Humans have been modifying biological entities since they first started to raise crops and tend animals. If you doubt that simply look down and pet your four legged best friend. Yes, via trial and error man selectively bred wolf until he got the dog he wanted. He genetically modified the animal and yes, there were mistakes along the way. I must confess I had never thought about calling them GMO wolves until I read an article written by the author of “Lab Girl.”
How many of you watched the History Channel special “And Man Made Dog?” I wanted to but missed it when it was on. Since I don’t stream whole movies on my Internet connection I just have to wait for it to cycle to the top of my rental list. The previous made this look like something created back when the History Channel was worth watching, before it became the sad fake reality streaming channel it is today.
I am reminded of the mistakes along the way every time I go over to my brother’s house. To think, a wolf with the instinct to hunt and the territorial instinct to protect became an ugly little thing about the size of my boot is truly sad. At least buddy has enough size and weight to enjoy chasing rabbits and squirrels and generally be a dog, when he decides to be awake that is.
I almost got up the nerve to go digging in the crawl space under the addition before writing this. Somewhere in a box of old comic books is a top flipping comic book about the size of a steno pad. I believe it was passed out by Sears or Penny’s or some such store back when my father was of comic book reading age. It was created back when America was as close as it was ever going to get to Normal Rockwell’s images. It was titled something like “American Heroes” or something like that. It covered George Washington Carver, J. C. Penny, Henry Ford and Luther Burbank among many others. I think it had 20 or something like that. It was done on high quality paper and has survived all of these years. Most importantly, it taught history in comic book form.
It is important with all of this hysteria around GMO for people to read something like that comic book now. George Washington Carver’s work with peanuts is pretty much why every one of us knows what peanut butter and Snickers bars are.
Mr. Burbank is also important in this discussion because he created many GMO crops. They just weren’t called GMO crops then as fear mongering had not become a global industry. If you clicked the link for Luther Burbank you hopefully read about the Russet Burbank Potato. This GMO was created in response to the Irish Potato Famine. It was modified to be resistant to the blight which caused the famine in the first place. Hopefully you clicked the Russet Burbank Potato link and read it is is the most widely grown potato in North America. Every time you order a bag of fries, get baked or mashed spuds there is at least a 90% chance that is what you are eating.
If you looked at the dates for the Irish Potato Famine you might understand why you don’t think of the potatoes (Yes Mr. Quayle, you can use an ‘e’ but only when it ends with an ‘s’) or your dog as GMO products. They’ve been around a long time. Therein lies the crux of the issue. People spreading FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) about GMO crops ignore the fact almost everything they eat today is a GMO. Most of the GMOs have just been around a long time. Even the field corn used to make your corn flakes and whiskey was a GMO before anybody started shouting about it. Maize was originally a grass and the ear grew on top where today we expect to see the tassel. This GMO was created by Native American Indians, it didn’t “just happen.”
So please, don’t get freaked out when you see people selling fruit salad trees. Even your pet cat is a GMO.
