Science and Exploration

[Allison W]

Originally Posted by AscotButch

This was being discussed when I worked at Whole Foods, specifically introducing cod DNA into tomatoes to make them impervious to cold and what the ramifications would be for people who, for example, adhere to a vegan diet.

Depends on why that person is vegan. If it's for health reasons (which I am led to believe is a very common reason), unless the DNA changes the nutritional content of the tomato in some non-negligible way, it should be completely irrelevant. If it's for reasons of not wanting to harvest sentient life (read: things with a nervous system/motivational system/ability to feel pain/etc.) as a food source, then unless this DNA gives the tomatoes a bloody nervous system or live fish have to be continuously slaughtered for a source of the DNA (depending upon how the original DNA must be obtained this might be the case until you have a seed population of the modified tomato to work with, but after that, you can probably just have the tomatoes reproduce), it should not be particularly relevant.

Now if it's for reasons of religion or spirituality, or just Luddism or thinking there's some kind of magical essence of fish or whatever, I got nuthin'.

PS, slightly related: I am totally looking forward to vat-grown meat one of these days. Meat that does not require the continual harvesting of sentient animals to obtain. Bacon has already been produced from pig stem cells, which is pretty awesome. Now I'm just waiting for the day the tech advances to the point that we can find meat in the supermarket labeled "NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS MEAT." The culture shock alone will be priceless.