Should the government burn the development of genetically modified organisms?

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Walt O'Reagun Profile
Walt O'Reagun answered

I think you mean "ban".

NO

What many people don't realize is that every single food today has been genetically modified.  The only difference is that now, it takes far less time to do so in a controlled, laboratory environment ... Rather than the generations it used to take in the uncontrolled environment of farms, ranches, and gardens.

thanked the writer.
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Ray Dart
Ray Dart commented
Selective breeding to produce food with characteristics that suit us better for food production is a completely different process from the potentially dangerous physical interference that is "genetic engineering". It's a common facile misrepresentation of the process to say "we've always done genetic modification".
Walt O'Reagun
Walt O'Reagun commented
Sorry, Ray ... but the dangers are the same. Tampering with the genetics of food has led to disasters decades before laboratory genetic alterations. EG: The "potato famine".

However, the rewards have (so far) outweighed the risks. And unless we enact global population controls ... we will require more efficient methods of growing/harvesting food. Methods that will include genetic modifications.
Ray Dart
Ray Dart commented
The introduction of alien genetic matter into any living organism is completely different from selective breeding and carries completely different (and generally unquantifiable) risks.

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