You wanna know the nice thing about GMO food?

If I don’t want to put it in my body, I don’t have to. I’ve mentioned before how “GMO” is a loaded term. Almost everything we eat is the product of being “genetically modified” based on the fact that we change the natural conditions to get a delicious progeny product we want. However, when it’s happening in a lab with a lab rat in a chef’s hat adding a dash o’ salt and pepper and not-public-knowledge secret gene sauce, that’s where it gets complicated. I wanna know exactly what’s being modified. And how. Don’t assume I’m too stupid to at least try to learn and understand it.

That goes doubly for when the GMO isn’t in what I’m eating – it’s in what’s eating me.


(And even then, I’m not so sure.)

Like this new batch of genetically modified mosquitoes a lab called Oxitec is about to unleash like a plague of locusts in Florida soon. The idea, they claim, is to get rid of these two diseases called dengue and chikungunya (which makes me feel really dumb ‘cause I’ve never heard of them causing a huge issue here). Instead of waiting to get bitten, they hope to attack it on a “preventative” level, so they say. My problem is, much like the GMO food I don’t wanna buy, the details aren’t part of the typical media stories I’m hearing. So, I scavenged through their site, and came upon this:

“Scientists at Oxitec have developed a way to modify mosquitoes by adding a gene which produces a protein that stops their cells from functioning normally. The gene produces a protein called tTA, which is a special kind of protein able to act as a switch that controls the activity of other genes. Our modified mosquitoes produce high levels of this protein because it actually activates its own gene, producing lots more of itself. Although it’s not toxic itself, it ties up some of the cell’s essential machinery. It can interact with other proteins which are needed for controlling genes in the cell, and in this way it stops the cell from turning on other genes which are essential for it to survive.”

Right.

So, what happens if I get bitten by this Franken-bug? Or its kids?

I mean, mosquitoes lay a shiz ton o’ eggs, don’t they? What happens if this gene mod induces some other bad ramification in the chain reaction of gene expression? (Usually if you turn on something, more than just one regulatory effect ensues; it’s like this cascade of stuff). And what if generation next has a favorable-for-them-but-not-for-us kinda mutation because of it? I dunno, man. But whatever the case is, it does make for some fun conspiracy theory fodder. Like, for instance, where the government failed to eff up our DNA and dumb us down by making us eat Monstanto’s cobs of carnival freakery. So, like, they instead sent a fleet of flying GMO’s to inject ‘em into us instead. And then they made up stats about certain diseases killing off everyone and this being the fix – to convince everyone to keep calm and carry on.

Time to store up on OFF!

Before summer arrives… along with these unnatural Floridian body snatchers!

That way I can just die of chemical poison instead.