Comment on Corn 🌽

• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  By the individual definitions of the words, yes. However in actual use, genetically modified means modification through direct methods such as chemical agents, enzymes, or electroporation.

  You can selectively breed rabbits for 1000 years and not get a glow in the dark rabbit that can be made in a week in a lab.

  www.google.com/…/glow-in-dark-rabbits-scientists

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  • Signtist@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Sure, but you could selectively breed rabbits for 1,000,000 years and get a glow in the dark rabbit; GFP is just a protein like any other - if you painstakingly selectively breed for a specific DNA sequence, you’ll eventually get it regardless of your starting genetic pool. Classic selective breeding is a form of genetic modification - modern genetic modification methods are just way faster.

    I agree that we don’t currently know enough about genetics to utilize genetic modification without unforeseen side effects, and so there should be limitations on what we’re able to genetically modify until we can show that we understand it well enough to meaningfully minimize potential issues, but those same issues occur with selective breeding - they’re, again, just slower.

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    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s all beside the point that actual scientists use GMO to mean directly genetically modified and not selective breeding.

      The speed of a technology is a substantial difference.

      Claiming selective breeding is GMO because they are both artificial genetic modifications is like saying a horse and an Boeing 747 are both just transportation.

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      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        a horse and an Boeing 747 are both just transportation.

        But… they are.

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      • Signtist@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The speed is substantial, yes. That was my point. They are essentially the same; one simply uses the organism’s own natural genetic variation mechanisms, while the other introduces new variations manually. Yes, that is a difference that requires separation of the two in certain circumstances, but not when it comes to whether or not we’ve genetically modified all strains of modern agricultural corn, GMO-labeled or not.

        Claiming selective breeding is the same as producing a GMO is like saying an eagle and a Boeing 747 are both utilizing mechanisms that allow them to fly, which is true.

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  • MSugarhill@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You cannot distinguish selective bread organisms from gene edited (think CRISPR) organisms. You also do not get glow the dark rabbits from it. But you can get the same result as with selective breeding over countless generations in one generation.

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