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by JimmyM 3692 days ago
I mean, it's often much worse.

http://www.petpugdog.com/pug-breathing-problems http://thesharpeivet.co.uk/services/skin-problems/ http://web-dvm.net/what-has-happened-to-the-german-shepherd-... http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/incidenc.htm http://news.discovery.com/animals/pets/toy-dog-breeding-caus...

There are undoubtedly issues with GMO if it is abused - but the fact that it is capable of sharp distinctions between right and wrong and can be legally controlled is good, and should be embraced. Happy to see GMO companies take steps in this direction. You can't reliably control whether someone breeds dogs to suffer hip dysplasia or constant headaches due to their brain being too large for their skull. Less emotively, you can't reliably control whether apple breeders end up with over-sweet mush that no-one wants or banana breeders end up with infertile crops. We can and (I believe) should control whether or not Monsanto engineers defective crops designed to maximise their profits at the expense of farmers (note: Monsanto has not actually marketed or sold the famous 'sterile' or 'terminator' seeds at time of writing, although they own the patent). We can and should control whether or not a GMO dog is created that suffers from hip dysplasia or injurious brain problems.

1 comments

Suicide plants with the sole purpose of completely controlling the seed supply should be illegal. No loopholes, no bullshit. Illegal.
Funnily enough, one of the reasons the terminator gene was created was because anti-gmo activist wanted assurances that artificially created genes wouldn't escape into the wild.

In addition, farmers who rotate crops also want terminator seeds because it reduces the number of volunteer plants in subsequent harvests.

Most of the anti terminator stuff I've read betrays a deep lack of understanding about how the underlying technology actually works.

Can very much understand that perspective but it isn't being used for that. And it has escaped into the wild anyway.
I agree. I also think that dog breeding should be illegal, though, which is a much less popular stance.