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Shambling Shaman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 1, 2006
3,859
5
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In The Wild
www.mindsetcentral.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24958488

A UK biotechnology company has applied for permission to carry out the first field trial in Europe of a genetically modified insect.


If it receives approval, the company, Oxitec, will carry out a small-scale test of GM olive flies in Spain.


The aim is to combat this olive crop pest by releasing male flies that have a "female-killing gene"

This is only my opinion but this cannot end well..
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,732
1,983
Mercia
Trials are ongoing to combat dengue mosquito's which can't be a bad thing.

Somebody used the same argument that preventing morning sickness "can't be a bad thing" - it was later known as "Thalidomide" - this came to be the test case that shows that misguided and insufficiently understood attempts at alleviating suffering can be a bad thing
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
1
Hampshire
"In the most recent trial in Brazil - in a town called Mandacaru - the company has reported a 96% reduction in the dengue mosquito (Aedes aegypti) population."

Nah - its evil - against God's will. So what if 3 million people die each year to malaria - that's natural...........................
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
1
Hampshire
Somebody used the same argument that preventing morning sickness "can't be a bad thing" - it was later known as "Thalidomide"

Ooh - medicine created in labs! Of course its all bad. Rely on natural healthy ingredients from the garden instead.

Good grief........................
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,732
1,983
Mercia
Wow - reductio ad absurdum - I thought better of you. There is ample, peer reviewed scientific evidence that badly tested medicines are dangerous - only you said "all medicine is bad" Andy - what a puerile argument
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
1
Hampshire
Actually, its exactly what you did - thalidomide had unforseen side effects as support for your dislike of genetic engineering. Sure, science gets it wrong sometimes, as they clearly did 50-odd years ago with Thalidomide (although it is now being used, I believe, very successfully in cancer treatment). And things have moved on somewhat in Science and Medicine in 50 years.

Maybe you can laugh off the results of the mosquito tests - something that 3 million a year aren't alive to do. Guess I'm less sanguine about such results...............
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,214
367
73
SE Wales
I agree with the OP - this cannot end well. I'm not a luddite and welcome the good that can come from modern scientific medicine. But I'm afraid I don't trust the people involved to do the correct testing and trials; they always allow commercial considerations to influence the process and that's why you get such scandals as Thalidomide and the Hep C and HIV blood transfusion scandals to name just two that come to mind. It's bad enough when things go wrong, but the really bad thing is when the companies involved deny for decades that there is a problem and refuse completely to accept any responsibility. Without going into detail, I assure you all that I know to my very great cost whereof I speak.

If the GM thing were run by people who had a modicum of confidence shown them by the population at large, it might gain some support, but people know from past form that these companies and those that run them are, by and large, avaricious liars.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
......If the GM thing were run by people who had a modicum of confidence shown them by the population at large, it might gain some support, but people know from past form that these companies and those that run them are, by and large, avaricious liars.

Therin lies my scepticism as well. GM in and of itself could be as valid as modern medicine. But the testing and research as currently done is wholely unacceptable.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,732
1,983
Mercia
Maybe you can laugh off the results of the mosquito tests - something that 3 million a year aren't alive to do. Guess I'm less sanguine about such results...............

The OP was about olive flies, not mosquitos. Please demonstrate how GM olive flies save 3,000,000 lives a year. I can certainly demonstrate how rushing unproven scientific "advances" into the field damage lives!
 

Shambling Shaman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 1, 2006
3,859
5
55
In The Wild
www.mindsetcentral.com
I agree with the OP - this cannot end well. I'm not a luddite and welcome the good that can come from modern scientific medicine. But I'm afraid I don't trust the people involved to do the correct testing and trials; they always allow commercial considerations to influence the process and that's why you get such scandals as Thalidomide and the Hep C and HIV blood transfusion scandals to name just two that come to mind. It's bad enough when things go wrong, but the really bad thing is when the companies involved deny for decades that there is a problem and refuse completely to accept any responsibility. Without going into detail, I assure you all that I know to my very great cost whereof I speak.

If the GM thing were run by people who had a modicum of confidence shown them by the population at large, it might gain some support, but people know from past form that these companies and those that run them are, by and large, avaricious liars.

Agreed, modern scientific medicine is one thing. Potentially eradicating a species is another.

I would like this thread to be kept civil.

Thanks
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
I agree with the OP - this cannot end well. I'm not a luddite and welcome the good that can come from modern scientific medicine. But I'm afraid I don't trust the people involved to do the correct testing and trials; they always allow commercial considerations to influence the process and that's why you get such scandals as Thalidomide and the Hep C and HIV blood transfusion scandals to name just two that come to mind. It's bad enough when things go wrong, but the really bad thing is when the companies involved deny for decades that there is a problem and refuse completely to accept any responsibility. Without going into detail, I assure you all that I know to my very great cost whereof I speak.

If the GM thing were run by people who had a modicum of confidence shown them by the population at large, it might gain some support, but people know from past form that these companies and those that run them are, by and large, avaricious liars.

Why can't it end well? Why can't it end wonderfully well? Be positive, quit the negative vibes.
 

RonW

Native
Nov 29, 2010
1,575
121
Dalarna Sweden
In the end it is all about making even more money for the big companies, trusting the vast majority of the population to remain sound asleep, believing the lies being fed to them on a daily basis....
Like so many things in this field I seriously doubt if all the information has been properly reviewed UNINFLUENCED by commercial thought and gain.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,214
367
73
SE Wales
The evidence of the past history of many so-called advances demonstrate that it probably won't end well for precisely the reasons posted above; it will end well for those that gain commercially from it but is very unlikely to end at all well for those that should benefit from it. It doesn't take a lot of research into the history so far of the whole GM thing; people attempting to patent the genome? Come on!

As posted earlier, I've been on the receiving end of the sort of commercial adventurers who make money from modern medicine and then refuse for decades to even accept that there's been a mistake, and I'm far from alone in this, so don't dare to speak to me of "positive Vibes".

Out of respect to the OP's request to keep this civil, I'm out now before I say what I want to..............But this is not the place for it.
 

RE8ELD0G

Settler
Oct 3, 2012
882
12
Kettering
Anyone else thinking this is how the Zombie apocalypse starts...............


If you want me I will be im my shed with the rifle. .........

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk
 

xylaria

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
yeap this is exactly how zombie apocalypses start.

Seriously olive flies, ridding the world of them wouldnt solve an awlful lot of problems, maybe it is a practice run for malaria mosquitos. There has been a lot of research into ridding the world of mozzies and the impact of it on david attenburgh.
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
1
Hampshire
The OP was about olive flies, not mosquitos. Please demonstrate how GM olive flies save 3,000,000 lives a year. I can certainly demonstrate how rushing unproven scientific "advances" into the field damage lives!

Pity you didn't read the whole article. But - as is the case with so many of the naysayers of modern medicine - never let the facts get in the way of a good rant:)
 

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