Re:We’re Scientists, Moms, And We Avoid Non-GMO Products
by makomk on Tuesday November 08, 2016 @07:27AM
(#12899659)
Potatoes are members of the nightshade family, along with tomatoes and peppers and a few others. Of course selective breeding can produce toxic potatoes if you don't test for the levels of the toxin they're already known to produce. Also, the claim that there's a lot more risk and uncertainty with conventional breeding doesn't stand up, because GMO crops build on top of conventional breeding and inherit its risks too, and because it's nowhere near as clean, simple and interaction-free as you might naively expect.
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Re:We’re Scientists, Moms, And We Avoid Non-GMO Products
by Kalium on Tuesday November 08, 2016 @04:11PM
(#12903977)
You're right! GMOs don't start from fresh crops from the wild. They start with existing strains. In that sense, they inherit old risks.
What they don't do is continue adding on the risks from the process of selective breeding itself. I don't expect that direct genetic engineering is clean, simple, and interaction-free. I just expect that it has a somewhat easier time targeting specific changes than barnyard breeding by light of Uranium.