Our GM crops are >90% engineered with what are called "first-generation" traits which offer resistance to herbicides, pests, or environmental conditions. First-gen traits are producer-centric, and the reason they make up most of our GM arsenal is because the same companies (Monsanto/Bayer for example) that provide the seed also provide the chemical that works in conjunction with the GM trait.
In the past few years, public trust in GM crops has diminished due to false information and fear of the unknown. According to published work, only ~5% of consumers feel like they have a good understanding of GMO.
The problem is that genetic engineering is not limited to "first-generation" traits. As a matter of fact, most of the unrealized benefit of GM crops is hidden in second and third generation traits. These are traits which increase nutritional value or improve shelf-life, etc (Consumer-centric traits).
Before you bash GM by bringing up Monsanto, super-weeds, or whatever, just think about the second and third generation GM traits which could solve major issues in the world (nutrient deficiencies, carbon sequestration, supply chain resiliency).
Plant molecular biologist with a background in genome engineering of high-value crops. AMA
Edit: I want to add a snippet regarding the uncertainties of "playing god". First of all, CRISPR is gene editing which is much different than foreign gene insertion via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. But even agro transformation has been occuring in nature without human intervention. These bacterium have the capacity to insert foreign genes into plant genomes and have been doing so on their own for quite some time. There are plenty of known gene-transfer events which happened without human pressure. Plant genomes across the world are littered with agro transfer genes. The only difference is now we use this mechanism to deliberately insert genes of interest for functional purposes.
Didn't we learn on HN a day or two ago, that eating vitamin D doesn't help?
I wish they would engineer them to taste like something again.
Can't grow them all by myself and those Holland/Spain grown taste like nothing.
Franken-foods need to compete with whole organic vegetables in a level market playing field. You enthusiasts can purchase them, and I will pick organic. Fair, right?
Or...
Instead of spending money engineering food like this we could actually go outside without being slathered in sunscreen for about 10 minutes a day (depending on skin tone). That might even mean we get some healthy activities in that have additonal benefits while we're out there.
Edit: wow so much hate without any argument as to why this is better than existing supplementation, especially considering existing supplements have more stringent dosing. It's like I've somehow argued that supplementation is bad, when all I'm saying is this seems a waste of money if we already have adequate supplements.
Actual published article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-022-01154-6.pdf
I thought vitamin D supplements were lacking efficacy in studies and therefore we need to get sunlight.
I'm more excited about them reactivating some dormant genetic code that would make tomato spicy like their ancestors... what ever happened to that promise from some years ago?
dont want it.
Love me some crispy tomatoes especially in a shawarma.
Double plus good cripsy tomatoes mmm
More mostly water pale tomatoes like subway etc. Wonderful.
Try a eating a real heirloom tomato and if you are still interested in this franken-food I'm not sure what to tell you.
Great.
I just wish people would stop labeling "GMO == bad" so we can continue tailoring food to our needs - like we have been doing for millennia. Except now we can be more precise about it.
Anyone who's ever tried to grow tomatoes will attest that the damn things shouldn't exist. They are just as yummy to pests are they are to us. Even the grocery store ones that are selected for production and looking good are very finnicky.
Tomatoes were the size of blueberries originally. People will rave about "heirloom" tomatoes (and some are delicious, currently trying to grow my own) but they are just as mutant as the bland supermarket ones.