubtedly Monsanto have made some pretty impressive leaps forward in this field, spurred on by the promise of financial reward of course. And yes, Monsanto aren't in the business of feeding the world. Unless of course that proves profitable, in which case they may very well get into that business. And don't forget that innovation tends to spur further innovation, so its quite possible that other bodies can benefit and build on Monsanto's work.

Yes, testing is important, and is already done to a large degree. Quite who should be responsible for it is another question; at the moment there doesn't seem to be any trust whatsoever in either government or corporations...

As for the 'need' for GMO's; well, I'll say two things. One is quite practical, the other more abstract.

Firstly, I feel that there may well be a need for increased food production and cheaper medicines in the developing world, if no where else, and GM seems capable of producing these. Imagine varieties of crop capable of growing in soil otherwise barren, perhaps even preparing these areas for future crops of other food producing plants. Imagine animals producing human compatible antibodies for common diseases in their milk, effectively immunizing whole communities in the developing world. Even just in terms of increased yields, countries with exploding populations such as India might not have the luxury of turning down these GMO's in the way that we can. As was pointed out in another recent thread regarding Bill Gates TED speech, people are unlikely to be willing to accept any kind of artificial curbs to population growth/child birth. Given that, we are going to have to feed these people somehow, or else live with the consequences of famine and misery likely to occur. In terms of climate change, we might also shortly be in the position where we need to breed weather resistant plants faster than traditional cross breeding allows. I would say, all in all, that we do need GMO if we're to maintain Earths population/ population growth as it is.

Secondly, and somewhat more abstractly, when it comes to any innovation it's not always clear what any benefits might be. Arguably, we didn't 'need' the wheel when it was invented either; after all, we'd survived for millions of years without it. But it allowed us to do things our ancestors could only have dreamed of beforehand; allowing much greater energy efficiency and speed in the movement of weighty objects. Similarly, the development of GM crops and animals is likely to benefit us in ways we can only guess at.

Our children, on the other hand, may well wonder at how we ever did without it.