The Great Genetically Modified Crop Myth

[central scrutinizer]

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-crops-myth-812179.html

excerpt:

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"

He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one.

[snot]

1. K&R'd

[PDJane]

2. Yep.

And the stuff is toxic.

But it makes money for someone.

[wtmusic]

3. GM is nothing but hybridization speeded up

and hybridization has increased the productivity of crops tenfold.

Because of the speeding up process, sometimes you don't get what you think you're going to get. But to make a blanket statement like GM "actually cuts the productivity of crops" is inane.

[kestrel91316]

4. Wrong. No amount of hybridization will ever give you a tomato

with a flounder gene in it, or whatever THAT flop of an abomination was......

Go study university level genetics and come back here and tell us that. ROFLMFAO.

[wtmusic]

5. Go study yourself

"The term "genetically modified organism" does not always imply, but can include, targeted insertions of genes from one into another species."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_crops

Are the soybeans being recombined with flounders, or are they teaching you at the University to just make shit up?

[kestrel91316]

6. Nah, the soybeans are probably being combined with mice.

Or perhaps slime mold.

Hybridization speeds up what nature does on her own. Genetic engineering does what nature could never in a million lifetimes do. And yes, I have studied genetics.

[NickB79]

10. But horizontal gene transfer (ie natural genetic engineering) is quite common in nature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer#Eukaryotes

"Sequence comparisons suggest recent horizontal transfer of many genes among diverse species including across the boundaries of phylogenetic "domains". Thus determining the phylogenetic history of a species can not be done conclusively by determining evolutionary trees for single genes."<17>

After all, scientists only got the idea to transfer genes from one species to another by observing it occurring in nature.

In fact, we may owe our entire existence to the flow of genes between widely different species:

"Fossil records indicate that single-celled life first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago. It then took about 2.5 billion more years for multi-cellular life to evolve. Then, in the space of only a billion years, plants, mammals, insects, birds and other species exploded across the Earth. Now, scientists from Rice University think they may be closer to understanding why the speed and complexity of evolution appears to increase with time.

The Rice researchers suggest that the speed of evolution has increased over time thanks to horizontal gene transfer, where bacteria and viruses exchange transposable chunks of DNA between species, thus making it possible for life forms to evolve faster than they would if they relied only on sexual selection or random genetic mutations."

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20070029220033data_trunc_sys.shtml

And yes, I have studied genetics as well; my bachelor's degree was in biochemistry.

[kestrel91316]

11. Gene transfer is what bacteria do with their plasmids.

Mice aren't doing it. Neither are soybeans.

[NickB79]

12. Viruses and bacteria are facilitating gene transfer between eukaryotes

From the Wiki article I linked to previously:

"Analysis of DNA sequences suggests that horizontal gene transfer has also occurred within eukaryotes, from their chloroplast and mitochondrial genome to their nuclear genome. As stated in the endosymbiotic theory, chloroplasts and mitochondria probably originated as bacterial endosymbionts of a progenitor to the eukaryotic cell.<10>

Horizontal transfer of genes from bacteria to some fungi, especially the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been well documented.<11>

There is also recent evidence that the adzuki bean beetle has somehow acquired genetic material from its (non-beneficial) endosymbiont Wolbachia. <12> New examples have recently been reported, demonstrating that Wolbachia bacteria represent an important potential source of genetic material in arthropods and filarial nematodes. <13>

There is also evidence for horizontal transfer of mitochondrial genes to parasites of the Rafflesiaceae plant family from their hosts (also plants),<14><15> and from chloroplasts of a not-yet-identified plant to the mitochondria of the bean Phaseolus.<16>"

Genes have been, and still are, being passed between multicellular species with the help of bacterial and viral infections.

[bananas]

7. No, GM is not "hybridization speeded up"

They are completely different processes.

[mike_c]

8. interestingly, and a bit OT, PETA has offered a million dollar prize...

...for commercially viable in vitro meat, which is GUARANTEED to be a GMO.

http://www.peta.org/feat_in_vitro_contest.asp

[crimsonblue]

9. gotta give a big shoutout to my alma mater on this on!

It's a bit ridiculous that this was not covered at all by the hometown paper... and appeared in a paper across the pond. I mean, I always knew the Lawrence Journal-World was run by a bunch of corrupt cronies, but seriously? Not even a little 2 line blurb? Gotta love red state kansas.....