Re:Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned a...
by sooheon on Saturday October 29, 2022 @01:45PM
(#33386294)
You know genetic modifications occur literally all of the time in everything we eat, right?
Re:Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned a...
by TimTheTinker on Saturday October 29, 2022 @03:25PM
(#33387193)
Yes, of course. But there's a difference between multiple short sequences being added/deleted/modified and entire new proteins that add new capabilities being inserted or swapped. These artificial edits introduce large step functions in the overall mutation rate.
Normally, parallel evolution of people and crops allows humans enough time to adapt to natural mutations. Note selective breeding doesn't increase the underlying mutation rate - that's the number that I'm concerned we've manipulated beyond acceptable bounds.
Re:Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned a...
by colechristensen on Saturday October 29, 2022 @02:08PM
(#33386514)
Genetic modification isn’t a bull in a china shop. The glyphosphate resistance gene replaces the shape for one enzyme. You don’t have a whitelist for every substance in every lifeform you eat, the number of things out there is mindbogglingly enormous. It would be very simple to test the human reaction to this new enzyme, i bet it’s been done but i don’t want to search for it.
Re:Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned a...
by collegeburner on Saturday October 29, 2022 @04:33PM
(#33387709)
then why are nut allergies the most common when there are no GMO nuts? or shellfish when we don't have GMO shellfish? why do whites have higher rates of childhood allergies (6.6%) but blacks are now rising the fastest?
none of this really seems to fit with a GMO hypothesis.
Re:Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned a...
by TimTheTinker on Saturday October 29, 2022 @09:38PM
(#33390014)
If you're looking for a single hypothesis, then yeah those numbers would throw doubt on the GMO as cause hypothesis.
Even if the modification is a simple addition between adjacent start and stop codons, that kind of modification could alter meta encodings that control other aspects of cell regulation, including (potentially) gene expression -- which would cause proteins that are coded for but that normally aren't present to become present in crops. Even one newly expressed protein (that is normally not ever expressed) could trigger immune response.