has bill nye the science guy gone to the dark side?

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There has been a ride all about GMO's at Epcot since it's opening. There they tell you all the fruits and veggies at Disney World is GMO.

Bill Nye's original anti-GMO fear wasn't that it would be harmful for humans to eat. It was that there would be unintended ecosystem ripple effects. This isn't about our health specifically, but rather about the health of other creatures in the ecosystem- which can in turn hurt us if these creatures were doing things that benefit us that we didn't even realize.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2015/03/02/bill-nye-fixed-view-gmos-something-happened/#.VQBohfnF8pA


http://geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/03/02/did-bill-nye-the-anti-gmo-guy-just-flip-after-visiting-monsanto-stay-tuned/

In order to be highly disruptive to the genome of a species, any new gene would have to confer an advantage over other members of the same species that results in it having better results from reproduction. Absent such an advantage, it would still be possible for the gene to proliferate, but not with a high probability of success.

Keep in mind that most food crops do not generally fare that well in the wild. Some seed that fell to the ground may sprout and grow plants, but absent the usual increases in the amount of water they receive, they generally don't do all that well.

There is such a thing as horizontal gene transfer which can be thought of as just about anything in nature in which one gene is transferred by means other than sexual reproduction. The genes being introduced into the organisms by mans of the modern genetic techniques have been around for long periods of time. If they were likely to be able to jump between species easily, they would have already done so.

For example, the bacterium thuringiensis from which some genetic material was transferred to corn to form bt-corn is very common. I use one strain of it, bacterium thuringiensis israelensis, on the farm to reduce the mosquito population by putting it into the stock tank and any open water sources. If it was all that easy for its genes to be introduced into other crops, they would have already been there. It is quite possible that they have transferred on occasion but that it conferred no advantage or maybe even conferred a disadvantage and quickly wiped itself out.

There was plenty of unnecessary concern about the terminator genes that would keep a crop from reproducing. People were rather absurdly convinced that those terminator genes would somehow transfer to other plants and cause them to become unable to reproduce. Think about that in terms of reproduction -- such a gene would not only offer no competitive advantage, it would offer a distinct disadvantage because any plant containing the gene would not be able to reproduce. I can't imagine how it could possibly cause any problem at all for other species. In the rare event that it did enter another plant by means of horizontal gene transfer, that plant would no longer reproduce and so it would never spread.

I really see no likelihood of GMO's resulting in any widespread genetic disruption.

^^^
As a follow-up google I went looking for the actual research rather than Bill Nye's opinions. What I found does back up what you say so that's reassuring.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18801324

I wonder why some people would rather believe that an educated, intelligent person like Bill Nye was "bought off" instead of believing that he has examined all of the available evidence with a critical mind and formed the rational conclusion that GMOs pose no threat to humanity. Mr. Nye has also examined all available 'evidence' and come to the conclusion that there is no god.

It seems to me that critical examination of the facts should bear more weight than emotional acceptance of lies.

^^^^
ok I'll buy that

I'm still incredibly curious but if he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to be allowed to see the research, I guess I'll never find out

There is labeling of GMO food in Europe, and then you see practically everything contains GMO food. But it's the same stuff people have been eating for years, and they're still buying. So I don't see any reason why it cannot be labeled and then let people make their choice of whether they want to to buy it or not (hint: you will have a fairly limited selection if you don't).

why does Monsanto oppose letting people know what they are putting in their mouths?

I don't like monsanto, I don't trust them, and I hate the way they prosecute unwitting [non-monsanto seed buying] farmers found to have monsanto genes blown onto their farmland, which is just a back-handed way to force ALL farmers to buy monsanto seeds.

Yup, those patented seeds are messed up. In that documentary I mentioned there was a Dutch farmer who bred broccoli with long stems so that they would be easier to harvest (and cheaper), he got his strains from an American university, Monsanto then used those same strains from the university and patented them so now that farmer is not allowed to use his own plants anymore. The farmer said he could not afford a legal battle over it.

I do believe GMO foods can help us. This is golden rice, which is rice that has vitamin A, and it is made to be used in poor countries where people can't afford healthy food: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice