Genetically Altered Salmon Get Closer to the Table

[me too]

Genetically Altered Salmon Get Closer to the Table


would you eat it ? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/busin ... n.html?hpw

[cerina]

When you consider that most of the food we eat has been genetically modified over the centuries, nobody has worried about that. However, that is, to a large extent, as the result of natural selection and I do feel that all foods that are being genetically modified/engineered now should be adequately labelled as such, and foods which contain such ingredients likewise.

[Jack Flash]

What's the difference between cross pollination/grafting/selective breeding that farmers have been doing for centuries and genetic modification?

The difference is pretty large. In regular cross pollination, the species being crossed have to be related . . . basically respecting their common evolutionary origin. But with GMOs, you can take any gene from any species and splice it into a crop. So you get fish genes in tomatoes or the like.

To make a GM plant, scientists need to isolate DNA from different organisms—bacteria, viruses, plants, and sometimes animals (or humans if the target gene is a human gene). They then recombine these genes biochemically in the lab to make a "gene construct," which can consist of DNA from five to fifteen different sources. This gene construct is cloned in bacteria to make lots of copies, which are then isolated. Next, the copies are shot into embryonic plant tissue (microprojectile bombardment), or moved into plant tissue via a particular bacterium (Agrobacterium) that acts as a vector. After getting the construct copies into the embryonic plant tissue, whole plants are regenerated. Only a few plants out of many hundreds will turn out to grow normally and exhibit the desired trait—such as herbicide resistance.

An example would be the Zombie fish that now live in the Thames

[cerina]

What's the difference between cross pollination/grafting/selective breeding that farmers have been doing for centuries and genetic modification?

The difference is pretty large. In regular cross pollination, the species being crossed have to be related . . . basically respecting their common evolutionary origin. But with GMOs, you can take any gene from any species and splice it into a crop. So you get fish genes in tomatoes or the like.

My point exactly, only better put. That is why I think all 'modern' gm/ge foods, or foods with modified ingredients, should be labelled accordingly so that people can make (relatively) informed choices.