Bio-Engineered Rice Uses Human Genes 417
gliph writes "Yahoo news has a piece about a small biogenetics firm that is using genetically engineered rice containing human genes to help fight diarrhea. From the article: 'Ventria's rice produces two human proteins found in mother's milk, saliva and tears, which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries.'"
Condoleeza? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Condoleeza? (Score:3, Funny)
Really, this shouldn't be too surprising. Many people in the inner sanctum are androids. Cheney's not though. He's a cyborg. Like Roboco
Horray! (Score:2, Funny)
Madness (Score:5, Funny)
Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:4, Insightful)
Eating cooked rice also helps stopping diarrhea. Normal rice, non genetic modifications whatsoever.
These simple old tricks come all the way from my grandmother, and i've used them often enough to know that they work (either that or it's the placebo effect in action).
So why exactly do we need frankein-rice for?
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:3, Funny)
Until some bio-tech/big-pharma corp patents it. Then it won't be available without some bigg-ass subsidy from the developing coutries non-existent taxbase. Then some lowly rescue/aid type person in some 3rd world country will smuggle some seeds in and plant a field of it, where it will grow and help the local people survive.
The next season, due to wind patterns, a neighboring farm will have had it cross-pollenated with his prev
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:3, Funny)
Re:But where does it grow? (Score:2, Informative)
"The company says the chance of its genetically engineered rice ending up in the food supply is remote.."
Re:But where does it grow? (Score:2)
they should insert this technology up their... (Score:2, Interesting)
The necessity to eat certain foods could be overcome if this technology could be inserted directly into the human body, in addition to genetic modifications to help those with nut allergies etc. to overcome their problem. (Or at least in the n
Re:they should insert this technology up their... (Score:3, Insightful)
Because if you fuck up inserting genes to plants you have a dead/malformed plant. If you fuck up inserting genes to humans you have a dead/malformed human.
That, and it's much cheaper to make a single genetically modified plant seed and let n
Soylent Green (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea (Score:3, Funny)
Not if you put curry on it...
Product's name: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Product's name: (Score:2)
(would require quite a bit more genetic modification, though).
Re:Product's name: (Score:5, Interesting)
Are there any moslem or jewish
Re:Product's name: (Score:2)
Or am I just being ridicu
Re:Product's name: (Score:2)
I think they make a valid point with fetus killing. How do you determine exactly when a fetus has life? It is not an easy question to answer.
Re:Product's name: (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, you are being ridiculous. Nobody would consider such rice to be "human". I feel sorry for you because you are either stupid enough to actually think we might think a few human genes makes something human or you are just a sadly misinformed person with regards to how religious people think.
Personally, while I am not in particular in favor of genetically modified food for reasons that have nothing at all to do with religion, I would not be surprised if some Christians objected to this rice. Not because it is "human" but because the creators are "playing God" or some such nonsense. Personally, I think that God gave us brains to use to make our lives better through advances in science and medicine. If I was going to get on board with genetically modified food, this would probably the be the one I'd support.
Re:Product's name: (Score:4, Informative)
I'm a Muslim, but not a religious scholar, so I'm saying my personal opinion, not the 'official' stance of Islam.
Your example of pig genes in tomatoes can go in many ways. Some Muslims will argue that if it's "pig anything" it's not halal and we won't eat it.
Other Muslims may say "guys, it's just tomatoes..as long as it's not real pig body parts then no problem".
Then some others will say "depends on the genes themselves. If they are the genes pigs have in common with other creatures that we already eat freely like cows, then it isn't a problem, but if its genes found only in pigs and other non-halal animals then we'll avoid it".
Notice, however, that Islam is a very practical religion. And in every time the Quran mentions that pigs are forbidden , it mentions that if someone was forced to eat them or he'll die, then he could eat them as long as his intent is saving life , not disobeying God.
So I think if a Muslim had to eat some genetically modified product ( that he believes isn't halal) in order to save himself/herself from diarrehea or from hunger, there is no problem with that as long as there is absolutely no other way. If conventional medicine and/or other sources of food exist or can be acquired , he/she has to use those.
Hope that answered your question.
Re:Product's name: (Score:4, Interesting)
As to your follow up,
You make halal questions sound very personal choice / decentralized
Islam is indeed quite decentralized. An Islamic scholar cannot say "trust me and do this and that" , but he has to justify in detail why he says a certain rule should be followed.
All rules in Islam are derived from a set of well known sources (Mainly The Quran and quotes of the prophet) and a set of complex rules of inference from those sources that take years to learn. A scholar's authority over a normal person comes not from his position but from his knowledge and expertise in this area.
If Islamic scholars were asked about the tomatoes with pig genes issue,they will likely fall into one of the three camps I mentioned . If the majority agrees on one answer then this will be the 'agreement of scientists' which is the nearest thing we have to an official stance. If they didn't agree, a Muslim would have to see how each scholar's opinion was justified and make his/her own choice (or play it safe and avoid the product, especially that it's trivially easy when the product is a given brand of tomato!).
there's a couple of central authorities for 'certifying' foods as kosher (one in the US somewhere, and one in Israel) Does Islam have an equivilant authority?
Yes. In the USA and Europe ( and certainly in other countries) there are Islamic organizations whose job is to determine what food is haram and what is halal. They even publish lists of common brand names and their haram/halal status (can't remember their names though ).
But Muslims do not see these as authorities. We see them as helpful people who did the research for us, and they're almost certainly more correct than someone who didn't do the same research.
Re:Product's name: (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I can't speak for either of the the groups you mention, but I'm a very strict vegetarian, largely on ethical grounds (among several other reasons).
My objection to this would be two-fold: I don't wish to ingest stuff made from animal, and I don't wish to ingest GMOs in general.
I have no problem for selective breeding within a species; fine, select for traits that are already present. That makes sense, and that's a very natural process already.
But mixing genes from animals into plants scares the hell outta me -- in no small way because we realy don't know what the long-term consequences would be. Plus the issues of bio-diversity and the like (think Monsanto and patented corn).
Look at what happened with mad cow -- sheep protein had no business being fed to cows which are herbivores, who knows what the hell happens when we mix it into plants. We're seeing evidence that the growth hormones we feed cows is affecting puberty rates among children, and all sorts of scary, unintended consequences.
Personally speaking, I would be very unwilling to eat this rice, or any GMO produce in general, and most especially when animal genes have been spliced in. The whole thing skeeves me out like you wouldn't believe!!
Living in America? (Score:3, Informative)
Trying to avoid all GMO's in the US is a bear.. 80ish percent of all soy is GM, making most vegetable oils a GM food, making most processed foods GM.... Try going a normal week in the US eating only non-GMO foods its really tricky, I couldnt manage to skip out on social events, and poof game o
Re:Product's name: (Score:2)
And I've never understood why people mock what they don't understand.
Re:Product's name: (Score:2, Insightful)
Ob. Reference. (Score:2)
What does Jobs tell his follower not to eat ?
Anything comming out of Microsoft Cuisine [davar.net], of course, because it's pure eeevviill !
(Sorry, I couldn't resist)
Re:Product's name: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Product's name: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't eat pork, not because of the "risks" (just clean up the stuff you use and cook everything through) nor because of some book, but because it tastes bad.
Just try to remember when you eat sausage: Theres nothing like minceing up an animal and stuff it into it's own intestines.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Product's name: (Score:2)
Best you don't ask how sausages are made.
Re:Product's name: (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course it matters. Claiming otherwise is moronic.
Because if I just remove 'religious' and insert ethical/societal/cultural/whatever in there, we can say that not eating/killing/raping/oppressing/owning people is just a silly social convention and there's no need to adhere them, because, after all, they're just silly superstitions. So you should just go do anything willy nilly, because to do o
Re:Product's name: (Score:5, Funny)
Well, how about the manditory Futurama gag:
Fry: My god! What if the secret ingredient is... people?!!
Leela: No, there's already food like that -- Soylent Rice.
Fry: "How does it taste?"
Leela: "...It varies from person to person."
Shouldn't the headline read... (Score:3, Insightful)
FTA
>"Earlier this month, a Peruvian scientist sponsored by Ventria presented data at the Pediatric Academics Societies meeting in San Francisco. It showed children hospitalized in Peru with serious diarrhea attacks recovered quicker -- 3.67 days versus 5.21 days -- if the dehydration solution they were fed contained the powder."
Re:Shouldn't the headline read... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shouldn't the headline read... (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the kind of diarrhea mentioned in the article is not what you get the morning after a wild party in your frat. Tests were done in Peru because in that country diarrhea in children is endemic, caused by several factors, poverty among them, bad sanitation, inadequate water supply where the dry climate is a factor, etc.
It's one thing to complain about the high price you pay to fill your swimming pool in Southern Californi
Ethics vs survival (Score:3, Insightful)
When clean water is not always at hand, diseases such as dysentery are easy to catch. Although this rice is no cure, it can help prevent the loss of fluids associated with this disease and help save lives.
So, what are these ethical issues you were referring to again?
Re:Ethics vs survival (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like they're going to ship the rice for the local farmers to grow - from tfa:And its not like they're going to give it away for free [ventriabio.com]:So, we've got a new method of manufacturing proteins by extracting them from GM rice. US rice farmers are worried that it will affect trade with anti-GM nations. Environmentalists are worried about it for the usual GM worries (cross pollination with wild rices, unknown future side affects, species jumping, etc).
I think the way to cure dysentry is like many other posters have said, to fix infrastructure.
Re:Ethics vs survival (Score:2)
How about we don't pretend its for third world children, admit its for rich western people & discuss it with that as a starting point?
$ick $cience (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what helps people hydrate? Water. Clean water and food can prevent diarrhea. All that money going into genetically engineered crops. Why not fix the socio-political problems of these regions so the infrastructures -> people can become healthy?
Oh yeah... no profit in that. Hell's gonna be standing room only.
Re:$ick $cience (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:$ick $cience (Score:2)
Oh bollocks. (Do you mean like the US's attempt to free the Iraqi people from enslavement?)
The west is pilloried for supporting authoritarian & repressive regimes all over the world. They are rarely criticized for genuine attempts to help.
Tell me what organization can do what you want? (Score:3, Insightful)
This leaves most of the real work to private organizations, the ones who have been doing the bulk of the charitable work in Africa and similar areas. Since most of them do not get government money they need solutions that work and work in conditions less than ideal. This is where e
Re:$ick $cience (Score:3, Insightful)
Because many of the problems are unfixable without dismantling the political structures of those countries, and, well, seems people get a tad upset when we do that.
Re:$ick $cience (Score:4, Insightful)
There are two reasons.
First, this is a biotech company. I highly doubt that they have much experience in how to "fix socio-political problems". On the other hand, they are probably pretty skillful at making genetically modified rice that could help reduce the number of people that die from one of the top 10 killers in the third world.
Second, all the money in the world can't fix the problems in many third world nations. You can throw as much money at the problem and it wont suddenly make good governance appear. If throwing money at a problem would make good governance, Iraq should be a flowering utopia. Instead, Iraq is a black hole where a billion dollars goes in, a million dollars come out in government coffers, and the rest vanishes in corruption.
Poor governance is the source of world poverty. Feeding everyone isn't that expensive. Hell, do all the things required to help bring a nation up to the point where it can stand on its own two feet is not that expensive. The issue is not paying for the things that these nations need. The issue is getting these things to these nations. Where the money starts to suddenly vanish is when you try and transport money/food/seeds, exc. If you hand these things over to the local government, large portions of it vanish. If you try and deliver it yourself, you risk getting expelled by the local government. What option does that leave you? Should you at that point invade and try and help people at the point of a gun? We tried that. It was called Somalia. In that one black hawk down incident a squad of American soldiers probably killed more Somali as they tried to retreat back to safety then they saved during the entire operation.
There is no easy fix to world poverty. Bitch that a biotech company is doing there small part to help the probably is counter productive and whiney at best.
Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:5, Interesting)
If it does, is he allowed to? May he actually plant that rice without a new license for next year? No kidding, some (very popular) sorts cannot be used anymore because the company holding the rights (yes, there is rights and patents on food. Go figure) doesn't allow using it anymore.
This malpractice is getting more and more common to make farmers dependent on industrial seeds.
So that's the questions I'd prefer to have answered. Not what the wonder-rice could be. I'd be interested in the question what it IS.
Re:Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:2)
That being said, I heard a story where a guy's crops got pollinated naturally by a neighbor's GE c
Re:Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:2)
Sure, the biogens should have their share. The way it's now, though, farmers become absolutely dependent on them. This is no better than it was in medieval times when peasants were completely dependent on their landlord. Back then, they didn't own the land, today they don't own the seed. The outcome is the same, they don't have full right over their crops, they don't have the rights on what they reap.
And that's fucked up, if you ask me.
Re:Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:2)
This one?
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fct/2002/2002fca309
The farmer most certainly knowingly violated the patent. Whether you think patents are good things is another matter.
Re:Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:2)
The farmer can't even grow the rice - read the article, the rice is grown in the US, ground up & the protein extracted.
This medicine is destined for rich first worlders, the whole 'think of the 3rd world children' is just to try & get public sympathy for their GM crop.
Re:Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:2)
Try actually reading the TF
Re:Fertile or unfertile, patented or free (Score:2)
The point is that someone has to grow that rice. I doubt the scientists will do it themselves. So some farmer has to plant that stuff. I'm not refering to third world countries (I took it as given that nobody who'd actually need that stuff would ever get his hands on it), I am talking about our farmers, here, in our perfect little high tech world.
Rice, now, by its very nature, is not an "easy" crop. It's
Speaking of rice... (Score:2)
"I'm going to court next week. I've been selected for jury duty. It's kind of an insane case -- 6000 ants dressed up as rice and robbed a Chinese restaurant. I don't think they did it."
No ants involved this time around, but still...
I, for one, welcome our sentient grain overlords.
Long Pole in the Tent: Celliac Disease (Score:5, Interesting)
I've seen no study to verify mammary colostrum and human tears have any propolactic effect on villi, but paired with rice its a good starter. Celliac Disease causes the body's immune system to adversely react to a protein found in wheat products - gluten. Celliac's are able eat rice without the toxic effects of other grains.
There is no cure, no treatment, no therapy for Celliac Disease. The only thing that can be done is remove gluten from the diet. The damage to the villi can be reversed in most cases and health maintained with a disciplined gluten-free diet for Life.
The GM rice/human DNA engineered grain could only reverse the death rate in developing countries if the GM DNA provide an immunity. The villi are delicate structures which regenerate all the time in health people. They are wiped out when anyone gets diarhea. That's what diarhea is, loss of villi, medically.
If the GM rice passes immunity to the villi, they have a treatment for every 1:133 American's living with the disease. Not bad market.
Re:Long Pole in the Tent: Celliac Disease (Score:2)
Um... removing gluten from the diet [csaceliacs.org] is the treatment. Kind of annoying, but certainly not the worst kind of dietary restriction.
GM Rice Bubbles: Snap, Crackle and Mom! (Score:5, Funny)
And if you repeatedly harvest grains with human genes in them, does that make you a cereal killer?
Re:GM Rice Bubbles: Snap, Crackle and Mom! (Score:2)
The Silence of Rice (Score:2, Funny)
So, it tastes like chicken?
Waxman's Law (Score:2)
First Recipie (Score:2)
2. Serve with some Fava Beans and a nice Chianti
Can I get some of that? (Score:2)
Wind Pollination (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know how far they have tested this, but medicine and science has had several disasters with medications given to one generation and the disastrous results showing up in subsequent generations. Why can't we stick with things that humans evolved on and eliminate the crud like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, genetically modified foods, olean, etc? Our bodies don't know what we're eating anymore.
Are you shittin' me? (Score:3, Funny)
I, for one... (Score:2)
Ethics and what have you (Score:5, Insightful)
But of course, this is not about save the lives of poor children - it is just yet another way to earn money from the poor. If we really wanted to put an end to unnecessary suffering, it would be far more relevant to try ending poverty; it is after all not as if we in the western world couldn't it if we really wanted to.
However, there is a more sinister side to the debate about genetically modified plants: gene pollution. It works like this: you grow your modified plant, the bees (or wind) comes and takes pollen away, and some of it pollinates wild plants - or the neighbor farmer's unmodified crop.
In the first case wild plant species now carry the modification, and it may or may not pop up later in circumstances that are very unfortunate. In the second case the farmer's crop is suddenly 'illegal', because it now contains patented genes that he has not paid any ryalties for using.
Now that's the REAL ethical challenge when it comes to genetic modification.
a plea for help (Score:3, Funny)
"Human" DNA is fearmongering (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm appalled at the level of unscientific FUD that is out there. If slashdotters don't think scientifically, what will the general public do? Ban DHMO (http://www.dhmo.org/)?
Re:Ethics? (Score:5, Insightful)
also injecting yourself with a part of a
human? Many drugs are made in e.g. e.coli
where a human or modified human gene is
expressed to make a protein, then purified
and sold. This new approach is just
packaging the relevant drug/protein in a
capsule which happens to be a rice grain.
No ethics problems here.
Re:Ethics? (Score:2)
No maybe about it (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin#Timeline [wikipedia.org]
"Human insulin is now manufactured for widespread clinical use using genetic engineering techniques, which significantly reduces impurity reaction problems. Eli Lilly marketed the first such insulin, Humulin, in 1982. Humulin was the first medication produced using modern genetic engineering techniques, in which actual human DNA is inserted into a host cell (E. coli in this case). The host cells are then allowed to grow and reproduce normally, and du
Re:Ethics? (Score:5, Insightful)
You obviously never had a little child with severe diarrhea. Which is sometimes accompanied by a lot of vomiting. So everything you feed to your child goes out. If not in first few minutes upwards than in next few minutes downwards.
Eating human? Please. There are many genes that are common to many speices. So, 'eating genes' that are present in pig/cow/horse/chicken... and human... Well, you cannibal!
Re:Ethics? (Score:3, Funny)
"What about the ethical aspect of putting human genes in rice? Wouldn't people who eat that rice be eating a part of a human? That's kind of freaky to think about."
I dunno, ask Paris. Opps, sorry, she doesn't swallow.
Eat me! (Score:2)
Re:Ethics? (Score:2, Funny)
Oh damn.. [nyc24.org]
Re:Ethics? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ethics? (Score:2)
Re:Ethics? (Score:2)
selective breeding, cross-pollination, hybridization
air pollution, melting artic ice, playing with nuclear power
using fire
We are doing things to change our environment. We have caused the extinction of dozens (hundreds?) of species, and our changes will likely cause the extinction of many more. But the ecosystems will more likely adapt than get 'destroyed'. These changes are probably not good for most spec
Re:These symptoms are caused by poverty (Score:2)
Re:These symptoms are caused by poverty (Score:2, Informative)
Re:These symptoms are caused by poverty (Score:2)
Second, "economic equality" is impossible outside of complete communism (and even there, the "equality" is only for those not lucky enough to be in power). There will always be people who do better than others in any society that respects at lea
Re:These symptoms are caused by poverty (Score:5, Interesting)
The best example I have is the story my dad told me about the security guard at the church (yes 24x7 security or everything would be stolen). This man's 2 year old daughter got malaria from a mosquito bite. The resulting diarrhea made him desperate enough to take her to the hospital. The IV of fluids she got helped, but she died shortly after from the staph infection she got from the needle.
When my parents went to her funeral, they were SHOCKED at the size of the cemetary. It was for children only. Dad said he'd never seen such a huge cemetary - it was 5 miles across. Every grave marker had a number on it. The marker for the little girl they were there to bury was #278,xxx. That is a LOT of children.
I don't remember the exact statistics my dad quoted me, but something like half of all children in Mozambique die by the age of 5. It would be even easier to provide mosquito control pesticides (which work quite well next door in South Africa, no anti-malarials needed), and the cheap anti-malarial drugs in bulk.
I'm no expert, but I'm a parent. I really feel for the people in these countries. It wouldn't take much to improve their situation dramatically. The other side of that coin is the rampant corruption in most African nations, which is a big stumbling block to getting aid to the people. That's a subject for another day though.
Re:Next Logical Step? (Score:2, Interesting)
If we're worried about robbing the thunder of the heavens of what makes humans special, then I don't think we've infringed on that. Perhaps we are walking
Shut the fuck up. (Score:5, Insightful)
Shut. The. Fuck. Up.
It's easy for you to bitch and moan and fear-monger about the ethics of human DNA in some rice, from your computer chair in your air-conditioned first-world home or office. Meanwhile there are people - real, live people - people with thoughts, and feelings, and whose well-being you'd place at first-priority, whose well-being would be your tantamount concern, whose well-being would trump these silly goddamn over-analytical beardo quack ideas and "what ifs" -- that is, if you weren't such a fucking unthinking monster -- and these people are shitting themselves to death. And even though you and I both laughed as kids when we played Oregon Trail and learned what "dysentary" meant, one of us has managed to grow up, and figures it'd be best if we could put a stop to this horrible pain and suffering in the real world. Meanwhile, the other one is playing Armchair Philosopher, talking about lines being crossed and the ethics of eliminating suffering , without knowing the first thing about what he's talking about. Jesus Christ.
Have you heard about a little invention from the very late 1700s called "vaccinations"? Is this "ethical" in your eyes? Was it "ethical" for Louis Pasteur to inject human beings with (residual amounts of) COW DNA? Or should we have put a stop to this and let smallpox continue to ravage the globe? What about blood transfusions? That's OMG human DNA as well. Or, wait, are you one of those fucking quacker-flappers, like that lady who made an entire campaign out of "HIV does not cause AIDS", then gave AIDS to her daughter (by not taking any preventative measures during pregnancy)?
Look. I'm trying not to be too much of a -1 Flamebait -1 Troll -1 Confrontational Asshole, but what is your deal? If someone you loved (assuming you are actually capable of feeling empathy, or anything beyond Moral Sense [c.f. Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" [gutenberg.org]]) was locked in a room, in a hotel you did not own, which was currently on fire, would you worry about the ethics of breaking the door down? Would you tap the fireman on the back as he was about to take an axe to the door, and oh-so-wisely, intellectually bleat^H^H^H^H^H state that it was a violation of ethics to be destroying property that wasn't yours? Would you then put on your Humble Pious Face, with your head solemnly cast down, and proclaim your grief for the impending loss of your wife / child / mother / father? Or does this garbage only spew forth from your mouth when it's other people's children whose lives are at risk?
So much idiotic diarrhea dribbling out of your mouth - I'm sure this isn't the only completely moronic thing you've managed to come up with in your blessedly short existance. Maybe you could use a DNA injection. I know I'd gladly sodomize you. I mean "innoculate" you - I get those two words confused =)!
MODS: -1, Whatever me all you want. I prefer not to intellectualize idiocy (such as the Parent post), so if you're going to mod me down for calling bullshit when I see it, mod me down, for calling bullshit, when, I, see... it. </Shatner>
Re:Shut the fuck up. (Score:2)
Re:Shut the fuck up. (Score:2)
I've been waiting for someone to make this point on Slashdot eloquently and be modded up.
Re:Shut the fuck up. (Score:5, Insightful)
What ifs? Is that meant to be imply some negative connotation to perfectly reasonable and serious concerns?
Here's a whatif, for you. What if we give hard working salt-of-the-earth farmers the chance to save some money and allow them to feed their cows animal protein instead of corn? Never mind the overly analytical issue of feeding herbivores other herbivores, there's livelihoods at risk, economies at stake, and benefits to go around for everyone.
Sorry, but the history of technological progress is littered with Really Bad Ideas that sounded really good at one time. Mad cow is just the latest, and a Google search will turn up as many as you want. Any radical idea deserves serious vetting, whether it takes the form of catcalls from the
Re:Shut the fuck up. (Score:2)
How about *both* of you shut the fuck up before you're read the fucking article. Then when the sanctimonious asshat above states his moral objections to using this to produce a drug which is intended to limit the recovery time of children suffering from diarrhea, and does not mention attempting to feed the suffering and unwashed masses of the world on a crop not intended to be a food stock...
*Then* you all can call point out his failures as a human being.
Re:Shut the fuck up. (Score:3, Insightful)
Fine save the kiddies. Just don't complain in fifty years time when we're up to our asses in GM crossbreed staple foods.
so why do you want to hurt them? (Score:5, Insightful)
These people are not going to be helped with bioengineered rice. The problems in the third world are political chaos, war, lack of family planning, lack of education, religious fundamentalism, and others. Poverty, disease, high mortality, child labor, homelessness, and migration are symptoms of that. You can't fix the problems by treating the symptoms, and even if the first world made it its top priority to help the third world, it couldn't being to alleviate the suffering. The only way this is ever going to get fixed is to address the root problems.
Every dollar you invest in attempts at quick fixes like bioengineered rice is a dollar you aren't spending on fixing the fundamental problems. It's actually worse than that: if you give these people crutches like bioengineered rice, they're even less likely to do what's necessary to modernize their infrastructure, and you make them dependent on high-tech products and imports.
It's well-meaning idiots like you that focus on the short term and keep meddling in those societies (creating corruption and dependency in the process) that are responsible for a large part of the suffering in the third world. Europe and the US developed into modern societies with long life expectancies without such meddling, and these nations can and will as well if we give them access to world markets and let them compete and develop freely.
parochial attitude (Score:3, Informative)
That's typical parochial Western bullshit. People in developing nations aren't two year olds and you aren't their wise old grandmother.
Are you saying that nobody should give bio-genetics firms any money, because it's just a waste?
I'm saying that people should concentrate on those things that we know increase life expectancy the most, like building sewers. On the other hand, selling proprietary US crops to these natio
Re:so why do you want to hurt them? (Score:3, Insightful)
The apartment building is on fire! Bravely, Dr. Ventria dashes inside to check for survivors and organize the evactuation! Nugneant claps
Vaccination (Score:2, Informative)
Not really. Vaccination is much more difficult than you imply, especially because the organisms that cause most of these diseases are bacteria and eukaryotes. Much harder to vaccinate against than viruses, and much less effective when you do design one that "works".
Re:Next Logical Step? (Score:2)
Not that I'm saying that, if the product is effective, parents who can afford i
Re:Mmmm (Score:2)
Nah, im just kidding, your great...really.
Re:Corporate Ethics (Score:2)
"Earlier this month, a Peruvian scientist sponsored by Ventria presented data at the Pediatric Academics Societies meeting in San Francisco. It showed children hospitalized in Peru with serious diarrhea attacks recovered quicker -- 3.67 days versus 5.21 days -- if *the dehydration solution* they were fed contained the powder."
Now, maybe you consider feeding kids in hospitals dehydration solutions a Bad Thing(TM) too, but trying t