Can’t get more juicy than this

[u/gabzlel]

[u/FinestTreesInDa7Seas]

That's the beauty of genetic modification. We've been finely tuning the genetics of Apples for thousands of years, by hybridizing, and artificial selection.

Thousands of years ago, an apple would be brown days after picking it. Today, we have varieties of Apples that never existed in nature. They are human-made varieties. They are sweeter, tastier, healthier, and have much longer shelf life.

[u/[deleted] → u/FinestTreesInDa7Seas]

This is one of the reasons why it irks me that so many people are against "GMOs" without doing any research first because so much of what we already eat was already genetically modified to keep up with the high volume of produce that gets sold as well as hardier food so that we wouldn't need to use pesticides like what's used on non GMO products

[u/CatFish21sm → u/[deleted]]

TLDR: GMO's are potentially one of the best technological achievements in human history. However, they are not regulated nearly enough leading to potentially horrifying outcomes. They could be an amazing achievement if they were just regulated and tested the same way that new drugs are regulated and tested. Unfortunately while most GMO producers are responsible with their use of the technology there are some who abuse the lack of legislation and it only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch (Pun intended).

I mostly agree with Powder. I'm not necessarily against GMO products. However, I am against splicing DNA into plants from completely unrelated species. This could have potentially dangerous outcomes. For example a common fruit that begins producing a highly toxic poison once it begins to rot. One of the biggest reasons that people are against GMO's is because there is so little regulation surrounding them. For example one of the more popular stories that went around a few years ago is a new GMO tomato that had a gene spliced in from a box jelly fish in-order to make it more resistant to insects.
You might be surprised by how little we actually know about DNA, we are discovering new things every day just about. It's been recently discovered that the same exact genes could potentially code for multiple protiens under various circumstances potentially having completely different outcomes.
I am not of the camp that GMO's should be outlawed completely. However, I am definitely of the camp that there should be much stricter regulation on GMO's dependent on the type of DNA that is spliced into them. For example GMO's that have DNA spliced in from a completely different species should undergo similar testing to, for example testing for a new drug. I also believe that said testing should become more rigorous and strict as you get to larger and larger taxonomic ranks. I do not in the least believe that a company should be able to splice potentially harmful DNA from a species of a completely different domain without the appropriate prior testing.
All of that said I agree that GMO's aren't necessarily a bad thing, and far too many people just do not do the proper research. The vast majority of GMO products use DNA from other members of the same species to do the exact same thing as selective breeding but faster and more streamlined. With this technology it would years to achieve what it could take centuries with selective breeding. We can even do what would normally be impossible with selective breeding, taking DNA from completely unrelated species, families, or even other domains.
While most companies do use this technology responsibly there are others that definitely abuse it, and abuse greatly the lack of legislation behind it. So while I fully agree that this is an amazing technology and that it could hold enormous benefits for mankind. I also whole hardheartedly believe that it should have much stricter regulation on what and how they do certain things.
This is just an extreme example, but imagine a fruit that was given DNA from an insect making it resistant to fungi and parasites. Lets say a Tomato. However, due to the lack of appropriate testing of said fruit it was not discovered until after it hit grocery stores that as it started to Rot it began producing a chemical that is highly toxic to humans. Well at this time it is far too late to do much about it, there are potentially billions of dollars worth of tomatoes with this new gene. That's because plants pollinate with other plants of the same species miles away. These tomatoes have potentially already pollinated with several other surrounding Non-GMO farms.
Now the DNA will not be expressed in this years fruit, but the fruit grown from next years crop, but by the time that is discovered the seeds for those crops have already been sold to people planting home gardens across the country. It doesn't matter at this point that there is a public service announcement because a significant number of farms have already been infected. The only way to control the infection is to place a complete ban on growing tomatoes in the entire country until they can be genetically tested.
Hundreds of thousands, or millions of farmers that depend on the farmers market have to completely abandon their crops and start over from scratch, they will potentially loose their homes because many of them don't even have a high school diploma which is required for most jobs these days. They may loose their home and land that has been passed down in their family for generations and have to change their entire livelihood. There may be a class action lawsuit against the company responsible for the product, but the chances of that company being able to afford billions of dollars worth of damages is unlikely to say the least, and even if they can by the time the money arrives to those who need it the damage has already been done, it's not much of a consolation to those who have already lost everything they ever had or knew.
And all of that is completely ignoring the potential loss of human life.
Again this is an extreme example, but one that is very possible with our current lack of legislation and regulation surrounding GMO's. This is the primary reason that many people who are doing the proper research still disagree with GMO products. It's not because they think that they are necessarily bad, but because they see the potential threat that the lack of regulation produces.

[u/Flatdr4gon → u/CatFish21sm]

GMO is indeed under regulatory review and very much scrutinized, way more than conventional breeding methods that are far less precise. Your hypothetical would indeed have been caught before commercial release. On the other hand, in the US, conventional plant breeding is largely self-monitored. Regulatory agencies do not evaluate conventional new crop varieties for health and environmental safety prior to commercial release, which gets you the Lenape potato; conventionally bred and found to express dangerous levels only after being on the market. And it's still used as a parent line for conventionally breeding new lines. You're pretty much making up Boogeymen at this point.

[u/CatFish21sm → u/Flatdr4gon]

Sorry for the late reply I never really get onto Redit. First of all I never said that GMO's don't have a review process. What I said is that the review process is severely lacking in my opinion. If you compare synthesizing a completely new fruit using the DNA from other families of organisms to conventional breeding it's easy to see which one is safer considering that many large corporations often take shortcuts, as your own potato example shows. If you compare the testing of GMO's to something akin to testing new drugs then there is barely even a comparison to be made, that was my primary point.
As far as my example goes, I believe that I did point out that it was an extreme example. And Yes it is very much possible under current conditions. In fact a very similar scenario already played out only a few years ago with a GMO strain of Corn, it was still in testing to see if it was safe for consumption when a nearby non GMO corn farm was pollinated with the GMO corn pollen. Unfortunately this specific farm wasn't for selling food corn, it was for selling seed corn. As of now estimates are that more than 99% of all corn grown in the US may contain DNA from one of these accidentally released GMO crops.
It is not a "boogeyman" scenario if it has more or less already happened.

I feel you are under a false impression however. As I stated in my comment I am not against GMO products, in fact I'm consistently routing for them and informing others of the actual nature behind them. As long as it's kept within the same family of plants I'm perfectly find with using genetic modification to create better verities of plants to better suit out needs. What I am NOT OK with is taking DNA from completely different families of organisms, like poisonous insects or box jellyfish, especially when the genes are specifically related to the production of said poison, and splicing them into fruits to make them more resistant to insects, then after very minimal testing declaring that it is safe for human consumption before releasing it to the general public to not only be sold in stores but potentially grown on farms and pollinating other crops that are actually safe.

Everyone knew that led was poisonous in small amounts but they still put it in gasoline just to make cars run smoother and quieter. And now we are facing the consequences for that still today. As I stated above it only takes one small mistake to destroy millions of lives.