136 points

Thats a teosinte seed; teosinte is the grass ancestor of corn that still grows in Mexico.

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37 points

TIL

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15 points

So its the corn that is genetically modified.

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15 points

Ancestor is not the same as non GMO. One could say that primates in Madagascar are ancestors to human. But there’s no human population that is either GMO or went through the process of selective breeding.

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29 points

True, but people selectively bred teosinte into corn.

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1 point

selective breeding

I wonder, isn’t sexual selection a form of “selective breeding”?

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6 points

Indeed.

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53 points

Back then you would get 5 popcorn per bucket at the movies.

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34 points

Gregor Mendel entered the chat …

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26 points

“You again! Ya filthy pea fondler!!”

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6 points

And I will fondle yours too, give them here!

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5 points

Mushy peas are best as a side dish, so make sure to take them to dinner first.

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3 points

“Aww, my little sweatpea!”

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25 points

Not sure what this is trying to say, but this seems to conflate genetic modification with selective breeding!

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71 points

Selective breeding is a form of genetic modification. That’s what it’s trying to say.

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14 points
*

By the individual definitions of the words, yes. However in actual use, genetically modified means modification through direct methods such as chemical agents, enzymes, or electroporation.

Edit:

This isn’t my opinion. Here is an article in Nature: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetically-modified-organisms-gmos-transgenic-crops-and-732/

You can selectively breed rabbits for 1000 years and not get a glow in the dark rabbit that can be made in a week in a lab.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/glow-in-dark-rabbits-scientists

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13 points

Sure, but you could selectively breed rabbits for 1,000,000 years and get a glow in the dark rabbit; GFP is just a protein like any other - if you painstakingly selectively breed for a specific DNA sequence, you’ll eventually get it regardless of your starting genetic pool. Classic selective breeding is a form of genetic modification - modern genetic modification methods are just way faster.

I agree that we don’t currently know enough about genetics to utilize genetic modification without unforeseen side effects, and so there should be limitations on what we’re able to genetically modify until we can show that we understand it well enough to meaningfully minimize potential issues, but those same issues occur with selective breeding - they’re, again, just slower.

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-2 points

You cannot distinguish selective bread organisms from gene edited (think CRISPR) organisms. You also do not get glow the dark rabbits from it. But you can get the same result as with selective breeding over countless generations in one generation.

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7 points

Selective breeding modifies the genes, so… No.

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1 point

Or, yes?

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23 points

Thanks to capitalism however we can re buy the seed every season and insure Monsantos earnings please the shareholders

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2 points

Thanks to assholes

Ftfy

Because we will never be free of assholes, regardless of the system.

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9 points

But surely you can see how a system that rewards asshole behavior is part of the problem here? Maybe we’d have fewer assholes if the system didn’t reinforce the behavior and train new assholes every day. Maybe over time, over multiple generations, we could eliminate assholes almost completely

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1 point

There’s a reason we’ve never seen this mythical system you’re speaking of. People, in general, are assholes and will act in their own best interests every time.

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