Genetically-Modified Everything

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Genetically-Modified Everything

Posted by michael on Tuesday October 12, 2004 @07:29AM from the not-just-for-breakfast-anymore dept.

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."

11 of 495 comments (clear)

GM plants... by Infinityis · 2004-10-12 07:33 · Score: 5, Funny

And here I thought GM plants only produced vehicles... I tell you what, I learn something new every day
Killer App: Pets by PedanticSpellingTrol · 2004-10-12 07:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.
1. Re:Killer App: Pets by TiggertheMad · 2004-10-12 07:48 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I've got an even better one: GM housecats to look like tigers, cheetas and leopoards. How much would you pay for a housecat that looked exactly like a bengal tiger?
  
  Interestingly enough, this also might stop some of the hunting for great cats in the wild. Why risk jail time when you can just breed and skin housecats? In the long run, it would also help destroy the appeal of rare furs, as if people live with the animals, I think they emphasize with them to a greater extent. (for example, most people would think you were psychotic if you tried to sell them a dog skin coat. Is is because dog hair makes bad coats, or because they like dogs and would feel revulsion to the idea as a result?)
  
  Your idea of GM kittens and puppies also has a major plus. By making them puberty-free, they are already fixed, reducing the problem of unwanted breeding and stray animals.
  
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  HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
2. Re:Killer App: Pets by typedef · 2004-10-12 07:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Fuck the cute little doggies. I'm all about having an anime catgirl that calls me "Goshujin-sama" and does all the cooking and cleaning.
  
  (so lonely :[)
3. Re:Killer App: Pets by untermensch · 2004-10-12 08:53 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I've got an even better one: GM housecats to look like tigers, cheetas and leopoards. How much would you pay for a housecat that looked exactly like a bengal tiger?
  
  Actually you can already get pets like this through traditional breeding. There's a wild cat species called the Serval, which is considerably larger (and smarter) than a house cat but much smaller than the big cats. In the last few years, they have successfully bred Servals with housecats to produce what they call a Savannah cat. The Savannah cats are much larger and smarter than a housecat, have a leopoard-like fur pattern, and several other very exotic characteristics. IMHO they're a gorgeous animal and are supposed to make great pets (if you can proof your home/yard to an animal with the curiousity of a cat coupled with greatly increased intelligence and size :) ). Of course they cost a fortune right now, expecially for a first generation cross, but maybe in a few years.
  
  There's also a fairly recent hybrid between housecats and another wild cat species, but I can't remember what it's called, a small relative of the leopard I think.
GM plants would be great, except ... by RealAlaskan · 2004-10-12 07:42 · Score: 5, Interesting

GM plants would be great, except for the threat they pose to farmers. That link takes you to a site about a farmer who could lose his farm because Monsanto carelessly allowed their patented GM canola to contaminate his fields.
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.

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See what I've been reading.
1. Re:GM plants would be great, except ... by jdigriz · 2004-10-12 07:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  That's not GM posing a threat, that's patent law and patent enforcement getting out of hand again. This is Slashdot, we should be able to differentiate between the technology and the poor policy decisions and laws surrounding it.
Re:Better, cheaper paper by pete-classic · 2004-10-12 07:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Face it: The reason why marijuana is illegal is because the best use for the crop is to produce drugs.

Yup. Just like grapes.

-Peter
Re:GM has been done for thousands of years. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-12 07:58 · Score: 5, Insightful

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
Fah. Re:Killer App: Pets by StefanJ · 2004-10-12 08:01 · Score: 5, Funny

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.
Re:Oooo, the sky is falling by EmbeddedJanitor · 2004-10-12 10:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Funny how you say that they don't understand genetics, yet that is what they do for a living.
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.

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Engineering is the art of compromise.