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Black Swan Author: Genetically Modified Organisms Risk Global Ruin

KentuckyFC writes It's 20 years since the FDA approved the Flavr Savr tomato for human consumption, the first genetically engineered food to gain this status. Today, roughly 85 per cent of corn and 90 per cent of soybeans produced in the US are genetically modified. So it's easy to imagine that the scientific debate over the safety of genetically modified organisms has been largely settled. Not for Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and several academic colleagues who say that the risks have been vastly underestimated. They say that genetically modified organisms threaten harm on a global scale, both to ecosystems and to human health. That's different from many conventional risks that threaten harm on a local scale, like nuclear energy for example. They argue that this global threat means that the precautionary principle ought to be applied to severely limit the way genetically modified organisms can be used.

5 of 432 comments (clear)

  1. Taleb's Racist! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    That book should be named African-American Swan!

  2. Re:Nonsense. Again. by JWW · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey. I like this approach.

    For everyone that believes GMO's are EVIIIIIILLLL, if they ever want a dog or cat for a pet they should only be allowed the choice to take a wolf or a tiger home....

  3. Re:Nonsense. Again. by jamiesan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, it worked for Siegfried.

  4. Re:Nonsense. Again. by ray-auch · · Score: 3, Funny

    Have you compared the size of a pig and a glow worm ?

    I think a glow worm would be pretty well fucked if a pig stood on it...

  5. Africanized swans: by Hartree · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nasty. Swans are already mean as all get out and now you want to genetically engineer them with African bee dna, so they behave like killer bees.

    Black swan: Cygnus atratus
    Africanized honey bee: Apis mellifera adansonii

    Africanized Black Swan: Cygnus atratus adansonii (variety: Winged Death).

    Attacks in flocks of thousands and chases you for miles. Almost as bad as sharks with lasers, but can fly and travel on land. Doctor Evil would be proud.