Genetic Engineered food:

[Jarvisfamily4]

As I'm proudly stating that I will next year use only heirloom varieties that re-seed in my garden, I have suddenly stumbled upon a dilemma.
Lettuce used to be wild lettuce, bitter and full of hallucinigenic milk, until it was genetically bred to be mild flavored and non-neurotoxic.
Carrots used to be wild, until we genetically domesticated them.
Blue potatoes are great fun, and they DO reproduce, but they too are not 'natural'.

So, I'm wondering, at what point do we say 'some GM is okay food, and some is not"? What point is it when non-natural food becomes non-food? (is this making any sense?)

What do we plant if not GM food? What of our mainstreem food is really, honestly natural?

[skydove]

I might not have it quite right here, but I think that in the cases you mentioned ( don't know about blue potatoes - never come across these) that the breeding out of unpalatable characteristics was done by selection from grown and seeded plants picking out the most flavoursome variety and breeding from that, a selection from actual plants to get the best characteristics, similar to dog breeding. With genetically modified products it is done at the genetic level with the actual genetic blueprint changed by splicing on parts from different species to get the modification.

[Dryadia2]

I don't know enough about this topic to make an intelligent comment. So I did a 'google' search and found this:
http://www.xanga.com/Vrindavan/66241260 ... ation.html

Cross-breeding vs Genetic Modification

Genetic modification is different to all other types of plant breeding. GM proponents like to say "We've been genetically modifying plants and animals for centuries." What they are talking about is cross-breeding (sexual reproduction). That is when you cross two types of tomato to make a better one. Or you breed animals for certain characteristics i.e. to develop spotty dalmations or long, low daschunds. THIS IS NOT GENETIC MODIFICATION, IT IS CROSS-BREEDING.

Genetic Modification can only be created in a laboratory. Cells from viruses, bacteria, animals and plants that CANNOT be cross-bred are shot into cells and which are then grown into GM plants. For example GM canola has a soil bacterium forced into it. There is no way that canola (a plant) can cross-breed (sexually reproduce) with a soil bacterium (bacteria).

The same article also suggested this:

A sensible use of genetic technology is to analyse the DNA of plants and animals and work out what useful traits they have (molecular marking or DNA fingerprinting). Then they can be cross-bred by normal sexual reproduction. This process has already been used to create drought-tolerant non-GM canola. Damaging plant and animal DNA by forcing into cells genes that were never meant to be there (Genetic Modification) is not.

BTW, I've cooked and eaten purple-skinned potatoes. They were quite yummy as mashed potatoes, and a lovely shade of lavender after cooking.

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[Jarvisfamily4]

aaah - that totally makes sense!
(yes, the blue potatoes are the "Purple' ones you mentioned)
So, how do I know if the seeds I purchase are GM or just hybrids? Here in the US nothing GM is labled (because they are afraid people wouldn't buy it... duh. Tells you somehting, eh!?)

-D

[Dryadia2]

...So, how do I know if the seeds I purchase are GM or just hybrids?...

I'm still looking for an answer to this...
I'll reply when/if I can find an answer.

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[skydove]

Does it say anything on the seed suppliers website, most plant breeders will use terms like f1 cross which describes their breeding programme and would tell you something of their history of selective breeding? Here in the UK a popular way to buy is from seed catalogues which do tell this history of breeding and as far as I know these are not genetically modified. I think it might be the larger agricultural seed suppliers that use genetically modified seed not that for 'amateur growers'.

[Aylyn]

Genetic Modification can only be created in a laboratory. Cells from viruses, bacteria, animals and plants that CANNOT be cross-bred are shot into cells and which are then grown into GM plants. For example GM canola has a soil bacterium forced into it. There is no way that canola (a plant) can cross-breed (sexually reproduce) with a soil bacterium (bacteria).

While there is no cross breeding between plants and bacteria, it is quite common to have bacterial or viral genes in our bodies. One of the cell organelles we have, the mitochondria, are a form of bacteria that formed a symbiosis with our cells, and we could die without them. Both viruses and bacteria, if they are well adapted, can sneak into your body and merge with your genome, to lay dormant for years or forever. This is called latency, and is common for a number of micro-organisms. When they are activated, and leave the cells, they sometimes acquire genes from their host and transfer these to the next host. This is essentially genetic modification as we use it in the lab, and it was the discovery of this natural process that enabled GM. So it is not as an unnatural a process as is described widely.

F1 breeding describes the process of crossing 2 distinct races of e.g. plants with very different genetic traits. According to Mendel's Rules http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendel, the first generation (F1) will uniformly inherit traits of both parents. It is this rule that makes F1 seeds viable - they inherit the best of both parents, which makes them so valuable. However, when the seeds from those plants are re-used, you go into the F2 generation, where according to the same rules, only half the offspring will be as good as the parents, which means that half the harvest is bad. That is why it is not recommended to re-use seeds fom F1 hybrids.

So technically, none of the modifications is unnatural. Whether we should do it ethically is another question, and has to be answered by every person itself. While I personally see no problem with it, if it reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides, it should be the choice of everybody whether they want to eat it.

[Dryadia2]

Thanks for your input Aylyn!

Since I don't know much about it, I had to rely on info put out on the internet, and just chose a random example.

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[Aylyn]

Thanks for your input Aylyn!

That is okay, Dry, many people do not know much about it, which is why there is the ability to create a massive scare about it. The general feeling, and one that I get all the time, is that the process is entirely unnatural, which is why it is so feared, when it is in fact a natural process that has occurred many times over the lifespan of the Earth.

As I said: I would prefer it if the discussion about GM food could be done rationally, without the superstitious fears of "Playing God", to really assess the impact it has on our world. The main reason I support is is a simple one: our population is growing still, while the fertile land needed to support us is becoming less and less. We are now only able to feed the billions we have by using high-power seeds, and even then millions of people starve (Okay, mostly of distribution problems, not of actual food shortage.) In the future, this can only get worse, and creating new species by cross-breeding and selection takes time. I fear this might not be what we have - which is why GM might be our only way out, love it or hate it.