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Why Neil deGrasse Tyson is Dead Wrong About GMOs

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Neil DeGrasse Tyson GMO

Neil deGrasse Tyson claims that genetically modified food is nothing to worry about, because human beings have been doing it for thousands of years. Here’s why that’s an utter, bald-faced lie

Yesterday, a clip surfaced on YouTube of Neil deGrasse Tyson being asked about the fear surrounding genetically modified food. Tyson responded, emphatically, that there’s no such thing as food that’s not genetically modified, stating:

“Practically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food. There are no wild, seedless watermelons. There’s no wild cows… You list all the fruit, and all the vegetables, and ask yourself, is there a wild counterpart to this? If there is, it’s not as large, it’s not as sweet, it’s not as juicy, and it has way more seeds in it. We have systematically genetically modified all the foods, the vegetables and animals that we have eaten ever since we cultivated them. It’s called artificial selection. That’s how we genetically modify them.”

He then, in most objective scientific fashion, angrily tears in to the person asking the question by stating:

“So now we can do it in a lab, all the sudden you’re going to complain? If you’re the complainer type, go back and eat the apples that grow wild… they’re something that’s this big” [mimes tiny area with hands] “and they’re tart… they’re not sweet like red delicious apples. We manufacture those. That’s a genetic modification. Do you realize silk cannot be produced in the wild? The silk worm as we cultivate it has no wild counterpart, because it would die in the wild. So there’s not even any silk anymore. So we are creating and modifying the biology of the world to serve our needs. I don’t have a problem with that, because we’ve been doing that for tens of thousands of years. So chill out.” [Audience laughter.]

 

Here’s the problem: Not only did Neil deGrasse Tyson not actually answer the question, he actually spun the discussion in a completely unrelated direction, and then used his perceived authority and crowd support to shut down the questioner.

Go back to the beginning of the clip: The questioner doesn’t ask about genetically modified food. He asks about transgenics.

RELATED: The World vs. Monsanto: A Short History of the Battle Against the Most Evil Corporation on the Planet

The genetic modification that Tyson is discussing is plant breeding and hybridization. And yes, plant breeding dates back thousands of years—about 7,500, not the 10,000 that Neil deGrasse Tyson claims—to when farmers in Mexico created maize by planting the earlier crop teosinte and selecting for desirable genetic traits over the course of centuries. More recently—for instance, in the case of Norman Borlaug’s world-changing dwarf wheat—scientists have achieved laudable successes with hybridization. This is what Tyson is rightly claiming success for.

But that’s not what the millions of people around the world concerned about genetically modified organisms are worried about. And it’s NOT what the questioner asked Neil deGrasse Tyson. He asked about transgenesis, a process put into use in the 1980s by big agribusiness firms like Monsanto.

Transgenesis, specifically, is the introduction of foreign genetic material into a living organism. Monsanto has most often achieved it by ballistic DNA injection or “gene gun,” which blasts genetic material into undifferentiated plant cells in a petri dish— this destroys most of the cells, but usually leaves some that have successfully merged. Transgenesis can also be achieved using liposomes, plasmid vectors, viral vectors, pronuclear injection and protoplast fusion. Monsanto’s current preferred method of transgenesis is using the bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens to infect plants with desired DNA traits. Transgenesis can even be used to insert genes that code for pharmaceuticals into living organisms.

Monsanto currently uses transgenesis technology to produce its highly successful Bt and Roundup Ready crops—in the case of Bt corn, for instance, Monsanto uses a gene gun to blast soil bacteria into corn DNA so that, in the field, the corn produces its own bacterial insecticide to burst the stomachs of the insects that eat it. This, of course, is claimed to be completely safe for the humans who end up consuming the corn (but then, big agribusiness tend to be the ones funding the studies—and big agribusinesses like Syngenta have allegedly stalked and even threatened the families of scientists who uncover data they don’t want to hear about).

Other genetically modified products, like Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds, are modified so that they can be sprayed with pesticide and live while the weeds around them die. The pesticide glyphosate then remains on the plant.

Or goats engineered to produce spider silk in their milk. Seems pretty natural.

RELATED: 10 Foods to Naturally Protect Yourself From Fukushima Radiation

A man of Tyson’s intelligence and stature should surely know the difference between transgenic crops and hybridized ones. But that probably doesn’t matter, because whoever pays him has him reciting the same talking points on GMOs that are always used to shut down dissent.

In using these talking points, he echoes both Tony Blair and even George W. Bush, who declared in 2001 that “for thousands of years, man has been utilizing and modifying biological processes to improve man’s quality of life.” (from the Federal Register). As Bush Jr. was reiterating the same talking points that Tyson parrots above, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft and Bush Sr., all of whom maintained high-level ties to Monsanto, were preparing to invade Iraq, where they would issue the post-war document Order 81, forcing Iraqi farmers to ONLY buy registered seeds, primarily from Monsanto. Such is total war.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is not your friend—he’s just another shill for the Apocalypse Machine. Shame on him. To appoint yourself not just a public educator but a culture’s arbiter of reason, the one who decides what is real and what is not for the public mind, and then to vomit up corporate lies—this is treason to the science he claims to uphold.

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(For more on the battle around Genetically Modified Food, check out the Ultraculture book Monsanto vs. the World: The Monsanto Protection Act, GMOs and Our Genetically Modified Future.)

About Jason Louv

Jason Louv is the editor-in-chief of Ultraculture and has written for Boing Boing, VICE News, Motherboard and more. His books include John Dee and the Empire of Angels, Ultraculture Journal, Queen Valentine, Thee Psychick Bible and Generation Hex.

Comments

  17. otoarizalari.com says

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    most. As you curl up, your elbows pull again behind you, stretching
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    The cable rope hammer curl is a variation of the hammer curl, utilized
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    up to it steadily. To prepare both heads, I suggest starting with your favorite vertical pull.

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    In distinction, the brachialis is an easy muscle, which crosses
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    This is followed by the Pronated Cross Body Curl which emphasizes the brachialis.
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    Curl. One of one of the best big workouts for biceps is the Barbell Cheat
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    a standing bar curl with a cheat constructed into the motion.
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    to improve your biceps development. Keeping your elbows at your sides, bend your arms to twist the bar all the method in which
    toward your chin, holding the peak contraction for a
    second.
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    prepare at residence. Now by method of emphasizing the brief head,
    we merely reverse what we did for the lengthy head. Subsequent, if your long head is lagging behind, then what you want to do is
    start implementing workout routines that preferentially goal this head.
    Not Like the the biceps, the brachialis muscle solely has
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    by first prioritizing the brachialis and then working
    in your much less developed biceps head. Whereas the brachialis
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    too. The Incline Dumbbell Curl was talked about within the earlier
    part. When the place of the arm falls back behind the physique, we place a bit more stretch and stress on the long head of the biceps.

    Quite, you can add it to an arms workout with triceps or together with your back exercise.
    You might need to think about slicing it down and spreading
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    as very heavy masses with it, I counsel starting your biceps exercise with them
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    supreme for building an excellent biceps peak. With the preacher curl, regardless
    of the way you carry out it, it’s essential you utilize a manageable weight.

    You need complete management all through the movement and to curve the burden up using bicep power alone.

    You also can click the link to see the various bicep
    exercises for women that our team of experts created with females in thoughts,
    as properly as the other follow-along routines listed below.
    1️⃣ Rigidity in the Stretched Place – Exercises that place high mechanical rigidity
    on the biceps when fully stretched rank higher,
    as analysis suggests this leads to higher muscle progress.

    Pushups might help build biceps, however not in addition to workout routines
    like the Barbell Cheat Curl and Dumbbell Curls which particularly target the biceps.
    The first place is the Supinated Cross Physique Curl which
    allows us to preferentially hit the long head of the
    biceps.
    The T-bar row is a compound exercise however will make the most
    of excessive reps. For progressive overload, don’t really be too involved with being
    actual. Your main job is to just get a lot of volumes, so deliver it to an RPE9.

    Jacked Gorilla was founded in 2013, and started publishing bodybuilding complement critiques, and famous exercise routines.
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    However once you reach the top of the curl, plot twist, you rotate
    your wrists so your palms face down. Then, you decrease the dumbbells
    again to the starting position together with your palms
    nonetheless facing down. This switcheroo makes the Zottman curl a great train for adding
    muscle mass to each your biceps and forearms.
    Novice lifters should stick with a basic bicep exercise for essentially the most part.
    Whereas there’s no harm in attempting totally different workouts to see which
    you most take pleasure in, continuously altering your routine can really make your energy progress and bicep development stagnate.

    For band curls, shorten your rest intervals
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    Finally, you’ll be doing banded curls to burn out your biceps and target the slow-twitch
    muscle fibers that you just couldn’t fatigue with the heavy free weight work.
    The straight barbell might help activate the biceps, but it’s not
    the best software for folks with restricted wrist,
    elbow, and shoulder mobility. The curl bar’s design places your hands in a semi-supinated position, assuaging joint stress.

    So, most people’s strategy here is to spam their biceps with a bunch of various curls until they’ll barely
    raise their arms. However if you would like to maximize your biceps definition while you’re in the fitness center, then you
    can try our greatest bicep pump workout for a full routine.
    Similarly, growing your brachioradialis helps to
    fill the hole between your biceps and forearm extensors, which makes your arms look larger (and extra defined)
    when they’re simply hanging by your sides. You want equally well-developed
    brachialis and brachioradialis muscle tissue if you’d like your
    arms to look defined from each angle (who doesn’t?).
    Supinated curls are your best guess for building the biceps
    brachii.
    Lifting heavier weights to achieve bicep hypertrophy while preserving the wrists in a extra neutral lifting position. Begin with a lighter weight and full this move at the
    beginning of your arm exercise, so the biceps aren’t already drained.
    You’re higher off upping your reps and burning the
    biceps instead of adding too much weight and not
    with the power to complete quite lots of reps. Problem yourself with more
    weight on the barbell; due to your positioning
    and the burden distribution, you’ll most likely have the flexibility to carry extra.
    Concentration curls ought to be carried out two to 4
    times per week. We’re breaking down 10 bicep workout routines that can get
    you feeling swole, robust, and sculpted.
    This is ideal for those new to biceps training or if you
    favor a lower-volume strategy. This variation earns an S-tier ranking as one of the best bicep exercises for constructing
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    I place 21s in the B-tier as they’re a fun method to
    increase quantity and challenge your biceps, however they don’t provide the
    same effectiveness as other bicep workouts for hypertrophy.

    Whereas the standing dumbbell curl is not the
    best possible for isolating the biceps, its versatility earns it a spot in the A-tier.

    You can easily add variations to target both heads of the biceps, making it
    a helpful tool in your routine. The mixed grip curl combines an overhand
    and underhand grip, with one hand supinated and the
    opposite pronated, creating a problem for both the forearm flexors
    and extensors.
    Doing cable curls behind the physique shifts the emphasis of
    the exercise onto the outer biceps and minimizes the
    prospect of creating unsightly muscular imbalances. Constructing larger and impressive biceps
    requires extra than simply doing the identical bicep workouts over and over
    again. A barbell allows you to lift extra weight, nevertheless,
    the dumbbells present a full vary of movement and assist you to goal the back muscles effectively.

    Training gurus have lengthy taught the bodybuilding masses the logic of working a
    smaller muscle group such because the biceps after a larger muscle group like
    again, or triceps after chest or shoulders. Whereas that makes sense, if
    you’’ve ever tried that arm exercise with out previous it with a bigger muscle group, then you perceive how intense—and pumped—your arms can get
    when you prepare them alone. The chest and bicep exercise routine kicks off with bench
    presses earlier than moving to lighter isolation work.
    When it comes to constructing massive biceps and forearms, the rope hammer curl is an efficient isolation exercise that targets the brachialis and brachioradialis.
    Constructing a wide, thick, detailed again isn’t a new concept
    revealed completely to modern-day bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, and Phil Heath.
    Arnold, Franco Columbu, and others they trained with additionally knew the importance
    of the back double-biceps and lat unfold poses for profitable main competitions.

    It was the epitome of high-volume coaching, a method of figuring out
    criticized by most training consultants today as not permitting enough muscle restoration. In the next slides, you’ll see—body half by physique part—the actual workouts the
    Austrian Oak carried out whereas in the prime of his profession, when he was the undisputed king
    of bodybuilding. Some people argue that the barbell curl
    is a staple as a outcome of it’s easy to progressively overload.

    You must also prepare your biceps from totally different angles
    to make sure general improvement. Include workouts you’re
    good at and those you may have problem performing.
    Movements that make you cringe sign a weak point, which is holding your biceps from ballooning.

    This is perhaps the most typical chest movement, but once again it’s
    important to make use of proper form on this raise to keep away from the chance of damage.
    You can use these exercises to craft your personal custom routine, or you’ll have the ability to follow one of our
    pre-made bicep exercises for novices if you just want
    to get on with coaching. Adding curl bars to your train routine can help build greater and stronger biceps and
    triceps. Their unique form can even help you obtain higher ROM
    on exercises like bent-over rows and floor presses.

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