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Genetically-Modified Everything
BreadMan writes "The Economist has an interesting article about how the use of GM (genetically modified) plants extends well beyond the food industry. Altered trees that make better paper, insect-resistant cotton, potatoes that contain the right kinds of starches. An interesting read to see where the industry is going in light of problems with having GM foods on the dinner table. There's more industrial uses for agricultural products than you'd think of right away, so this may be a lucrative use for GM technology."
And here I thought GM plants only produced vehicles... I tell you what, I learn something new every day
I've always thought the ultimate use of genetic engineering would be to make puberty-free, Permacute puppies and kittens. Not only is it a lucrative market, there wouldn't be worries about the altered genes entering the natural ecosystem because of the sterility.
GM plants can be VERY beneficial if modified correctly. This crop can be used as a fuel source, replacing oil-based gasoline. Get the yield high enough my GM'ing, and it becomes a great replacement - less pollution, more energy independence on any country capable of producing crops, and an industry that may finally get agriculture off the government dime.
Some GM stuff in labs can perhaps be controlled, but once modified geness are released into the RealWorld they are very difficult to control. The risk of doing bad things is great. We already see the effects of cross contamination of crops etc.
If this goes more widespread (eg. GM trees for paper production) we can expect weird things happening (eg. say we remove some substance from trees to make them easier to process but that gene provides disease resistance etc. If that crosses into wild populations then we end up with sick forests etc).
Agriculture and food production are regulated and controlled (well to a degree anyway), industrial stuff less so. It concerns me that all the GM bads we see in agriculture will be far worse in the industrial sector.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I don't thing GM things are any more or LESS dangerous than nuclear research. If we allow corporations to do as they please, they will find the easiest way to maximum profits.
This did not used to be so bad. But today the shortsightedness, or rather the self centeredness of the modern executive can be very dangerous to the publics health and the publics wallet.
Basically, the show says that the people against genetically modified food don't know the facts and say that it isn't monitored by government agencies, while it is infact monitored by the FDA and EPA. Furthermore, genetically modified foods are solving the problem of world hunger by producing more output per area and being more resilliant in harsh climates.
Personally, I believe genetically modified plants are required to sustain life on earth with our current population.
Monsanto's GM canola has also crossbred with Canadian canola strains, making it impossible for Canadian farmers to guarentee that their canola crops are GM free, thus locking them out of the EU markets. Now, they want to do the same thing with wheat.
Leaving aside the fears and marketability problems surrounding GM plants, we still have the problem that patented plants are a huge threat to farmers. You can get in big, expensive trouble if you didn't license the genes that are growing in your field, even if you didn't plant them. If you save your own seed, and that seed gets contaminated by someone's patented, GM genes, you could loose a lifetime of work.
See what I've been reading.
Yup. Just like grapes.
-Peter
Unfortunately, Hemp and Marijuana are not the same thing.
Hemp has many industrial uses for the oils and high strength fibers. It also contains such trivial amounts of the psychoactive chemical THC that nobody could possibly get high off of it. Thje saying goes that trying to get stoned on hemp is like trying to get drunk on non-alcoholic beer.
It also contains higher concentrations of a chemical called cannabidiol (CBD), which actually counters the effects of THC... so smoking industrial hemp would more likely get you UN-stoned (and deathly ill, I'd imagine).
Hemp can be used to make anything that's currently made of cotton or wood, perhaps of lower quality but certaintly of lower cost.
Marijuana, on the other hand, has no commercial value other than as a drug (illegal or otherwise).
=Smidge=
That's like saying, "Computers have been around for hundreds of years. Just ask Charles Babbage."
True, yet functionally meaningless.
The problem with all this stuff is that it is proprietary, patented, closed source. It displaces open source species, and it allows for the mandatory levying of license fees
Catgirls.
Fah.
50 weeks out of the year they'll scratch you silly if you try to make a move on them, and when they *are* in heat you end up burned out and drooling while they go wandering around the neighborhood, yowling in frustration and dropping thong for anything with a Y chromosome.
Cleaning? Cooking?
Yeah, right.
Clean themselves, maybe, but you know who is going to be scraping the hair balls off the carpet, right?
And the way they run to your side and stare at you like you're God when you use the can opener, that's cute and gratifying at first, but after a few times you realize they're actually in awe of the can opener.
No, he is saying that genetically modified organisms have not passed the "global test" of natural selection. When only the strong survive, those that survive are strong. Simply taking an organism that has one or two good traits and making it the "preferred" organism of that type MAY be overlooking some serious flaws that are introduced or simply not taken seriously enough to change the strong traits. This results in serious fuckups if something bad should happen. The case of the disease immunity was only one item. What if you have a plant that proliferates with little sunlight and water? It could choke out other plants and kill an ecosystem.
There are bacteria that can generate small amounts of hydrogen gas. If genetic engineering can make these bacteria much better at this function, we will have very good renewable energy source.
Hydrogen is a very poor source of energy - it's energy density is very low. (it takes 1/3 of the available energy in the hydrogen just to compress it to a liquid!) It's explosive. It's very inefficient.
Better to consider alge that produces bio-diesel - much denser, more compact, no expensive compression, no equipment retrofitting... the list of benefits goes on and on....
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I'm not saying that people are acting in bad faith or that we should kill research. What I am concerned with is the "trust me, I'm a scientist" attitude that you are promoting. Even when applying the best knowledge at the time, people make mistakes. Some mistakes are easy to reverse and some are not. The scientists of the day construct models and work to those models. The scientists of tomorrow will debunk those theories and models and make new ones.
Studies showed Thalidamide (sp?) was OK. Doctors prescribed it because it was a very useful drug. Suddenly deformed people started being born.
Thirty years ago the flavour of the day treatment for a variety of many mental illnesses was shock therapy. It is now frowned upon. The people applying it were not witchdoctors or alternative healers, they were the scientists of the day.
The dumb-ass that brought possums and rabbits to NZ or snakes to that pacific island (some US base, I forget which)did it with the best of intentions. Now those animals cause havoc because there are no natural preditors.
All the scientists involved did this as their life's work. They understood the science of the day and acted accordingly. They still made the wrong actions though.
GM can perhaps be controlled in the lab, but remember that pollen is genetic material and some pollen can travel thousands of miles to contaminate other crops. Once the genie is out of the bottle it is impossible to control.
Likening GM to GPL is really stupid. Humans have control over GPL, but they don't have control over genetic material once it is released into the wild.
Engineering is the art of compromise.