Anybody have clearfield or conventional canola?

[Klause]

Have a Chinese trade firm that contacted me interested in it.


Pm me I'll pass along their contact info...

[Guest]

bunge harrowby paying premium of $35/mt plus usually better base price than nipawin . got an extra $1.05 /bu last load but cost $.53 to get it there . how does that compare?

[tweety]

Mutagenesis with radiation randomly scrambling genes - good.

Single gene accurately manipulated - bad.

[Bowerpower]

Mutagenesis with radiation randomly scrambling genes - good.

Single gene accurately manipulated - bad.

Lmao. Told some of my anti gmo friends that. Of course they would not believe it.

[Rareearth]

Last Updated Nov 8, 2017 9:05 PM EST

At MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a couple hundred academics, scientists and biohackers gathered recently for what organizers call the first global biohacker summit. Biohackers is a term for biologists who work outside of traditional labs.

Josiah Zayner, a former NASA scientist turned biohacker, stumbles into the event late, and a bit out of sorts. He's treated like a bit of a rockstar, lauded by the biohackers in attendance.

But Josiah's not having it. "People trying to appropriate the biohacker movement. It's gross. I feel gross being here." He wants the movement to remain in the hands of the people -- away from the influence of the scientific establishment.

"I don't need validation (from MIT). It's like, the science should make it legitimized right? The cool stuff people do should make it legitimized."

Josiah lives and works in Oakland, California, where he's converted a house into a scientific lab. Here, he runs a company that sells genetic engineering kits to the public. In the U.S., gene editing is technically not illegal, but federal funding is either prohibited or extremely difficult to obtain.

"What we are trying to do is make genetic engineering technology accessible to people. We want people to be able to use genetic engineering technology as easily as they could use an app on their smartphone."

Josiah's kits start at about $150, depending on the cell cultures and organisms included for experimentation. The business, and the biohacker movement it helps service, came to exist, largely because of one new tool, called CRISPR.

CRISPR is short for Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats.

"CRISPR is this amazing technology because CRISPR allows you to directly target any sequence in somebody's genome, in their genes, that you want and make whatever change you want," according to Josiah.

The tool consists of two key components -- a protein, which works like a pair of scissors, and what's essentially a GPS, which tells the scissors where to cut. The system can precisely cut a gene that's responsible for a disease, and replace or fix it.

Dr. Emmanuelle Charpintier at the Max Planck Institute in Germany is one half of the duo that discovered CRISPR's gene-cutting abilities. She and her research partner, Jennifer Doudna of UC-Berkeley, manipulated a naturally occurring defense system in bacteria.

According to Charpintier, "It's like a kind of film strip. The person responsible can edit the fate and the story of a life of a cell, an organism, with this technology."

With the help of CRISPR, the floodgates have opened to all sorts of previously unthinkable experimentation. Unlike the U.S. government's cautious approach to funding, the Chinese are all-in on CRISPR research -- providing most of the funding for dozens of the country's CRISPR projects. China currently leads the way in gene-edited firsts, including CRISPR-edited human embryos in 2015.

"The most muscular beagles in the world"
Dr. Lai Liangxue is one of China's leading CRISPR researchers. "So far I've used CRISPR on dogs, pigs, rabbit, and mice. The most exciting thing is if I want to make something in animals in biomedicine, now I can achieve very easily. Before, if I want to do that, maybe it will take me several years and millions of U.S. dollars to just achieve one genetically modified animal. Now, very fast and very inexpensive."

CRISPR is so precise that it can just knock out the one gene that changes the physical appearance of an animal. Researchers at Lai's lab in Guangzhou, China, used CRISPR to isolate and manipulate a beagle's myostatin, or muscle gene, making these the most muscular beagles in the world. I jokingly contemplated enhancing my own muscles with gene editing, and the rabbit-hole of this technology reveals itself. It's tempting.

I asked whether there's a fear of people wanting to design their own dogs. "Actually, it excited us," said one doctor. "When we confirmed that it's a CRISPR'd dog so it also excites the world."

"From a scientific aspect, it's very exciting. Every scientist likes this kind of technology. They can use this technology to make what they want."

But he concedes many are concerned about what weirdness may be created.

Lai takes us to see his pig farm, where he's created hundreds of mutant pigs using CRISPR. He shows us immuno-deficient pigs, whose genes were manipulated to make them more susceptible to infectious diseases. Pigs and humans share similar genomes. We have the same immune system, digestive system and suffer from many of the same diseases. According to Lai, "If we succeed in pigs, then we can transfer this technology into humans. But so far, you know, the regulation and the law don't allow us to do that."

This is all very awe-inspiring, but also unsettling. "CRISPR allows humans -- it puts so much power into our hands. The idea that we could be playing the role of God makes a lot of people nervous," I said to Dr. Lai.

He laughs. That concern isn't shared in China, he says. "I think prevent disease is a good thing. A really good thing. Some genetic diseases, if we can modify it, if there is a baby with some, you know, defect, why don't we just change that? I say that depends on who use it, right? Like, like, atomic bomb. That's kind of -- if you use it to make electricity, it's good. If you use it in a bomb, it's bad."

Controversies loom large. CRISPR is not meant to be a technology that could be developed as a toy, but mention it and designer pets or designer babies often come up in conversation. The rise of genetic screenings of human embryos allow scientists to create organisms by design, rather than leave it up to chance. Combined with genetic sequencing, humanity's genetic toolbox has dramatically expanded.

crispr-genetics-playing-god.png
Josiah Zayner prepares to inject JOSIAH ZAYNER
Josiah genetically modified himself with CRISPR. He used the system to edit a gene in his muscles, to make them grow faster, to be bigger and make him stronger. He did this as a proof of concept to show people how easy it is, even for biohackers operating out of small labs, to manipulate genes.

He boasts he was the first human CRISPR experiment. He says it didn't happen in a big lab with lots of resources. Josiah wants to make this technology open source and accessible to people.

"I get, like -- it's, it's been gettin' crazy now, you know? Two, three, five, 10 emails a day about people who want to use genetic engineering in some way, right? Maybe to help them with their disease.You know what no person with cancer has ever told me, ever? Like, 'Hey, I don't wanna try that out because it might hurt me.' They've never said that to me ever. 'Hey, I don't wanna try that out because it might be dangerous.'"

Josiah muses about the future possibilities with CRISPR: "Do I wanna be big and muscly? Do I wanna -- you know, my muscles have, like, high endurance? Do I want to have dark color skin or light color skin or whatever you want. I think now is the starting place of where we get to make those choices."

"I think we are in the midst of a genetic revolution. I think this is, like, literally, a new era of human beings," he said.

"It's gonna create a whole new species of humans."

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[burnt]

Last Updated Nov 8, 2017 9:05 PM EST

At MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a couple hundred academics, scientists and biohackers gathered recently for what organizers call the first global biohacker summit. Biohackers is a term for biologists who work outside of traditional labs.

Josiah Zayner, a former NASA scientist ...

"It's gonna create a whole new species of humans."

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Wow. A brave new world?

[tweety]

When the telephone came out many wouldn't use it because it will steal your soul. It was the instrument of the devil that carried evil spirits to your home.

They were right in some ways once telemarketing was discovered.

CRISPR and rDNA will be changing our lives in big ways in the near future, both evil works of the devil.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Wow, did that ever get off topic in a hurry. But in an interesting direction.

My takeaway, order one of the DIY CRISPR kits, create your own herbicide tolerant canola, in a slightly different method to avoid patent problems, keep your own seed, save so much money on seed that you no longer need the premium of non-gmo to make the same profit.

Democratization of this process could be huge for the future of health care costs. Instead of a handful of companies with really high cost structures creating drugs, and spending most health dollars on treatment/palliative care, we could be solving health, we could be preventing many of the issues, and for a fraction of the cost. Potentially of course.

[edl]

All I can say is WOW read the thread topic

[tweety]

The thread topic is pretty boring, after all, why grow canola from the 90's with the easiest to form resistance Group 2.

[Klause]

The thread topic is pretty boring, after all, why grow canola from the 90's with the easiest to form resistance Group 2.

Because a large portion of the world's population doesn't want genetically engineered incidences "doused" in chemicals.


Note I said clearfield OR conventional.

Genetic engineering could have removed the need for synthetic N fertilizer, fungicides.


It could mean the end of fusarium, pythium... pulse root rots.


Salinity and alkalinity tolerance. Drought tolerance. Increased nutrition profiles.


Instead, what did we use this tech for? So we can spend more money spraying pesticides...


Monsanto/Bayer/et al blew it. Short term profit long term disaster.

[Klause]

As far as using CRISPR for editing crops... yeah that's great, except you need to get it approved and allowed for use in Canada...


The chances of doing that if you aren't FP Genetics, Secan, or any of the other leaches? Pretty much 0.


Thanks to progressive governments both liberal and conservative, we have completely destroyed our public breading system.


We know spend taxpayer money at CDC and AC sites & researches, so they develop a variety... then sell this variety for a pitance to bottom feeders like Secan FP et al who "license" it to their growers.


Those varieties were paid for by Canadian funds... much like US varieties that get developed by land bank universities. Somehow we then made it so another layer can extract profit from it.


It's one thing SPGA got right... at least i's producer money funding public varietal research, and it's a producer organization that controls the varieties.


In Canada it's now a privilege to save your own seed - not a right anymore.


In the US, Section 113 of the PVPA

Except to the extent that such action may constitute an infringement under subsections (3) and (4) of section
111,
it shall not infringe any right hereunder for a person to save seed produced by the person from seed
obtained, or descended from seed obtained, by authority of the owner of the variety for seeding purposes and
use such saved seed in the production of a crop for use on the farm of the person, or for sale as provided in this
section. A bona fide sale for other than reproduc
tive purposes, made in channels usual for such other
purposes, of seed produced on a farm either from seed obtained by authority of the owner for seeding purposes
or from seed produced by descent on such farm from seed obtained by authority of the owner for seeding
purposes shall not constitute an infringement.

[furrowtickler]

Because a large portion of the world's population doesn't want genetically engineered incidences "doused" in chemicals.


Note I said clearfield OR conventional.

Genetic engineering could have removed the need for synthetic N fertilizer, fungicides.


It could mean the end of fusarium, pythium... pulse root rots.


Salinity and alkalinity tolerance. Drought tolerance. Increased nutrition profiles.


Instead, what did we use this tech for? So we can spend more money spraying pesticides...


Monsanto/Bayer/et al blew it. Short term profit long term disaster.

Agreed , but they knew exactly what they were doing .
Hopefully their grip can be broken, for the sake of sustainable crop production.

[tweety]

Klause, farmers never had the right, only the priviledge. Ever.

It won't matter what GMO is used for, the organic industry needs it to market their crap. Never was a safety issue.

So some farmers will profit off the ignorance and lies, right Klause?

[Klause]

Klause, farmers never had the right, only the priviledge. Ever.

It won't matter what GMO is used for, the organic industry needs it to market their crap. Never was a safety issue.

So some farmers will profit off the ignorance and lies, right Klause?

Wrong.


The law originally said RIGHT...

Farmers are morons.

We keep trying to tell consumers what they should want... so it matches with what is easy for us.

Only industry in the world where the customer is wrong and we need to keep telling them that... And the big ag companies have done a great job of getting farmers to do their PR work for them...


Give consumers what they want, if it shaves a few hundred million off the world population it's a lesson learned. If it makes us extra money in the process I'm all for it... Growing more and more to offset lower prices (read: market signal telling us to produce less) doesn't work, has never worked, will never work.