Genetic Engineering-your thoughts?

[CPman2004]

Genetic engineering has a lot of potential for good, but of course it goes without saying that with this great power we have to have responibility. I am actually studying to become a genetic engineer, and most likely I'll focus on plants. Genetic engineering of animals still has ethical questions to answer for. As for the effects of GE on health and eviroment are still to be determined.

So plant GM is ok, animal GM has many ethical issues to deal with. Since this is a realitively new technology all the disscussion has yet to be done and all the questions yet to be answered. I say watch it with a feeling of hope mixed with cation.

 

[James T]

It really has more to do with the motivation of the proponents. Lower cost, higher yield equals better profits. Does anyone really believe that food shortages today are to do with an inability to grow food? No, it has more to do with people's inability to stop fighting.

You watch super size me (I haven't) or consider the obesity epidemic we are facing and ask why? Did everyone suddenly get lazy and start overeating in the last 15 years, it has to be a factor but the reports I see in our weekend newspaper quotes health professionals as saying that the change in lifestyle accounts for a lot but not all.

So what is it that is already going into food that you like, eat, and is bad for you but which has provided manufacturers with a lower cost source material with which to help increase marginal returns (i.e. the profit). Consider the difficulty in even getting the industry to accept smoking as harmful to your health and consider what this will be like with something less certain, which GE modifications will be.

I do not see this as a moral or ethical issue. I see it as a simple case of looking at who the interested parties are and what their motivations are. The outcome then comes at you with the certainty of the earth circling the sun.

 

[Ninja Turtles]

...consider the obesity epidemic we are facing and ask why?

Corn syrup and all those complex carbohydrates filled with empty calories.

Did everyone suddenly get lazy and start overeating in the last 15 years, it has to be a factor but the reports I see in our weekend newspaper quotes health professionals as saying that the change in lifestyle accounts for a lot but not all.

Corn syrup and the agribusiness that is corn.

So what is it that is already going into food that you like, eat, and is bad for you but which has provided manufacturers with a lower cost source material with which to help increase marginal returns (i.e. the profit). Consider the difficulty in even getting the industry to accept smoking as harmful to your health and consider what this will be like with something less certain, which GE modifications will be.

They've accepted corn, there are some strains that are only for animal consumption.

I do not see this as a moral or ethical issue. I see it as a simple case of looking at who the interested parties are and what their motivations are. The outcome then comes at you with the certainty of the earth circling the sun.

I've thought about it and it really isn't a moral issue to me. To me it's more about ethics and possibly messing with things too much, I don't want some blight killing a food source because they're crop decided to wipe out the diverse indigenous population.

If you haven't noticed, I have a penchant for saying the corn industry is bad. But I still eat cornbread and popcorn.

 

[James T]

overeating = fat
overeating + HFCS = obese

And yeah, I like cornbread and popcorn too. Particularly the prepackaged sweet microwave variety, nice .