Re:Monsanto’s Weed Killer, Dicamba, Divides Farmers
by Kalium on Friday September 22, 2017 @12:20PM
(#15313519)
Given that humans created a poisonous potato before genetic modification, it should perhaps be considered that our society seems to have already accepted this risk.
Re:Monsanto’s Weed Killer, Dicamba, Divides Farmers
by jerf on Friday September 22, 2017 @03:46PM
(#15315170)
"The resulting GMO'd food is obviously poisonous" isn't one of the scary outcomes, though. There's nothing remotely scary about that.
Re:Monsanto’s Weed Killer, Dicamba, Divides Farmers
by Kalium on Monday September 25, 2017 @12:21PM
(#15331685)
Traditional agriculture has also produced a number of things that are non-obviously poisonous that have slowly killed lots of people over time. HFCS, tobacco, etc.
I think the key takeaway is that these aren't new or different risks. You could say the same thing about iPhone apps, pharmaceuticals, or traditionally bred plants: as you consider the whole lines of $ITEMS that will be created over the next decades at an accelerating pace, the odds that at least one of them turn out to be catastrophically bad enough to entirely erase the benefits of everything else done with them goes up quite distressingly.
Thalidomide happened. But it doesn't justify abandoning pharmaceuticals entirely. There just might be some wisdom in that.
There's a handful of times where my opinion on something has been flipped by a single argument that fits into a single paragraph or even sentence, and my opinion on GMOs is one of them. Nassim Taleb argues that while any given GMO product may be in fact entirely safe, that as you consider the whole line of GMOs that will be created over the next decades at an accelerating pace, the odds that at least one of them turn out to be catastrophically bad enough to entirely erase the benefits of everything else done with them goes up quite distressingly.
This makes sense of the idea that A: all current GMO foods are actually quite safe but B: it may still be a bad idea in the long run. Given that things will be GMO'd on an increasing curve as it becomes easier and easier, we've seen only a very small fraction of what will ultimately be done with the technology.