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mk  ·  3270 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Nonbrowning GM apple cleared for market

    In the world of academia, I mean. There's some 2,000 studies published on the effects of RoundUp / glyphosate. It's definitely a different environment from the sort of rigor required of drug trials, but there are still plenty of plant / epidemiology labs paying attention to the topic.

True enough. I suppose that's why I grew up with margarine, but wouldn't dare raise my kid on it.

As for the insertion, I hope they know exactly where the insertion has taken place, and how many copies there are. They should also see if they move around before being released to the wild. Of course, the chances are that the insertions won't hit a coding section of the DNA, but my guess is that years from now, we will appreciate the majority of the non-coding DNA much more. I don't know enough about genetics to compare these insertions to changes due to cross-breeding, but I would be surprised if they weren't different in some meaningful way.

Like I said, it's most likely not a big deal at all. I am not anti-GM for food in any general sense. But I am conservative on the issue. If only, because of the historical evidence of so many cases where our ignorance only came to light decades later.