It always amuses me to find that people are against GMO foods yet almost everything we eat is GMO depending on how you define it.
Almost every crop and livestock has been genetically modified through selective breeding (domestication).
Mutagenesis, which atomic gardening falls under, has been around since the 1920's using x-rays and chemicals and currently doesn't normally fall under most GMO definitions because its "traditional".
There is also profile guided selection, which is just selective breeding while using modern DNA profiling to make it more effective by watching genetic outcomes directly.
Then there is genetically engineered targeted gene insertion which is what most people consider "GMO" but hasn't been shown to cause any health issues, its just scary because it's done in a modern lab.
It's not that I'm against being cautious with genetically engineered organism (testing etc), but what issue are we solving by labeling an GE organism "GMO" vs a mutagenic one, or a selectively bred one? Is there any data to suggest one is more dangerous than the other? I seem to have a hard time finding it.
Almost every crop and livestock has been genetically modified through selective breeding (domestication).
Mutagenesis, which atomic gardening falls under, has been around since the 1920's using x-rays and chemicals and currently doesn't normally fall under most GMO definitions because its "traditional".
There is also profile guided selection, which is just selective breeding while using modern DNA profiling to make it more effective by watching genetic outcomes directly.
Then there is genetically engineered targeted gene insertion which is what most people consider "GMO" but hasn't been shown to cause any health issues, its just scary because it's done in a modern lab.
It's not that I'm against being cautious with genetically engineered organism (testing etc), but what issue are we solving by labeling an GE organism "GMO" vs a mutagenic one, or a selectively bred one? Is there any data to suggest one is more dangerous than the other? I seem to have a hard time finding it.