The anti-GMO movement is nothing but a pseudoscientific scam.

[mike_c]

197. "Answer the damn question already!"

I'm sorry-- I didn't know you'd asked that question. How then would I know to answer it?

Okay, where to start? First, genes represent stored biological information. Nucleic acids are the primary intergenerational information storage medium of cells. Exchanging genes between organisms therefore means exchanging information between organisms. That's all it means, from a biological perspective. Just like information can be copied from one sheet of paper to another, genes and their regulatory mechanisms can be copied from one cell to another. There are lots of ways this happens in nature, including horizontal gene transfer, which does not involve reproduction.

Information is universal. Genes that convey desirable phenotypes can arise spontaneously by mutation, they can be introduced by sexual recombination, they can be acquired from other organisms by horizontal transfer, or they can be introduced by genetic engineering. All of these produce the exact same outcome: an organism that has acquired information that it previously lacked, and that it can use to solve problems or produce traits that it could not previously.

THAT is why GMOs are not materially different than non-GMO crops. Introducing new genetic information from other organisms via genetic engineering produces the same outcome as introducing that information by any other means. Believing them to be different is the same as saying that writing a sentence produces a different meaning if it's written in a barnyard or in a lab. The information is universal, so there is no material difference. That's not at all the same as saying that the phenotypes are identical-- of course they're not. That's the whole point.

It is easy to demonstrate that genetic information is universal-- the simple fact that genetic engineering works so well is sufficient proof. When we insert a bacterial gene that kills pest insects into a crop plant, the gene does the same thing-- produces a protein that kills pest insects without toxicity to any other animals. That gene product is not materially different whether it's expressed in Bacillus thuringiensis or in corn. The transformed corn plants are not materially different than they would be if it were possible to obtain the transformation another way.