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Katharine Harborne

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Clear Thinking on GM an biosynthesis Food Politics

This short TED talk challenges the idea that Genetic Modification and Biosynthesis are creating monsters out of plants. The truth is we’ve been genetically modifying plants for millennia, and now we can now do astonishingly good things at a deep molecular level - import, replace and even alter genes in a fundamental way. Plants genes are weird and are constantly modifying themselves genetically whether we get involved or not. I believe this is a time of great opportunity for science and technology, but the opportunities must be harnessed ethically and responsibly. I would love the opportunity to explain more in a longer TED Talk at the TED conference in 2013.

1) VISIT the link below, please
2) WATCH the video, pretty please
3) POST a comment that genuinely reflects your appreciation
4) And SHARE it with your friends, all of them, even the ones you don’t know!

http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Katharine-Harborne-Lets-rethink;TEDLondon

I realise it’s a BIG ASK, but food politics is a seriously BIG issue.

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  • Barry Palmer 50+

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    Aug 7 2012: Unintended Consequences always occur. Who takes responsibility, and how?

    If a GM crop spreads across the globe and is suddenly and completely destroyed by a virus that takes advantage of the modified gene, causing mass starvation, are the people who modified that gene willing to stand at trial for mass homicide?

    We know almost nothing about the natural world. Of all there is to know about life on this planet, we know next to nothing. The hubris of people who think they can modify genes with impunity is nearly infinite.

    When the proponents of GM sign a statement that they are willing and ready to take complete responsibility for their mistakes, including criminal responsibility for any harm done, and put up a multi-trillion dollar bond
    to cover any monetary losses, then I would be willing to START a serious debate about the subject. Until then, IMO, GM is not a subject for adults to discuss with adults; it is a subject for adults to explain to grown up children that they should not play with things like matches.

    I suggested in another discussion that if we are ever to get any benefit from super powerful technologies like GM, that we need an accepted method, like the scientific method, that would methodically determine all of the possible consequences and produce some measure of the risks involved, so society can decide whether to deploy a particular technology. This method would have to be tested with less powerful technologies first, and the method itself would have to be verified. This will take many years, probably decades.

    Deploying GM now is irresponsible. Adults behave responsibly.
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      peter lindsay 30+

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      Aug 7 2012: Every commercial grain crop grown on the planet is already GM. They were first released in the 50s and have periodically been re-engineered over the last 60 years. At least with modern techniques we know which genes we are changing as apposed to the scatter-gun approach used previously. Google mutagenics.

      • Barry Palmer 50+

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        Aug 8 2012: Apparently your point is that 60 years is a sufficient test period. How do you know that? Who determined the criteria, how, based on what data?

        And you did not reply to my comment. Who takes responsibility when something goes wrong?
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          peter lindsay 30+

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          Aug 8 2012: My point is it is too late to stop the deployment of GM crops as it has already been done. People just don't realise the wheat in their bread been GM their whole lives. Unless you are over 60 years old you have never eaten non GM wheat or rice or corn.

      • Barry Palmer 50+

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        Aug 8 2012: I completely understand your point. And my point is that just because you have been doing something that is wrong and irresponsible for sixty years, that is not justification. It is wrong and should stop immediately. No further gene modifications.

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