So you don’t like GMO? Let’s look at a mutation breeding!
Mutation breeding is the process of inducing genetic variation in a crop through use of chemical treatment or radioactivity. Chemicals like ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS), sodium azide (SA), N-nitroso-N-methylurea (NMU) are used to soak seeds or treat tissue or pollen in culture. They induce random changes in DNA, usually single bases or small deletions. These changes alter the encoded protein, forming new proteins that may be more or less functional, or perhaps truncated or even not made at all.
For radiation, fast neutrons, x-rays or gamma rays bombard seeds causing double-strand breaks in chromosomes. These lead to larger deletions of genetic material and sometimes rearrangements. These changes are essentially random. They are induced by short-term exposure (seconds to hours) to a powerful radioactive source, usually Cobalt-60. Sometimes whole plants are grown in high radioactive fields to generate these genetic errors. The Institute for Mutation Breeding in Japan has generated a number of cultivars using these techniques.
No labels required, which might explain things.
I always try to point this out to the GMO-prohibition advocates, and and ask them: Would you rather have a plant that has been modified through careful targeting of specific genes, or one that has been changed willy-nilly just to see what you get?
Their response is usually silence and a confused look, once they realize the implications.
Genetic modification of lifeforms is as old as horticulture and animal husbandry. It’s just more sophisticated now than it was in ancient times, but the end result is the same: a plant or an organism that has certain desired characteristics and which might be able to reproduce them.
What people are afraid of are so-called chimeras, say a certain food crop that has animal genes in its genome but which may turn out to be toxic. I guess the idea of biting into a potato that would say “moo!” in response might be a bit unnerving.
However, whether such a combination is feasible, let alone useful, remains to be seen.
This ecosexual thing, getting off in the dirt…….. we used to call it “camping”…
You could cross buckwheat with kangaroos, and make pancakes that flip themselves.
Try the veal.
It’s all safe, the 90 day studies prove it…
If any of these modifications using genetic engineering as compared with traditional crossbreeding are entirely safe then there should be no opposition to labeling genetically engineered products.
The Institute for Mutation Breeding in Japan? Are these the guys who brought us Godzilla?
I also like to point out to them that pretty much everything you eat is genetically modified.
From genetic damage caused by chemicals/radiation creating the very species you consume to generations of farmers/ranchers waiting for nature to do what the chemicals/radiation do faster, to just going straight to chemicals/radiation, to selective targeting. Beef, corn, tomatoes, yeast, radishes, chicken – everything has been genetically modified and that even includes cross-species genetic transfers.
Except ‘traditional crossbreeding’ is also genetic engineering.
How do you think those new characteristics arise? By exposure to environmental radiation and chemicals damaging the organism’s DNA and that damage being, in that particular case, a beneficial mutation.
If ‘traditional crossbreeding’ is so safe, why don’t you want it to be grouped with ‘targeted changes’.
Mutation breeding sounds like a process of accelerating nature and selecting desirable characteristics, a sort of anthropogenic plant evolution. Scary stuff for people who think mother nature is kind and gentle.
Haven’t they been doing this looooong before GMO? I know we’ve been bombarding plants to get mutation since at least the 50s.
Knowledgeable people make a significant distinction between traditional selective crossbreeding and genetic engineering like gene splicing at the cellular level. Details are important; generalizations are generally incorrect.
Is someone forcing you to eat something you don’t want to? If not then what do you care about what others choose to eat or avoid for whatever reason?
Now if there were journalism school social justice warriors in newsrooms, who were also scientifically literate…
Okay, that is a logical contradiction, back to reality.
You and Agammamon have it right. This anti-GMO is just another manifestation of the Luddite mindset.
Cautious skepticism, by all means. That’s one reason we have experimental farms, to try and see what works and, if it does, how it performs in the long term.
However, the anti-GMO gang would rather that we go back to eating roots, berries, and leaves, as if that way of life was much better.
Human civilization depended on the cross-breeding of plants and animals over the centuries. It made agriculture possible as it provided a means by which more food could be produced regularly and reliably, often for less time and effort than would have been required for hunting or gathering.
But agriculture would have made it necessary to have other occupations, such as blacksmithing, for the production and maintenance of implements. Carpenters would be needed to build storage bins and animal barns. Someone had to construct mills. Then there were people who would specialize in handling and processing what was produced, such as butchers and spinners.
Ultimately, agriculture made permanent settlements possible. It also led to trade as excess produce could be exchanged for other goods or materials.
I think you can see what all that would lead to.
But, no, genetic modification of plants and animals is bad, isn’t it?
You’re on the right track, but all modern life is the results of billions of years of exposure to radiation, and are all contaminations of the original, true forms.
Don’t eat anything multi-cellular! Eat more dirt! Join the slime movement! (yes, the last item on the list is made to be taken several ways).
They should still be labeled.
As a matter of fact, the genome should be made available.
Cool ! Isn’t that the way we created … The Hulk ? Wasn’t Dr. Bruce Bannon accidentally irradiated ? And then he got mad strong and whatnot ? But was still a sensitive and caring lover ?
Just IMAGINE how powerful Popeye would have become if he had consumed irradiated spinach ! Awesome ! And how virile would I become if I ate a plateful of nuked oysters ? Bring it on ! I want to be super powerful too !
And have you seen what the typical organic vegetarian looks like ? Gaunt, emancipated, gray-skinned … no thanks ! Gimme the hormones, pesticides, fertilizers … and now radioactive isotopes in MY food !
Emaciated … cursed auto correct.
So we now need to include the entire genome of all elements that go into a product? Cool, that’ll be about 10 5″ 3-ring binders every time you buy a frosted cake….
huh, capcha says “raspberry calle”. Yup, I’d say that calls for a raspberry…
Seems you don’t get what “made available” means.
If genes have been messed with, I should be able to know which ones, and how.
If the agencies doing the messing don’t want to make that information available to me, then I will assume that they have something to hide, and not eat their products.
Of course, you can make all the arguments you like about how its good to eat mystery substances, and more power to ya!
mmm…botulism toxin is natural!
So is digitalis!
Its all good!
Can’t have people getting emancipated, don’tcha know! 😉