Re:Pesticides Could Be Making People Fat
by cestith on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @03:21PM
(#20637957)
The worst factor in the "Spanish" Flu was likely conditions in the battlefields of World War I rather than the pathogen itself. Hogs and chickens were kept close to troops so their mess could feed them under the tight land constraints of trench warfare, and those troops were cramped together, wet, cold, and undernourished. They then suddenly got redistributed into the general European population after hostilities ceased. But I digress.
If someone wants to take a juicier tomato and a tomato with more flavor and combine them to make a hybrid tomato, I don't so much care about a genetically modified tomato that could have eventually been hybridized in the greenhouse. As things get further from that, I have more reservations and I think we should look a little closer. Across species is a little more concerning. Across families moreso still, and so on as we talk about bigger and bigger jumps.
You make a good case about our own genetics specifically, too. Things that alter our DNA or the DNA of things we already share diseases with (other primates, horses, hogs, for example) should probably get more attention to possible risks and side effects.
And that's my main complaint with transgenics, which perhaps we should use that word instead of GMO. We are not exhibiting an 'abundance of caution' in this work.
We have major illnesses crossing over from birds and pigs all through our history. Some pretty bad ones in recent times. Moving genes between these species (which we are doing, to try to make more pig organs biocompatible with humans) could be very, very bad. Do we have a good model for what gene groups can increase the likelihood of viruses crossing between species? If this information exists they should be shouting it from the rooftops. But they aren't, which suggests that no such practices are being observed.
If the next H1N1 turns into the Spanish Flu, 'I told you so' just isn't going to cover it.