you could just about end food poisoning. In the US alone, an estimated 5,000 people die each year from food poisoning. While I have no hard numbers to back the claim, it wouldn't surprise me if the worldwide death toll each year was a million or more, plus countless more who are sickened but not killed. This source claims 60-80 million illnesses and 6-8 million deaths worldwide each year. However, the Luddites who oppose food irradiation are worried that someone somewhere might get sick sometime from the effects of irradiation while perhaps millions are dying each year from food poisoning.
One semi-legitimate argument against gene splicing food products is the possibility of alergic reactions. For example, suppose they spliced peanut genes into tomatoes for some reason. Some allergic to peanuts* might get sick eating the tomatoes.
*Funny thing about peanut allergies - I never heard of that when I was growing up but it seems pretty common today. Perhaps I just didn't hear about it or perhaps allergic reactions are more common today for some reason. If the later, has something changed about peanuts in the last 30 years? Regardless, peanut allergies can be deadly serious.
Off Topic » in reply to Agreed.
And with food irradiation...
The whole thread (44 posts)
- Is the Party coming to an end?
- re: When the lights will go out
- Sounds like the predictions from the Club of Rome back in 1972
- Undoubtedly