GMO

Our Best Values Must Guide Our Most Powerful Technologies

Our Best Values Must Guide Our Most Powerful Technologies 279 181 Jamie Metzl

Soon after a series of incredible discoveries almost five decades ago launched the era recombinant DNA (later renamed genetically modified organisms, or GMOs), some of the world’s leading scientists and…

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Inviting You to a Genetic Engineering Dinner Party (*)

Inviting You to a Genetic Engineering Dinner Party (*) 284 284 Jamie Metzl

I am inviting you to a dinner party – where you are the host. You can invite whomever you’d like: your family, friends, co-workers, book club members, etc. The preparation…

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NAS Human Genome Editing Report

NAS Human Genome Editing Report 1720 1147 Jamie Metzl

With all our attention focused on the circus of US presidential politics, it’s easy to overlook other developments of even greater importance. As you know, I’ve been speaking and writing…

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If GMOs worry you, what will you think of genetically modified humans?

If GMOs worry you, what will you think of genetically modified humans? 150 150 Jamie Metzl

In my Foreign Affairs article out this week, I argue that we need to do a lot more thinking about the implications of the genetics revolution. It seems crazy to…

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The Case Against “Nature” (and for regulated GMOs)

The Case Against “Nature” (and for regulated GMOs) 276 183 Jamie Metzl
     I love nature as much as the next guy.      I would swap in a moment the beautiful view of the Chrysler building from my New York City office for the span of the Rockies from the top of Colorado’s Independence Pass. I’d happily trade the Disney-like perfection of an American red delicious apple for a misshapen but stronger-tasting French pear.      But would I rather gather food in the forest than have it planted in farms and delivered to the grocery store? Would I rather fight cancer with meditation and prayer than chemotherapy? Would I condemn my friend’s Chihuahua as a genetically manipulated monstrosity of a wolf?      The truth of the matter is that much of what we call “natural” is the product of our own manipulation over time, and that nature, on its own, doesn’t seem to give a rat’s tail (or other part pf the rat’s anatomy) about us. I wish it did. read more