>GMO technology is massively different from what occurs in Nature, Really? The most accredited theory at present about the origin of mitochondria in eukaryote cells is endosymbiosis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endosymbiosis/>. Mark Mazewr Hertford, NC USDA 8a, we hope, and surrounded by fields of GMO cotton, corn and soy On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Erik Van Lennep <erik@tepuidesign.com> wrote: > Fascinating to watch the polarity build every time GMOs are brought up. It > gets political and emotional so quickly, and neither filters well for > logic. > > I have a background in plant breeding,ecology, biology, sustainability and > policy, for what it's worth. > > For me the largest problem around GMOs is political/economic, which comes > down to power. A very rich industry is buying politicians to write policy > supporting the same industry in evading due process and objective, > independent assessment. And it's no wonder. If they were made to adhere to > the same constraints put into place to protect the public in other > situations, they would have a much harder time making their profits. The > scale of this industry is so massive, and the *de-facto *monopolies they > have established (in direct contravention of laws prohibiting monopolies) > so powerful, that they now tell us what to eat. > > And I am sorry for anyone who believes this is "conspiracy theory",but > that's a political / emotional response which would collapse if you just > did some independent research to verify it for yourselves. It's all out > there, but you won't find it in the mainstream media, because that was > bought long ago by members of the same 1% who are stockholders in the GMO > giants. You have to dig deeper, but that shouldn't be too much of a > challenge to bulb fanciers accustomed to searching out rare seeds. > > The second issue is biological. It has to do with the vectors used to > insert the foreign genes. These are various specialized and modified virus > and bacteria which are adapted to transfer their own DNA into host > organisms. When it is swapped for the DNA of the developer's choice, they > carry out their job. > > The problem is that neither the vectors nor the foreign DNA stays put. It > has been shown to migrate into other plants, and not only by pollen > transfer. In fact lateral transfer (between similar as well as unrelated > organisms) of DNA in Nature turns out to be more common that was once > believed. But under natural conditions organisms have more capable filters > to protect themselves. Again, if this sounds incredible to anyone, do your > homework and see for yourself. > > So yes, GMO technology is massively different from what occurs in Nature, > as well as what occurs in more traditional hybridization and plant > selection in the field or under glass. And the wrong people have been left > in charge of the process, and are doing it for all the wrong reasons. > > Erik > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >