Gen-Mod hooplah.

Genetic Modification is something that I stand behind. Why? Because it has the potential for solving a lot of the world's food issues.

For example. Corn has a tendency to be susceptible to fungal infestations. These fungi can ruin acres and acres of crops that are needed as feed for us humans in some way or another. Either directly feeding us, or by feeding the animals raised to be meat for us. So in order to prevent fungal infestations from ruining our crops, the traditional solution is to dump a shit load of man made chemical fungicides that are toxic to the fungi but not (hopefully) to us humans.

Something most of us would prefer not to happen but are either resigned to the fact or are happily unaware of the practice.

So let's say that genetic scientists notice that there is another grain plant that is resistant to this fungus naturally. This plant has a chemical compound running through it that kills off the fungi before it can set in and cause damage. This ability came about naturally and is in a food that we eat on a regular basis. Even "organic" varieties of this plant have this chemical. Totally natural and totally harmless to animals up to and including humans.

So the scientists sequence the plant to identify what genes are responsible for making this compound and insert it into the corn. After many attempts, they finally get the sequencing correct and now we have a variety of corn that is naturally resistant to the fungus and we have achieved that without having to dump a shit-ton of noxious chemicals on tomorrow's cornbread.

What is wrong with that?

This stems from a recent debate with an online friend of mine whom on face posted a petition to force the government to label foods as Gen-Mod. That sounds reasonable and I'm all for it. After all, the options are already out there for chemical and hormone free foods. It's called organic foods. Don't want Pesticide X in your salad? Buy organic. Want Bovine Growth Hormone free steak? Buy organic.

I'm sure that some of these same organic companies will start offering "as nature intended" products as well.

But I couldn't bring myself to join the petition. Why?

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=498168966858&id=16352069036

The title of this post starts off with "Let nature design her own blueprints" and the BIG HONKING sign that says NO GMO'S! Seriously. This is a 393x444 pixel image in screaming bright green.

I can not get behind someone who is saying a complete "no" to genetic modifications. Now when you have all the benefits that could come from this. Plants that do not need pesticides to repel harmful insects without killing off the bees needed to pollinate them. Or plants spliced with drought resistant species that can better dryer climates.

Or my favorite. How about an Algae that produce an oil that can be processed into fuel? This exists and has been tested. It has successfully been used as diesel fuel for automobiles, trucks, boats, trains using diesel-electric power plants, diesel generators...anything that can use diesel in fact. And that's not all! IT has also been converted into Jet Fuel and tested on a commercial aircraft. Yes, this stuff can make fuel that can power a 747 with no modifications to the engine. They took off with the test engine (one was the test engine, the other three were using the standard fuel) burning normal fuel to take off. Once at operating height they powered off the engine, switched the fuel feed to the Bio-Fuel and restarted the engine. Result? Power output was within normal range for that class of engine.

Now I grant you. The article brings up a good point. The Gen-Mod alfalfa in question is modded to be resistant to herbicides. This is so they can spray round-up on the field and kill off everything BUT the alfalfa. So in this case you're not talking about GMO to prevent the use of chemicals, but to increase the use.

To me that's not appealing.

But I still can not get behind the petition of some group who is whipping people into a frenzy over GMO's with an agenda clearly defined by the phrases "Let nature design her own blueprints" and "NO GMO'S"

To me this is akin to all the anti-stem cell research bull crap. Yes it is not cool to abort a fetus to harvest stem cells, but because of that one creepy aspect of SCR, there are bans in this country about harvesting stem-cells  from discarded placental material. You know the hunk of afterbirth that gets incinerated as medical waste? That chunk of material that could be used to save lives that GETS THROWN AWAY! Hell there are still laws about stem cells that are made from taking adult cells and reverting them into a stem cell state.
All because someone got the creepy oompa-loopa vibe over one possible way to harvest them.

That's like trying to ban high school football just because there are 0.13 deaths per 100,000 players per year.

I'm all for Gen-Mod. I'm against anything that makes people want to add more chemicals to foods. I'm all for truth in labeling. I'm against people trying to ban something before the risk vs benefit analysis has been done.