In article , wrote:

Billy writes:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...g-m-o-foods-la
beled/?partner=rss&emc=rss

FEBRUARY 15, 2011, 9:00 PM
Why Aren¹t G.M.O. Foods Labeled?
By MARK BITTMAN
...
It's unlikely that these products potential benefits could possibly
outweigh their potential for harm.

As gardeners, most of us have no problem with selective breeding.
We're happy to alter a plants genetic makeup through artificial
(human assisted) selection.

GMO is artificial selection on steroids. It's really directed
change vs. random change.

Opponents say that GMO is unnatural and that selection could
NEVER produce the results obtained with GMO.

Seems to me, that's short sighted. Selective breeding might be
1000s or even millions of times slower than GMO but a mutation is
a mutation. There is no theoretical limit to what can be accomplished
with selective breeding. It's just going to take a longer time.

Compare a wolf to a Great Dane to a Chihuahua. Pretty radical change
there. All done by humans in a relatively short amount of time.

That's not to say I'm 100% comfortable with crossing Poison Ivy and
Kudzu. We don't want super weeds released into the environment.

Also I'm not comfortable with patents on living organisms but that
occurs now with artificial selection, it's not unique to GMO.

As far as labeling GMO foods, I'm not concerned at all.
Selected crops aren't labeled as such. If the GMO results in
something in the food that wouldn't be there naturally, then the
food should be labeled. For example, the extra component could
cause an allergy. People should know if they are eating something
different. But if GMO just makes the crop bigger or more drought
resistant, I can see no need for special labeling.

Just my opinion.

A free/fair market can't exist without sellers and buyers having the
same information.
The problems with GMOs are multiple.
1) An antibiotic is attached to the genes that are to be inserted. This
allows for identification of GMO cells in a petrie dish. It also
allows bacteria to develop a resistance to that antibiotic, making
it worthless in the treatment of a bacterial disease.

2) The cauliflower mosaic virus is attached to the genes that are to be
inserted. The cauliflower mosaic virus is the activator that turns
on the inserted gene. More than 98% of the human genome does not
encode protein sequences. Some of these genes are for suppressed
evolutionary traits such as gills, some could be dormant diseases.
These genes are also susceptible to being activated by the
cauliflower mosaic virus.

3) The spliceosome (a complex of specialized RNA and protein subunits)
from the host cell may not recognize a protein from the injected
genes and attach it to other proteins, thereby creating an allergen.
This appears to be the case with GMO potatoes created by Arpad
Pusztai at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. He
was tying to modify the lecithin in the potatoes, which he did, but
the potatoes gave lab rats lesions in their digestive systems,
which lead to death.

4) GMO Bt corn (StarLink) kills monarch butterflies. Round Up Ready
crops allow more glyphosate to be used to suppress weeds, but it
also severely damages the soil biota, triggers over 40 plant
diseases, and endangers human and animal health.

5) GMOs don't produce larger crops.

6) Then there is the matter of a recent recent CBS/NYT poll that found 87
percent of consumers want GMOs them labeled.

Further reading:
Against GMOs
"Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the
Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating"
by Jeffrey M. Smith
http://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Deceptio...ly-Engineered/
dp/0972966587/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298231203&sr=1-1

and

For GMOs
"Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Food"
by Nina V. Fedoroff and Nancy Marie Brown
http://www.amazon.com/Mendel-Kitchen...y-Modified/dp/
030909738X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298231359&sr=1-1

(both are available at better libraries near you)

"Mendel in the Kitchen" makes arguments similar to Despen's and gives
the historical development of wheat, and corn, which I found to be very
informative.
--
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.* Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw