FDA responds to citizen petition for GMO labeling

[BerenTebogo]

In what I can only describe as the best legal rebuttal statement I have ever read, the FDA issued their formal response to a petition for GMO labeling.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzJ...list_api&pli=1

It is honestly one of the most hilarious things I have ever read. There is a tangible aggravation in every paragraph that this even needs to be written. It is such a thorough and complete intellectual smackdown that I was genuinely shocked reading it. The entire document has an air of "you are bad and you should feel bad" throughout. I truly love it.

35 pages, worth skimming at the very least. The best parts are where they completely tear down the petitioners interpretation of case law, federal policy, and scientific research in the field.

[Daydreamer]

This is amazing. Thank you for posting this. I believe my favorite part is when they talk about how thet USDA does't really care about the environment because it's not their department but since it was in the petition they would make them feel stupid for bringing itu p in the first place.

In other news the first GMO animal was approved today.

[Ksandra]

I dunno what it is about teaching that attracts hippie science people, but this is the second school I've worked at with a biology teacher who is is like that. The first one was anti-vax, the current one is "fuck no to GMOs!"

My students did a whole project on why GMOs are bad, and I had to hold everything back to not bash what the other teacher was doing.

[thetruepandagod]

Just put GMO stickers on everything and let all the people complaining realize almost everything they touch is GMO.

[BerenTebogo]

Just put GMO stickers on everything and let all the people complaining realize almost everything they touch is GMO.

The main evil of the anti-GMO warriors isn't that idiots will pay more for food that is shittier than what normal people will eat, it's that the march against GMOs hurts developing countries.

Giving these douchenozzles any firm ground to stand on is a blow against people in third world countries who desperately need this stuff (golden rice being a good example). I want to see this movement choke, suffer, and die the same way the anti-vaxx movement needs to.

Edit:

When senpai notices u

[thetruepandagod]

Technically the anti-vaxxers are working towards killing their own movement as well. They are just dragging a lot of people on along with em...

[Salodin]

Skimmed it, and every piece I read was amazing. Can't believe the gubment got it right.

[Silenka]

Still shocked at how many people don't understand that literally every food ever created for centuries has been genetically modified in some way. Corn wouldn't even be edible if we hadn't selectively grown it that way, grapefruits aren't actually a naturally-occuring fruit, and DNA is not a scary thing, people are just too dumb to realize what "GMO" means. It is literally just manipulating DNA, which humans have been doing to plants since time immemorial.

It's just so tragic that GMO crops are turned down in many countries thanks to these asswipe protesters so many people go hungry who wouldn't otherwise have to. My own sister is a major anti-GMO crusader and knows fuck-all about the science behind it. It's really sad but that's most people nowadays. Bravo to the employee(s) who wrote that rejection, was a pretty amusing skim.

[kuronosan]

I don't even listen to GMO haters who haven't taken a Genetics course anymore.

People will believe whatever dumb shit they want if it gives them a soap box.

[Serra]

Wasn't there a recent study (studies?) which reported like twenty years of studying the effects of GMOs and found no negative effects?

[BerenTebogo]

Yes, but like these assholes are gonna let such an unimportant think as "peer-reviewed science" stand in the way of what they know to be true.

Hell even this refutation by the FDA will probably only galvanize them and their conspiracy theory ideas.

[Salodin]

Wasn't there a recent study (studies?) which reported like twenty years of studying the effects of GMOs and found no negative effects?

It wasn't like twenty years, it was twenty years. The abstract had the same aura as this fda paper, that aura of "any naysayers are not residing in reality or science".

[JigglyJam]

This is really funny, thank you so much. The footnotes are the best.

I'm going to like that facebook group too, one of my aunts constantly posts about being vegan and anti-GMO and then also shills some dietary products. I just keep her feed up cause she also posts animal videos that are entertaining.

[Tyrath]

You expect me to skim 35 pages?! You know we're on BG right?

Spoiler: show

I did briefly go through it. Pretty amazing.

[archibaldcrane]

Frankenfish, we doing this thing now.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...lumn/76077702/

[Daydreamer]

Frankenfish, we doing this thing now.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...lumn/76077702/

I gave a GMO presentation a few years ago and brought up this fish. Some very obvious anti-gmo girl asked a ton of questions to try to trap me but I had answers for everything. She then got her stuff together and walked out of the class during the presentation. Felt good.

[dasva]

I don't get this petition. There are already labels that let you know which foods contain GMOs... it's called almost every food that isn't labeled Non-GMO/organic. Another label that let's you know is the price

[archibaldcrane]

That's a bit of an exaggeration.

[zoobernut]

Do people think of GMO's as organisms that were created through specific breeding programs, cross pollination, and selective breeding? Or are we using the term GMO to refer only to organism where they took the gene from one completely unrelated organism and inserted it into the genome of another organism? Like Octopus DNA in an ear of corn to make the corn more salt water tolerant. (Purposefully silly example)

I am just curious if there is a differentiation with people. I know in the long run it doesn't really make a difference.

The Salmon article is very interesting. Glad it got approval it will do great things for the environment and help ease pressure on wild fisheries.

[archibaldcrane]

Other than when pro-GMO activists want to be snarky, it's pretty well-accepted that GMO means precise laboratory genetic manipulation for a desired effect. It doesn't have to be cross-species even, the Innate GMO potatos fuck with potato DNA only (to minimize bruising and reduce acrylamide).