[Sca-cooks] NOT OT: genetically engineereed foods

[Stefan li Rous]

Lorenz commented:
> Kirsten Houseknecht wrote:
> > now, if you cut a gene from that into other food..... it could KILL a
> > person who has NO warning that , say, a garlic gene was spliced into
> > the tomato to make it more resistant to some blight. (or whatever)
> > this is one reason why i say label ANYthing that has been modified
> > from the "expected norm".
>
> Do you have any cites for this?  My limited understanding of immunology
> and genetic engineering makes me think this is extraordinarily 
> unlikely.
>
> Not that I'm arguing against labeling, mind you.  More information =
> more better.
Maybe. It depends upon how much there is and how relevant it is to you. 
You could get so much info, if you were given all possibly harmful 
compounds that are harmful to someone, that you can't easily determine 
whether something is okay for you to eat or not. Or it could be overly 
broad such as "contains artifically spliced genetic material" or 
"contains pork genetic material" that you end up avoiding most foods, 
even though most of the genetic material transferred would not generate 
the particular compound that is harmful to you.

However, this same genetic science that is progressing so fast as to 
make genetic manipulation possible will probably also allow us to 
determine exactly which compounds someone is allergic to. Then, if a 
more complete statement on what a food has had manipulated were 
available, you could decide to eat that peach with the pork genes 
added, but avoid that carrot that had the pork gene added that created 
the X2Y3bCS protein.
Stefan
I *want* to be able to buy irradiated milk and meats. But because of 
the public hysteria over the use of irradiation to preserve foods, I 
can't.
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****