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Budweiser Vetos Genetically Modified Rice
fishdan writes "Anheuser-Busch the makers of Budweiser and other beers, has stated that they will not buy rice from Missouri if genetically modified crops are allowed in the state. Budweiser is claimed to be the best selling beer in the world Bud Light is the second best selling. I wonder about the stats of Tsing Tao I'm not sure what they're afraid of from genetically modified rice. Do they think their beer could get any worse?"
there are plenty of people in the world who do not want anything to do with biotech food or drinks, so if it was known that budweiser contain GMO their sales would plummet in the world, especially in europe.
All this time I thought Buddweiser only sold water!
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
If you RTFA, you'd notice that this is not about genetically modifying rice to have to grow better or faster. This is about a drug company that wants to use rice to produce human proteins to be used at drugs--not rice for consumption! The fear here (from Anheuser-Busch) is about cross-pollination with normal rice strains.
Where I come from, beer is made from barley, hops, yeast and water.
Not rice, corn or potatoes.
Please do note that this is not a story about Budweiser not using GMO. In fact, there is nothing that says they are even against GM rice--just rice being modified to produce drugs grow outside, where it can potentially crosspollinate with rice meant for consumption. While the summary states that Anheuser-Busch "will not buy rice from Missouri if genetically modified crops are allowed in the state," the article clearly states they "won't buy rice from Missouri if genetically modified, drug-making crops are allowed to be grown in the state."
The trolling summary then continues on with links to the popularity of Bud and the uprising Tsing Tao for no obvious reason.
what Anheuser-Busch thinks of it's customers, about who they see as their potential new customers, and how they approach advertising to them.
They are fearful, not of the average white american's reaction to GM rice, but of the reaction from Hispanics, who are coming from agrarian cultures, and are doubly suspicious of any gm agri products, especially corn and rice.
Hispanics also represent the fastest growing group of drinkers of "Bud".
This has nothing to do with cancer fears or even GM food. The modified rice is genetically enhanced with synthetic human genes to produce lactoferrin and lysozyme, which are intended to be used in medicines so they would be very likely affect someone who consumed them. They are afraid that the modified rice could cross pollinate with standard rice. It is well known that pollen can travel large distances, so the possibility of contamination is very real and could in theory have serious negative consequences. It may be that their concerns are unfounded, but that is really something that only an expert could make the call on.
Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
I don't know which scenario is scarier: modified rice, or rice in a beer!?
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
Simply put, Budweiser tastes like hobo ass. The only lager that tastes worse, IMO is Foster's. They both have the defining characteristic of wickedly nasty aftertaste.
As a Guinness drinker, I'm blond-beer biased anyway, but in those rare instances when that's not available, there's a dozen beers I'd rather have first. Heineken is quite smooth, Castlemaine XXXX has a nice punch to it, for example.
Disclaimer: I have not tried any of the American bargain beers: Pabst, Schlitz, Colt 45, etc., so I could ultimately be wrong.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!