I posted this on the Solazyme board and thought I’s share it here:
I thought I’d chime in on the whole GMO topic. I have a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology with an emphasis on genetic engineering. I also went on to receive a master’s degree in cell and molecular biology. In addition, I worked in the biotech industry where I spent several years in jobs in which I routinely genetically engineered organisms.
Solazyme does genetically engineer algae to create algae that produce oils with specific and desirable oils for various applications. People who protest GMO foods are generally a bunch of ignorant fools. GMO foods have never been shown to be dangerous; there is no proven case of GMO harming anyone. In fact, the improvements in food yields have prevented millions of people from starving to death. Our planet simply cannot sustain its current population with the efficiencies gained from GMOs. Below is some more information on GMOs:
What is GMO?
GMO means “genetically modified organism”. The actually means that the genetic sequence of the life form was altered. The genomes of all plants, animals, and fungi are comprised of DNA which is the so-called blue print of life. DNA determines the traits the organism. Actually, farmers have been manipulating the genomes of crops for thousands of years; this was done through cross-breeding, an iterative process by which favorable or desired traits are selected in offspring. Thus, farmers have been creating new strains of plant for thousands of years. Traits such as yield, insect resistance, drought resistance, flood resistance, fruit size, etc., etc. can be selected. In the 1970s, scientists discovered how to cut and paste DNA from one organism to another. An early example was performed by scientists from USCF and Genentech and involved inserting the human insulin gene into a bacterial cell. After the modification, the bacterial cell was multiplied (cells naturally multiply through asexual reproduction a process where a cell will create an identical copy of its DNA and then split in two creating 2 cells where there was previously only one) in fermentation vessels where trillions of these bacterial cells were now producing human insulin protein because the bacterial cells contain the genetic sequence (or instructions) to make the insulin protein. The distinction between agricultural cross-breeding and genetic engineering is that cross breeding is done through two different strains of the same species (mating across different species is not possible) whereas genetic engineering involves the manual manipulation of specific DNA sequences. With genetic engineering there is not a limitation on using DNA sequences from completely different species. I think I recall an example where a salmon gene was inserted into a plant that gave the plant resistance to frost.
Solazyme tailors the genome of the algae to direct it to produce oils of the desired composition. These oils may not exist in nature. They are making triglycerides which always have three chains of fatty acid. Solazyme controls the length of each chain and the level of saturation of each chain. Completely saturated fats contain no double bonds and therefore are completely saturated with hydrogen molecules. You may have heard of the terms unsaturated fat and saturated fat. Generally, saturated fat is nutritionally worse for humans. Anyway, Solazyme can change the genome of algae to specifically control the chain length and the level of saturation of the three fatty acid chains.
That was the most intelligent post I’ve ever seen on the GMO “controversy”. Thank you for sharing your experience and valuable insights. Indeed, I would hate to try to imagine a world in which selective breeding for specific DNA sequences had not existed all these years. Severe famine and death across the world has been avoided as a result of various means of GMO alteration.
More efficient use of land.
Fewer chemical pesticides pumped into the environment.
Few forests cleared for farmland.
Less water needed per crop output.
Lower overall cost of food production.
Lower CO2 emissions to produce the food.
I posted this on the Solazyme board and thought I’s share it here:
Yes, I read it over there.
Impressive but I’m not sure in the world of sound bites, if the against GMO crowd will get it or let it pass.
Still SZYM has enough runway with their other products to not get bogged down by the widely accepted barrier associated with GMO. I look at that as GMO dessert. hahaha
Sorry for making light of this but in my brain it didn’t matter since they have so many paths to success and I think the management is smart enough to not do battle but rather, take the fastest and easiest path to profits.
Mykie
People who protest GMO foods are generally a bunch of ignorant fools.
I stopped reading after that. Presenting your argument with a statement that anyone who disagrees with you is generally an ignorant fool is a pretty good way to turn people off to your message, regardless of its merit.
I stopped reading after that. Presenting your argument with a statement that anyone who disagrees with you is generally an ignorant fool is a pretty good way to turn people off to your message, regardless of its merit.
Fletch,
You certainly have the right to read or not read anything you want. There is a little history behind my post that you and people here may not have been aware of. There is a Solazyme board on the MF Hidden Gems and a fellow there named Gouldberg has been providing pretty good coverage on Solazyme. On several occasions, he has wondered whether oils from Solazyme are made from GMOs. He didn’t know the answer. Also, he has wondered whether there might be a backlash from the anti-GMO people against Solazyme. My post was intended to clarify that Solazyme is indeed making GMO derived oils.
Now, regarding your statement about my ignorant fools comments, you seem to have twisted it. First off, people disagreeing does not make them ignorant and that is not at all what I wrote. Many people are ignorant about GMOs and about genetics. The fools are those who actually gmake a sign and go march about it without educating themselves. The fools are those who don’t really know what they are protesting because they might think that GMO derived food could be unsafe. The fools are those who believe that they should have a right to have food labeled if it contains GMO derived ingredients. Did they bother to think about or study it? Probably not. Many are having an emotion response out of fear or out of the idea that their rights are being trampled. They don’t bother to think about the consequences. Almost 90% of the corn and soy produced in the US is from CMO crops. People have been eating it for 20 years without a single proven case of any health problem. Corn is used in so many foods that a huge chunk of foods would need to be labeled. High fructose corn syrup is on thousands of foods. The cost and infrastructure required to test and label all those foods would be monumental. For what? It would just raise the cost of food from everyone and make food no more or no less safer. If New Hampshire wants its foods labeled and if they force it, then their government will have skyrocketing administrative costs and a whole bunch of less choice in their stores. Food manufacturers will certainly weight the costs of testing and labeling against simply foregoing to sell their products in New Hampshire. So for someone who makes a cardboard sign and bothers to take it to a rally…I still think you are an ignorant fool!
Thalidomide and DDT weren’t dangerous, until they were. Danger in food and drugs may not be visible until they are broadly used over extended periods of time.
I would like the choice to select if my food contains GMOs or not. It should be my choice to eat GMO containing food and thus pay less and have a larger selection, or eat non-GMO containing food and pay more and have a limited selection.
“If New Hampshire wants its foods labeled and if they force it, then their government will have skyrocketing administrative costs and a whole bunch of less choice in their stores. Food manufacturers will certainly weight the costs of testing and labeling against simply foregoing to sell their products in New Hampshire. So for someone who makes a cardboard sign and bothers to take it to a rally…I still think you are an ignorant fool!”
No, New Hampshire is the “Live Free Or Die” state where all the conservatives from Boston go to retire. They don’t have the problem with GMO’s. It’s Vermont, home to all the liberals from NY including that socialist Bernie Sanders who wants to be the next POTUS that are the ignorant fools with the cardboard signs.
When I see political labels thrown around and sentences using liberals, socialists and ignorant fools in one line, I start to worry that a
thread is going to be hijacked and become a rant for one political view or another. Please let’s not let that happen on this board.