Bill Nye the Scinece Guy on GMOs

[Scootaloo]

188. Science isn't involved

It would be a compromise between the USDA and the companies in question, an arrangement that, given that the USDA is largely beholden to those companies, results in a favorable outcome from them.

What sort of information would be put on them, do you think? Telling you what genes have been altered? If you buy rice and it has a GMO: crtl and psy altered" do you have a clue what that means? If it told you where hte altered genes came from - say, a gene from the (very poisonous!) daffodil and a bacteria that lives in dirt... would you buy it? What if i told you this is the recipe for golden rice, a GMO cultivar of rice that produces beta-carotene in the grain and does nothing else unusual?

If you saw a package of beef labeled "MSTN: GDF-8 - HGNC:4223 2q32.1" do you have the first clue what you would be purchasing? What if it had a picture on it instead, and the cow looked like this:

"OH MY GOD THEY MADE A MUTANT FREAK COW IN A LAB!!!!"
Nope. That's the belgian blue, born and bred in the field. They have a mutation on the gene MSTN (HGNC ID HGNC:4223, located at 2q32.1 on the chromosone) that inhibits production of the protien myostatin (GDF-8); this protien inhibits muscle growth. No funky lab works here, just good ol' freakshow mutation followed by putting a bull on a cow.