[Editor’s note: Carol Lynn Curchoe is a scientist, teacher, consultant, advisor, and author.]
[GMOs] have been used to benefit human health, animal welfare, and to safeguard the environment for over 30 years. Here are some GMOs you may have never heard about, or realized why they were created in the first place!!!
- Cheese —[At one point,] the veal calf industry was booming, and we used calf stomach rennet (enzymes that coagulate milk into curd) to make cheese. But as our concern for animal welfare grew, and our use of veal calves fell, we needed to find an alternate source of cheese-making enzymes. We now use bioengineered chymosin to protect the welfare of veal calves and to have a cheap and virtually limitless supply of enzymes, responsible for over 90 percent of cheese consumed today
- Insulin – For 60 years after the discovery that injected insulin could treat diabetes, diabetics relied on insulin purified from animals, primarily cattle and pigs…In 1978 insulin became the first human protein to be manufactured through biotechnology. Today all insulin for human use is manufactured from GM bacteria.
- Vaccines — Indisputably life saving, vaccines are produced in chicken eggs, human cell lines, or bacteria, all genetically modified to produce the antigen of choice!
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In conclusion, I love GMOs and biotechnology. We do this to help solve the world’s problems.
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The GLP aggregated and excerpted this article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: 10 amazing GMOs that you need to know about
