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[DeKaFu]

All food has been genetically modified, in a giant conspiracy going back thousands of years. The same has been done to various companion animals, sometimes with disastrous effects.
In addition, almost all of our food has been chemically modified at a molecular level! It's HIGHLY unnatural. (Hint: The application of heat is involved.)

On the other hand, medication is important but not something that should be taken lightly. It always appalls me how many people I know don't bother reading the dosage instructions and such on over-the-counter drugs, or check if they're taking multiple things that contain the same active ingredient. Hell, I once missed school because my mom transferred some pills into the pill bottle for something else, so I ended up overdosing unintentionally. (They were pretty much the same stuff, but she put the 1-every-12-hours pills in a 2-every-4-hours bottle.) Also, everything has side-effects. The idea is that you use medication when the side effects are preferable whatever the drug is treating. Having your health compromised by medications is generally seen as better than having your health compromised by heart failure, for example.

[G-Flex]

All food has been genetically modified, in a giant conspiracy going back thousands of years. The same has been done to various companion animals, sometimes with disastrous effects.
In addition, almost all of our food has been chemically modified at a molecular level! It's HIGHLY unnatural. (Hint: The application of heat is involved.)

The difference is that these processes (as well as the selection of what to eat in the first place) took place over countless generations, as opposed to something being done on a whim for profit. Things get a bit dicier if you can change something's genome more directly and instantaneously rather than simply, say, selecting for larger and tastier fruits. The results are likely to be more unpredictable, since they aren't evolving within the ecosystem to that point in the first place.

Dog breeding is pretty messed up, but that's similarly due to them being bred for certain traits outside of any natural environment that would actually test their feasibility as organisms, instead opting for weird and arbitrary cosmetic standards over anything else. (I watched that BBC documentary/expose on pedigree dogs and it was pretty sickening)


Again, it's not that genetically modifying food is necessarily bad, just that there are risks involved that we are simply not accustomed to.

[ChairmanPoo]

There hasn't been any incident so far. Most of the fearmongering is pure hype.

[Criptfeind]

And thus the reason I say test them but modify away.

[G-Flex]

There hasn't been any incident so far. Most of the fearmongering is pure hype.

There are many more problems than whatever hypothetical health issues there are, like those related to ecology or the economy/legal rights.

I'm not sure what you call an "incident", but the legal issues regarding GM crops have barely begun to be tackled; the Supreme Court made their first ruling related to them at all about two weeks ago.

And thus the reason I say test them but modify away.

If you need to test them, you do that before you put it into production, though, as with medicine or anything else. And the legal and ethical issues still remain.

[Il Palazzo]

I don't take medicines without a good cause (mild headache or nausea aren't good causes), because lots of them are bad for you liver and I can't bother to find out which ones aren't. If I'm going to ruin my liver, I'll do it with booze!

See, booze IS a medicine. The only one worth dying of.

[Criptfeind]

I don't take medicines without a good cause (mild headache or nausea aren't good causes), because lots of them are bad for you liver and I can't bother to find out which ones aren't. If I'm going to ruin my liver, I'll do it with booze!

See, booze IS a medicine. The only one worth dying of.

Oh the conundrum!

And what does legal technicalities have to do with the morality of this? Just decide and than do, some will dislike it but some dislike every law.

[Jackrabbit]

I watched that BBC documentary/expose on pedigree dogs and it was pretty sickening.

Goddamn was it ever. Mongrels all the way!

I'll have more to add to the discussion when I've thought more about it.

[smjjames]

Anything taken in high enough dosages and quantities will kill you, sometimes it can require massive amounts to kill, but the real key is balance.

Realnfighter, I wonder what your mother would say about ancient herbal remedies, long before synthetic chemicals were made, which uses the chemicals inside plants (and possibly animals? Mostly plants anyway).

[Virex]

Tell your mother that caffeine is produced by the coffee plant to poison things trying to eat it and see how she reacts

[Nikov]

GE crops could significantly reduce world hunger and particularly malnutrition. I'm rather surprised some people are against them.

[Realmfighter]

Realnfighter, I wonder what your mother would say about ancient herbal remedies, long before synthetic chemicals were made, which uses the chemicals inside plants (and possibly animals? Mostly plants anyway).

She has a large jar full for sore throats.

They don't work.

[G-Flex]

Why don't they work? Plenty of plant-based things are pretty good for sore throats. Obviously they won't cure an infection, but there are a slew of natural things that can help soothe a throat, at the least.

[Realmfighter]

I've eaten 6 in the past two days.

All i know? I don't feel better.

[smjjames]

I've eaten 6 in the past two days.

All i know? I don't feel better.

Maybe you're suppoused to heat it into a tea?