GMOs are only bad if they cause harm, and that needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Genetic engineering is just a set of techniques that can be used to create new organisms, both good and bad. Are metalworking techniques bad because they can produce swords and guns, or good because they can produce medical tools? Are metal tools bad because a few of them (e.g. swords) are weapons?
I'd rather make it closer to neutral. The greatest harm I've heard of resulting from GMOs has been economic, due to suspended trade with Japan after some stray GMO wheat was found in a field in Oregon. But that problem was caused by Japan's belief that GMOs are bad, not by any known health risks. My personal opinion on GMOs is "proceed with caution."
The greatest harm I've heard of resulting from GMOs has been economic, due to suspended trade with Japan after some stray GMO wheat was found in a field in Oregon. But that problem was caused by Japan's belief that GMOs are bad, not by any known health risks
Wow.. :D Very sophistry. Such disgust. So it's bad to think that GMOs are bad because that results in economic harm? That makes no sense. Obviously Japan was prepared to do without GMO crops - otherwise they wouldn't have banned them.
Look, you're a pro-GMO shill. That's been reasonably clear for a while now. Maybe you've been instructed to always get in the last word, and to make it pro-GMO. I'm not sure what to do here. I can't make you stop posting, but I don't want to keep playing these games either.
So it's bad to think that GMOs are bad because that results in economic harm?
No. The point of the example was that GMOs are sometimes bad, even if they aren't inherently bad. It would be stupid for farmers who sell crops to Japan to plant GM crops.
Look, you're a pro-GMO shill.
No. I'm just a person whose opinion on the matter differs from yours. No one has offered or given me any incentive whatsoever to hold or express a specific opinion on GMOs.
This whole thing started as an attempt to explain how selective breeding is a form of genetic modification in the sense that it can create a new subspecies or other type of new variant. The point of all that is that genetic modification is not inherently bad. If you eat anything that was grown or raised on a farm (with only a handful of possible exceptions such as farmed salmon), you're eating something that has been modified from the original wild organism. The interesting differences that set genetic engineering apart from other methods are the range and extent of possible modifications and human issues such as intellectual property laws. Neither is a necessary part of genetic engineering--it can be used to accomplish modifications identical to those made through selective breeding, and scientists or corporations can choose not to try to make a new GMO crop proprietary--but they are a reality we have to acknowledge. GMOs can be extremely bad, but they don't have to be.
I hope I've explained my position well enough here to convince you that I'm not fully for or against GMOs. You can have the last word now if you'd like.
No, the whole point was that GMOs are bad :)
Can we please just stop already?
GMOs are only bad if they cause harm, and that needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Genetic engineering is just a set of techniques that can be used to create new organisms, both good and bad. Are metalworking techniques bad because they can produce swords and guns, or good because they can produce medical tools? Are metal tools bad because a few of them (e.g. swords) are weapons?
You really insist on making the last word here pro-GMO?
I'd rather make it closer to neutral. The greatest harm I've heard of resulting from GMOs has been economic, due to suspended trade with Japan after some stray GMO wheat was found in a field in Oregon. But that problem was caused by Japan's belief that GMOs are bad, not by any known health risks. My personal opinion on GMOs is "proceed with caution."
Wow.. :D Very sophistry. Such disgust. So it's bad to think that GMOs are bad because that results in economic harm? That makes no sense. Obviously Japan was prepared to do without GMO crops - otherwise they wouldn't have banned them.
Look, you're a pro-GMO shill. That's been reasonably clear for a while now. Maybe you've been instructed to always get in the last word, and to make it pro-GMO. I'm not sure what to do here. I can't make you stop posting, but I don't want to keep playing these games either.
No. The point of the example was that GMOs are sometimes bad, even if they aren't inherently bad. It would be stupid for farmers who sell crops to Japan to plant GM crops.
No. I'm just a person whose opinion on the matter differs from yours. No one has offered or given me any incentive whatsoever to hold or express a specific opinion on GMOs.
This whole thing started as an attempt to explain how selective breeding is a form of genetic modification in the sense that it can create a new subspecies or other type of new variant. The point of all that is that genetic modification is not inherently bad. If you eat anything that was grown or raised on a farm (with only a handful of possible exceptions such as farmed salmon), you're eating something that has been modified from the original wild organism. The interesting differences that set genetic engineering apart from other methods are the range and extent of possible modifications and human issues such as intellectual property laws. Neither is a necessary part of genetic engineering--it can be used to accomplish modifications identical to those made through selective breeding, and scientists or corporations can choose not to try to make a new GMO crop proprietary--but they are a reality we have to acknowledge. GMOs can be extremely bad, but they don't have to be.
I hope I've explained my position well enough here to convince you that I'm not fully for or against GMOs. You can have the last word now if you'd like.