Neil deGrasse Tyson gets to the bottom of GMOs

[longship]

35. But I don't think one can argue that they're qualitatively different.

For Pete's sake, farmers are forcing mutations using radiation and chemicals. That's even A-Okay with organic farming. Now there is no argument that that isn't safe. (No doubt it is safe.)

I am trying to steer the discussion away from the science, which anybody who understands it agrees that it is settled. Genetic modification is safe, even what you are calling transgenic. But I would prefer not to get involved in semantic arguments here. My field is physics, not biology, so I may not always use the precise terminology. Mea culpa.

However, anybody who claims that GMO is unhealthy simply because transgenic genes might be unhealthy has to answer for the percentage of genes humans already share with all life on Earth. That fact pretty much falsifies that claim. There are no bacteria genes, human genes, ape genes, etc. There are just genes, many of which are shared across the vast landscape of life forms.

And all GMO food is already thoroughly tested for safety. Not one has been shown to be unsafe. Not one!

A good discussion would be to ditch the labeling arguments and discuss regulation and testing. IMHO, that would be a productive avenue.