GM foods

[rustypouch]

I was talking with a cow-orker this morning, and she was going off on a rant about GM food, and potatoes in particular.

She claimed that certain types of potatoes had human genes spliced into them, and implied this was on par with canibalism. She also claimed that these same potatoes had been proven to cause brain cancer, but that these studies had been censored by the ubiquitous 'they,' and that the scientists who had worked on these studies have been blacklisted.

I was intrigued by this, especially since she could not remember any names and I could find nothing about it online.

Does anyone know anything about this or is it more fearmongering from the anti-GM crowd?

 

[Darat]

Not a direct answer but perhaps you should worry her by telling her we have a lot more genes in common with say a pig then a GM potato?

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Human DNA is 99% the same as chimpanzee DNA and about 50% the same as grass

http://www.debatabase.org/details.asp?topicID=12

The likelihood that there is human type dna in ALL food we eat? About 100%. It doesn't have to be GM food.
If they are going to worry about calling this "cannibalism", then they are going to have to become breatharians. Not such a bad idea if they are willing to swallow that kind of nonsense she fed you.

 

[geni]

http://www.debatabase.org/details.asp?topicID=12

The likelihood that there is human type dna in ALL food we eat? About 100%. It doesn't have to be GM food.
If they are going to worry about calling this "cannibalism", then they are going to have to become breatharians. Not such a bad idea if they are willing to swallow that kind of nonsense she fed you.

There are human type atoms in air (and probably human type DNA as well).

 

[clarsct]

Penn And Teller did a pretty good number on this one in the first season of their Bull$!t series. We've been modifying the genetics of plants and animals for centuries through breeding. Now we can do it smarter and better. We could also make automobiles by hand, but it's faster and more efficient to do so in a factory. If you were born in the mid-70's, chances are the corn you've eaten was GM in some way to increase yield. BTW, most food that is GM does NOT include putting animal genes into the plant. This is done for primarily research purposes.

On another note, Eos is, essentially, correct. Evolution is an amazing thing.

Yet another note: Killing humans and eating them is cannabalism. Even if I did put a gene for, say, keratin into a potato, It would not make eating the resultant french fries cannabalism. Not philosphically, legally, or morally. Not even close.

Fearmongering. Excellent choice of terms..

 

[CurtC]

She's probably referring to the work of Dr. Arpad Pusztai, who did a study six years ago about feeding Bt potatoes to rats. He reported that the rats who were fed the Bt potatoes (spuds with a GM gene to kill bugs) didn't fare as well as those fed regular potatoes.

The whole study was soundly spanked by his peers, and there was a little row about it. The Lancet refused to publish the paper, Dr. Pusztai was fired from his research job (both for the poor quality and for going to the press before publishing in standard journals), then later The Lancet published the paper, with an unusal lengthy note from the editors pointing out that they were publishing it not because it was good science, but because there was a controversy about it and they thought the public should see it.

Anyway, all this died down about five years ago, his research has been pretty much forgotten, except by your friend.

Edited to add: Oh, and by the way, the Bt gene comes from a bacterium, not from humans.

 

[CaveDave]

I was talking with a cow-orker this morning, and she was going off on a rant about GM food, and potatoes in particular.

Was she orking any cows at the time? Seriously, where did this word-form come from? I've seen this in other places also, but I don't understand it's origin, other than maybe someone mishyphenated it and others blindly copied. Sort of like the wide-spread (mis)use of 'myself' when 'me' should be used.

She claimed that certain types of potatoes had human genes spliced into them, and implied this was on par with canibalism. She also claimed that these same potatoes had been proven to cause brain cancer, but that these studies had been censored by the ubiquitous 'they,' and that the scientists who had worked on these studies have been blacklisted.

People seem to believe almost anything when it supports their fears of a world that they don't understand and can't control. I have come to regard conspiracy (THEY) statements as a hallmark of a disorganized, fear centered mindset.

I was intrigued by this, especially since she could not remember any names and I could find nothing about it online.

Most of these never can cite any usefull sources, that might require actual thought.

Does anyone know anything about this or is it more fearmongering from the anti-GM crowd?

I don't have any hard data at hand, but I'd bet long odds on its being bogus.

Dave

 

[CurtC]

Re: Re: GM foods

Was she orking any cows at the time? Seriously, where did this word-form come from?

I believe it came from the urban legends usenet forum, alt.folklore.urban. I used to hang out there, and there were several little insider jokes like that. I always figured that someone had posted about a co-worker, and just accidentally put the 'w' before the hyphen, and after that it stuck.