Forum Topic

Commercial development of gene-edited food now legal in England

I really dislike this intensely!!!Gene-edited food can now be developed commercially in England following a change in the law.It only applies to England as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not approved this.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64596453

Ivonne Holliday ● 815d7 Comments

If only England adopts this within the UK and it's still banned in the EU I wonder if many companies will want to invest, although I  suppose the will be a market in the US and elsewhere outside Europe. 

Michael Ixer ● 814d

Travelling by bus is "different" from walking. But one arrives at the same destination. The effect of cross-breeding is that you end up with an organism which has different genes to the ones you started with. It just takes a lot longer In fact, generic modification to address disease generally does not produce changes which are passed to the next generation, it is much more limited. Some of the cells in the sufferer are genetically modified, but the subject's sperm or eggs are not and the DNA they pass on to offspring is unaltered. Changing the human "germ line" as it is called is considered unethical

Michael Winstanley ● 814d

Hmmm, perhaps I am too sceptical about all this.....Cloned animals are not altogether acceptable, but you can cross breed animals for the improvement of cells of illnesses they suffer, or at the very least, provide animals with qualities that distinguish each of its parents..... But cross breeding is different from genetic modification in labs.While I wholeheartedly support the gene modification for illnesses like hemophilia and sickle cells disease, I am not at all keen in gene modification for food.Initially, you can justify gene modification for sugar beet in order to save the lives of bees, I really have reservations as to how far laboratories could go for other instances - or financial gains....

Ivonne Holliday ● 815d

Looking at the article it's only allowing edits of genes that could be achieved by selective breeding. It just allows it to be done in a single step without getting any unwanted variances that might occur with selective breeding over a period of time. I'm not sure if there are risks to the resulting animals in the same way that cloned animals seemed to have reduced life spans (ok, I know it's not quite the same).

Michael Ixer ● 815d

I am aware of "cross breeding" for animals or grafting for plants.  That has been happening for a very long time.Laboratory gene engineering is a very different thing, enormously different.

Ivonne Holliday ● 815d

Genetically?

Ivonne Holliday ● 815d

The gene editing allowed (and the article referenced actually explains as much) is no different from selective breeding, it's just more targeted and much quicker. Mankind has been selectively breeding livestock and crops since the dawn of civilisation.

Michael Winstanley ● 815d