Monsanto's genetic modifications are poisonous

[there4eyeM]

French research to be published in the next few days shows that corn with Monsanto's genetic modifications causes tumors and even death in an alarmingly high percentage in test animals.

Perhaps making genes patentable wasn't such a great idea.

 

[Polk]

Even if the study is true, it wouldn't follow from that to say genes should not be patentable.

 

[strollingbones]

first the bees then the humans

 

[there4eyeM]

Arguably absurd, it is also a fact that the patents encourage Monsanto and others to make ethically indefensible decisions that threaten nature and health.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Even if the study is true, it wouldn't follow from that to say genes should not be patentable.

Do a little research into what Monsanto is doing in that area. I don't think you'll like what you'll find.

 

[there4eyeM]

When this comes more to light, Monsanto may have some answering to do. The real issue is what we accept today as moral, ethical and proper. It is time for a revision of our economic, industrial and political systems.

 

[there4eyeM]

It is amazing that this is receiving no air in the US.

Does anyone wonder why?

 

[waltky]

Researchers hope the findings will shed light on how honey bees develop...

Honey bees' genetic code unlocked
11 December 2012 - Researchers say they have unlocked the genetic secrets of honey bees' high sensitivity to environmental change.

Scientists from the UK and Australia think their findings could help show links between nutrition, environment and the insects' development. It could, they suggest, offer an insight into problems like Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious cause of mass bee deaths globally. The findings appear in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. "Honey bees live in complex societies comprising tens of thousands of individuals," explained study co-author Paul Hurd from Queen Mary, University of London. "Most of these are female 'worker' honeybees that are unable to reproduce and instead devote their short lives to finding food in flowers... and other tasks such as nursing larvae inside the hive."

But the hive has a queen as well - the much longer-lived, reproductive head of the hive, "When the queen bee lays her eggs, worker bees can determine whether the resulting larvae are to become an adult worker bee or an adult queen bee," Dr Hurd said. "The type of food the larvae is fed dictates the developmental outcome - larvae destined to become workers are fed a pollen and nectar diet, and those destined to become queens are fed royal jelly. "This difference in feeding is maintained over the entire lifetime of the worker or queen bee." The change is suggested to be the result of a "histone code" - a process that sees genetic changes made to proteins called histones within cells' nuclei. Rather than "genetic" changes that are locked into DNA, these are known as "epigenetic" changes.

The report marks the first time such effects had been recorded in honey bees. "The development of different bees from the same DNA in the larvae is one of the clearest examples of epigenetics in action - mechanisms that go beyond the basic DNA sequence," said co-author Mark Dickman from the University of Sheffield. "From our knowledge of how the histone code works with in other organisms, we think the marks on the histone proteins might act as one of the switches that control how the larvae develop."

BBC News - Honey bees' genetic code unlocked

 

[Polk]

Even if the study is true, it wouldn't follow from that to say genes should not be patentable.

Do a little research into what Monsanto is doing in that area. I don't think you'll like what you'll find.

There are definitely problems with the rules for when we allow gene patients, but it does not follow from the study in the OP that genes should not be patientable.