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NancyLebovitz comments on Should I be afraid of GMOs? - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Pavitra 19 May 2011 01:29AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 19 May 2011 09:57:45AM 4 points [-]

I'm concerned about allergies-- for example, fish genes being put into tomatoes for cold resistance, though I just found out that it was never commercially produced. Some people can literally die from eating a small amount of fish, and I don't know whether any of the dangerous fish proteins were in the tomatoes.

Even if you're talking about less drastic engineering, moving genes around could make life a lot harder for people who need to know which foods are safe for them.

Comment author: knb 19 May 2011 08:33:14PM 8 points [-]

From the WHO article:

Allergenicity. As a matter of principle, the transfer of genes from commonly allergenic foods is discouraged unless it can be demonstrated that the protein product of the transferred gene is not allergenic. While traditionally developed foods are not generally tested for allergenicity, protocols for tests for GM foods have been evaluated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO. No allergic effects have been found relative to GM foods currently on the market.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 20 May 2011 01:47:09AM 2 points [-]

It's good to know that they're taking the issue seriously.

Unfortunately, I'm thinking that rice with gluten would be sort of cool.

Comment author: virtualAdept 19 May 2011 04:29:27PM 3 points [-]

Food allergies tend to be a response to one compound, or a very small set of compounds. With respect to using genes from one organism to confer hardiness on another, the chances of conferring the production of a deadly allergen are diminishingly slim, but you'd better believe that if such a thing was to be done, the FDA (or analogous organizations outside the US) would have warnings plastered all over the derivative organism.

The level of justification and background research showing how you're NOT going to destroy the world that is required to even get funding for this sort of thing is.... large.

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