'Frankensalmon' ruled safe to eat: Fast-growing GM fish approved by scientists
- Thread starter ScatMan
- Start date
ScatMan;4455177; said:
No one knows the potential bad. They are declaring it safe without a lifetime study being done. It could take years of consumption to develop brain cancer or weaken our immune systems.
Take Asbestos as an example. It was deemed the greatest product and was used in almost every building for decades (from late 1800s) until severe illness, including lung cancer and emphysema, started to show up in teachers and construction workers. Only in 1978 did studies begin to show that 92% of asbestos workers had asbestosis only after 40 years of working around it. Only in the mid 1980's did regilations come into force to control it. (info from environmentalchemistry.com)
It took decades for diseases to show up from this and be acknowledged. The truth was hidden for years because of how damaging it would be. Who is to say this will be any different. You would think they would learn from past mistakes.
The altered genetics in this food could eventually cause all sorts of genetic deformities in humans because we are consuming altered flesh. It took nature millions of years to get it right but we come along, screw with it in a few short years and theorise that it is safe based on studies over a very small amount of years considering a human can now live for a long time and that is increasing.
The whole of the human race is becoming the science communities guinea pig with regards to GM foods. It is not like make up or bath products where it may burn or make a rash on skin almost immediately. It could take decades for diseases like cancer, sterility and genetic deformities to show up as a result but unless they do a dedicated study no one will link them to GM foods if they are indeed the cause.
I like my Monster fish extra monsterous
oh and if it helps feed the world and thats good too
/used to work at a finfish hatchery and it amazes me how worked up people get over Genetic Modification. every time an egg of any type is fertilized Genetic Modification occurs, at least in GM technology the changes are planned and intentional. And lets face it a fish that grows bigger faster, and looks very healthy doing it is a good thing.
oh and if it helps feed the world and thats good too
/used to work at a finfish hatchery and it amazes me how worked up people get over Genetic Modification. every time an egg of any type is fertilized Genetic Modification occurs, at least in GM technology the changes are planned and intentional. And lets face it a fish that grows bigger faster, and looks very healthy doing it is a good thing.
Salmon farming is already incredibly wasteful and destructive as it is. Everywhere salmon are farmed, the population of native salmon has crashed due to the spread of sea lice and diseases from the farmed salmon to the juvenile native salmon. The holding pens are basically an open fish toilet that gets dumped right into the waterway. You have to catch about 3 pounds of fish to create enough feed to make one pound of farmed salmon.
There are so many misconceptions that need to be cleared up here. There are no chemicals being added for one. So you are not consuming anything toxic as far as that goes.
Two, they are not adding hormones technically. Just modifying the DNA structure of the fish to grow faster. And as the article said its a combination of slightly increased GH, and an increased metabolism to continue growing faster. (They made it so the metabolism continued to operate at high levels even in colder temps when metabolism would normally slow down. Hence why fish grow faster in your tanks when you turn the temp up.)
Three, this is awesome because it could help prevent overfishing out worlds oceans and destroying our ecosystem and eventually our home. If you don't agree or feel it is safe, fine don't eat it, but support it because this will help our environment in the long run, especially since they are sterile.
Fourth, this is one step towards ending world hunger. Now while I think our population shouldn't be as high as it is, I don't believe someone should go hungry due to food shortage, over fishing, and many other reasons.
Fifth, people seem to think this will alter our DNA if we eat it, that's ridiculous. The DNA is contained in your nucleus and will not allow anything but certain molecules into it. Virus' inject their either DNA or RNA depending on the virus and is designed to use our ribosomes to produce viral proteins to create more virus'. So unless the DNA of the fish could survive the process of being cooked, eaten, and digested then MAYBE, but its not designed to do so and DNA could never survive that process.
Just wanted to clear some misconceptions up.
Two, they are not adding hormones technically. Just modifying the DNA structure of the fish to grow faster. And as the article said its a combination of slightly increased GH, and an increased metabolism to continue growing faster. (They made it so the metabolism continued to operate at high levels even in colder temps when metabolism would normally slow down. Hence why fish grow faster in your tanks when you turn the temp up.)
Three, this is awesome because it could help prevent overfishing out worlds oceans and destroying our ecosystem and eventually our home. If you don't agree or feel it is safe, fine don't eat it, but support it because this will help our environment in the long run, especially since they are sterile.
Fourth, this is one step towards ending world hunger. Now while I think our population shouldn't be as high as it is, I don't believe someone should go hungry due to food shortage, over fishing, and many other reasons.
Fifth, people seem to think this will alter our DNA if we eat it, that's ridiculous. The DNA is contained in your nucleus and will not allow anything but certain molecules into it. Virus' inject their either DNA or RNA depending on the virus and is designed to use our ribosomes to produce viral proteins to create more virus'. So unless the DNA of the fish could survive the process of being cooked, eaten, and digested then MAYBE, but its not designed to do so and DNA could never survive that process.
Just wanted to clear some misconceptions up.
DMasker;4455472; said:
These points are completely false. Salmon farming is unsustainable as a method of food production. The net result of salmon farming is a reduction in protein and will in no way end world hunger. It's the equivalent of growing corn to feed to cows to feed to jaguars to raise for food. Check out these links, they explain it better than I can:
http://www.raincoastresearch.org/salmon-farming.htm
http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/page/salmon-farming-problems
cichlid2006;4455296; said:
isn't that the potential bad that "No one knows"?
cichlid2006;4455296; said:
we have vastly different regulations for safety now and much better science. while i'll be the first to admit this is no 100% guarantee of safety, it is still pretty good.
things in nature can be dangerous too, the sun can cause cancer and we need that to live. we need to use some discretion with anything we consume and accept the fact that some people will have bad reactions (as with aspartame, peanuts, latex, etc.) no matter what.
cichlid2006;4455296; said:
i'm not going to say this is impossible, but there is NO evidence to suggest this either.
cichlid2006;4455296; said:
nature didn't start with advanced organisms and the wright brothers didn't build the stealth bomber. we have to start somewhere, and that somewhere should be reasonably safe. you don't have to eat it after all, you will always have the choice of buying the more expensive natural salmon (like farm raised vs. wild).
cichlid2006;4455296; said:
we're not guinea pigs. like i said earlier, you don't have to eat it. but yes, you are absolutely right about there being potential risks.
