Hey, my little horde of genetically virginal specimens. As you are all completely natural and normal beings with pure genomes unchanged by the corruptive hands of technology, I'm taking it upon myself to explain the scary, dark side of science we're all scared of.
Science is terrifying, right? It's all lab coats and institutionalization and words and diagrams.
What even is this? Who even cares?
Well, I'm a biology major, so count me in the (very) small number of people that are happy to talk about gene splicing until the cows come home or until their friends stop listening (whichever comes first). But it must be said that public perception and discourse surrounding modern science and research is troubling at best and destructive at worst. We've created an unnecessary conversational dichotomy surrounding science. There's an essential disconnect that's manifested in a reality which expects those who study certain scientific discourses to be uniquely able to understand their work. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's translated in the fact that successful work that has the possibility of improving the lives of the general public is often not understood by those subject to such change. There are countless instances where a lack of understanding has led to unfair advantages in power, but it can also lead to distrust, as a result, circulation of things that bear less truth than they might seem to. And that's why we're having a little chat about GMOs today—What's fact? What's fiction? Consider me your genome-loving biology spirit guide on a quest to find your inner frankenorganism truth. And, like all quests of knowledge, we'll be embarking on this journey through a fun game of true or false!
GET PUMPED
LIKE H+ IONS DURING OXIDATIVE PHOSPHORYLATION
STOP ROLLING YOUR EYES. IT'S FUNNY.
I'M A BIO MAJOR THIS IS OK WE ALL DO THIS (that's a lie it's mostly just me)
Anyways, GMOs.
1. GMOs are the product of (recent) modern science
Well, little chickadees, hate to disappoint you, but this is FALSE! In order to explain this point, I'm going to reveal some information from an apple documentary I watched during freshman year of high school (in an English class, of all places- my English teacher was a really cool lady who evidently was very concern with our lack of knowledge on the fruit of knowledge). BASICALLY, apples, which are basically apple tree ovaries (I bet you didn't think you'd be reading about plant gonads today- HA the joke's on you!) bear five seeds, which are not identical to the parent fruit. Thus, if these seeds were simply planted directly from the fruit, the resulting apple trees may bear fruit that was sour or unpleasant. Thus, grafting and budding is a fairly old technique used to merge plants to consistently produce the fruit we've grown to know and love and cover in copious amounts of sugar, butter and pastry to make pie.
God bless America.
Anyways, the story of the domesticated apple reveals something important about genetically modified organisms.
They've been around forever.
Eat your 'GMO-free' Pink Lady while the rest of us laugh in the face of your hypocrisy.
2. GMOs are unhealthy
You guessed it! This one's FALSE, too.
I was browsing articles that promised to offer legitimate arguments that proposed that GMOs cause health issues. I stumbled across one that stated:
"What we do know is that when genetic modification happens, genes are forced to express certain traits (including pesticides). To do this, the scientists “turn on” all the gene's components, which can mean releasing allergens that would normally not be expressed in a non-GMO variety." http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/whats-so-bad-about-g...
Wow. They sure are using a lot of science words. If I didn't know what they were trying to tell me, I might be inclined to believe them.
Unfortunately, I'm a buzzkill and I'm at a very expensive school and I spend a lot of time crying/hiding in the library/having mental breakdowns about/studying biology, so I sure as HELL should know that the above statement is wrong.
3. GMOs give more power to big business
If this is a reason you oppose GMOs, congratulations! This is a statement that has some credibility. This can be considered TRUE.
4. GMOs harm native plant/animal populations
This is a split logic framework—they can change native plant populations, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
