CRISPR biotech made easy: Who am I kidding?
Medical applications are confined to research labs, but as scientists remove potential problems and the debate over the ethics of human engineering is settled we are bound to see human applications.
Medical applications are confined to research labs, but as scientists remove potential problems and the debate over the ethics of human engineering is settled we are bound to see human applications.
It was not merely the fact that an Italian bureaucrat decided to import an otherwise banned GM crop from America that was so ironic. In addition to the special exemptions granted on a case-by-case basis to Czech, Spanish, Portuguese and Slovakian farmers, countries throughout Europe, including Italy, have imported GM corn from America in the past under a whole different array of special, case-by-case exemptions granted on a strictly controlled basis by bureaucrats in Brussels. What made Rabboni’s final decision so hypocritical, and frankly absurd, were the sheer quantities involved and the astronomical expense for an already overextended Italian treasury.
Wood is used for everything from kitchen tables to baseball bats, but might it also be a source of food for a growing world population?
Opposition to genetically modified food has been a top issue for environmental activists, and has led to bans and other official anti-GMO policies in Europe and Asia. But now, in a stunning turnaround, Mark Lynas, the British activist who helped spur the anti-GMO movement worldwide, says he got it all wrong.
Always trying to come up with new ways to stop the progress of safe, genetically modified foods, some environmentalists are now claiming that the pollen from such plants will “pollute” nearby organic fields. But according to expert Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute, traces of biotech pollen have practically no effect whatsoever on nearby crops, and esteemed bodies like the National Academy of Sciences and British Royal Society all say there is no basis for regulating gene-spliced crops any differently from other crops. Since GM foods are already helping to conserve land, reduce chemical use, cut down on erosion, [...]