NOOOOOO! now they are going to mess with peanuts

[donsu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061226/ap_on_sc/super_peanuts

Scientists get OK for engineered peanuts

A leading industry group has given scientists the go-ahead to build genetically engineered peanuts that could be safer, more nutritious and easier to grow than their conventional version.

The work could lead to peanuts that yield more oil for biofuel production, need less rainfall and grow more efficiently, with built-in herbicide and pest resistance — traits that have already been engineered into major crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans and canola.

-snip-

A few researchers have been genetically modifying peanuts for at least a decade, but their discoveries have had little impact because the industry, fearing a consumer backlash, was reluctant to support the work.

However, with the two leading peanut-producing countries, China and India, working aggressively on transgenic peanuts, the American Peanut Council and its research arm, the Peanut Foundation, this month approved a major policy change. The council represents all segments of the industry — growers, shellers, exporters and manufacturers
-snip-
----------------------------------

how depressing

[YOY]

1. Oh the Legumes...

I assumed you were talking about Snoopy.

[beth9999]

17. I thought the same thing. :) n/t

[goclark]

2. Will this new peanut be helpful to the thousands that are

are allergic to peanuts and fear for their lives with the sight of one?

I sure hope so because in the last 15 years more and more children/adults have severe peanut allergies.

[donsu]

6. so the rest of us un allergic peanut lovers have to deal with pseudo

peanuts. or not even eat the pseudo peanuts, peanut butter?

cripe I've given up on all things corn and most types of potatoes so the corps. can make even larger profits.

[Beaverhausen]

3. God Damn it!

How dare they mess with the most perfect food on the planet?

[Mrs. Overall]

4. I've been wondering how "organic" will fit into all of this.

After reading about cloned meat and other genetically engineered crops, I'm concerned that "organic" may apply to cloned meat that is fed an organic, but engineered grain diet. I'm hoping that "organic" will imply that the food I'm purchasing is neither cloned nor genetically manipulated.

I can't believe they are now messing with peanuts. "Built-in herbicide" sounds awful.

[appal_jack]

9. organic is still no(t much) of a problem

Fortunately, both the organic rules here in the US (USDA - Nat'l Org. Program) and internationally (IFOAM) both explicitly prohibit any GMO plants or animals to be labeled "organic."

Unfortunately, pollen drifts (especially with wind pollinated plants such as corn, etc.), which can lead to GMO contamination of otherwise organic crops. In this case, the GMO's are sometimes detected at the grain elevator or wholesale buyer level, and the lot gets rejected. This is good for the consumer, but the farmer gets screwed, as s/he cannot sell the crop as organic, yet cannot sue the GMO producer for the lost revenue.

I think peanuts are like most other peas/beans, in that they are largely self pollinating, so GMO drift/pollution will not be much of a problem, hopefully. So organic peanuts will be the best choice. Might as well get used to paying $7 for a jar of organic peanut butter: those costs are far cheaper than the probable long-term damages that the foreign proteins of GMO's are doing to us/our gut bacteria.

-app

[Mrs. Overall]

19. Thanks so much for the information

That's interesting about pollen drifts--I'd never thought about that angle of the issue.

I'm committed to buying organic for a variety of reasons, but the price of most organic produce and meat is outrageous. A regular size jar of organic almond butter runs between $10-$15, so I don't buy that anymore. I hope organic peanut butter doesn't go that high.

[appal_jack]

21. thanx pax!

:7

And cheers for supporting organic when you can! :toast:

I know what you mean when it comes to buying organic food at the Whole-Paycheck type of stores! If you live near a farmers' market, I suggest you look there for some better deals, especially on grass-fed meats. Ask all the farmers at the market, even if they do not have meat for display/sale, as the rules can get complicated for off-farm sales of meats...). Where I live (southern Appalachians), lots of animals are still raised outdoors, but are usually sold to feedlots later in their lives (what a waste!). Lately, a few farmer-folks in my neighborhood have been selling some of these pastured animals direct instead, and the meat is really good. If you're willing/able to buy in quantity (a half cow or whole goat or sheep are all common units), you can often work a mutually beneficial deal with the farmer. And of course, farmers' markets are also great for vegetables!

-app

Edited for puntuation & spelling.

[Kali]

22. here is a possible resource

http://www.eatwild.com/

[DeeDeeNY]

5. This is beyond scary

Genetically engineered food has many unresolved problems, most of them dangerous.
Forget Stephen King. Jeffrey Smith's book "Seeds of Deception" might be the scariest book out there!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

7. How DARE They Care About Safety, Nutrition, Environmental Resposibility And Efficiency.

How DARE they!

:sarcasm:

:eyes:

[The2ndWheel]

8. You can't fight it

"American Peanut Council and its research arm, the Peanut Foundation"

Seriously?

Anyway...existence today is pretty much down to control over chance and nature. That's all we're here for. As a post above said, it's about efficiency. To what end, nobody seems to know. But we have to get there, quickly.

[donsu]

10. as climate change snowballs life will become local and the corps.

will disappear.

we will eat what we can find or grow ourselves locally.

[The2ndWheel]

14. Well yeah, but until then

Couldn't have much more control than to control the DNA.

[Deja Q]

11. It's worth a try

6 billion people on this planet... if we do want to feed them all, and assuming the folks who tinker keep any screwups to an understandable minimum (meaning fund the program properly), I have few qualms with this.

[donsu]

12. I have mucho gualms

nt

[Beaverhausen]

15. There is plenty of food on this planet

The problem of hunger is political, not supply.

[MGD]

25. I'm with you. This is good technology with a high potential to improve humanity on many levels. nt

[JuniperLea]

13. Oh sure, cyclamins and red dye #12 were perfectly safe too

Until people actually started using them. Same old crap over and over again. Oh, yes! Here's a handy dandy better than ever way of doing this to our food! :eyes:

What company owned by whom got this bullshit rubber stamped?


It's not wise to fool with Mother Nature.



<>

[Crandor]

16. Is there any actual evidence that these peanuts are dangerous?

or is this thread just yet another example of how certain people have knee-jerk reactions to any kind of advancement whatsoever?

[Beaverhausen]

18. There hasn't been time for enough testing on genetically engineered foods

There is no way they know what kind of effect this kind of frankefoods will have on our health in the years to come.

http://www.gefoodalert.org/

[MGD]

24. Increasing the lysine content of corn can have only positive health consequences.

There is nothing to fear in making minor genetic improvements such as this. I'm not entirely sure about integrating pesticidal/herbicidal genes into food though. If the genes are taken from a plant that is commonly consumed by humans, I think it would probably be alright so long as it wasn't expressed in unaturally high levels but if you're isolating the gene for pyrethrine in the chrysanthemum plant and then sticking it into the peanut genome, you're probably not going to be alright.

[appal_jack]

20. disturbing clues at very least...

First of all, I've got to admit that a lot of chicken and beef and pork is all successfully being industrially produced these days using GMO corn and soy, so clearly GMO food is not knock-you-over deadly any more than DDT was. Like DDT, GMO's may produce some sub-acute, long-term degenerative problems that don't show up in an 8-week old chicken or 18-month old hog or steer just headed to the slaughter line. But if the event horizon beyond 18-months is of interest to you (i.e.- you plan on being alive in 2009 and beyond), read on for some potential problems...

All commercialised GMO traits code for the production of proteins which have never previously been part of the human food chain. Mother Nature never did evolve Roundup-Ready plants, and humans have never made infected caterpillars (which would give us comparable quantities of Bt as similar amounts of Bt cornmeal I suspect) a staple-food that I know of. So when you eat GMO foods, your gut is meeting strange and new proteins. Do you have the enzymes to break these proteins down? Maybe not. If you don't, what happens to those foreign proteins in your body? Do foreign proteins clog us up like (foreign) trans-fats? These are questions I'd like investigated...

There have been examples of hog-breeding operations whose sows would not impregnate when fed a diet of GMO soy & corn. I do not have a reference handy, but some Googling may do the trick. I've got dishes to do, so this post must be quick and off-the-cuff...

A researcher with a stellar reputation (I've been told this by microbiologists and others in the know) named Alfred Putzsai did some controlled GMO rat-feeding studies that yielded gut diseases and developmental deformities I think. Anything that *#@#**@#s with rats is something I want to avoid.

A biologist named Mae Wan-Ho writes on this a lot, and has also compiled references of other GMO studies. Honestly, she seems a little alarmist about some things from where I'm standing, but she cites a lot of good research from what I can tell. Peter Montague of Rachels Health & Env. is another excellent, coherent author on the topic.

Another study (don't recall author) showed that the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CMV) that is sometimes sued to insert GMO DNA snips into crops can survive the stomach intact and be picked up by our digestive bacteria that live in our colons. Do we want our little critters in us to have the CMV retrovirus in them?

Like I said in the subject line, these may just be clues at this stage, but they are enough for me to try and avoid GMO's and eat and grow organically.

-app

Edited for clarity after initial hasty typing...

[MGD]

23. I'm happy to see this. Why not improve nature with genetic engineering?

I would like to see veggies and such improved with genes that code for various vaccines. Inserting extra genes for Lysine into corn was a great idea too. This is one technology that has the potential to do a hell of a lot of good for a hell of a lot of people.