Genetic Modification

GMO.

It is, for some people, a curse word/phrase.

I've not really cared whether something has, or is, a genetically modified product/organism, I suppose partly, because I'm a science fiction fan. Between the Augments, the Denobulans, and just seeing all the kinds of things that we have done with genes already that have made human lives more comfortable, I haven't seen what.

Besides the Augments. They're something wrong, at least in their tyranny. And Linnea of Stargate SG-1. She's kind of evil. And Hathor too. Yes, those are examples of when we don't watch ourselves with the progress we seek to make.

Alas.

The bananas we eat are Cavendish, which did not exist in nature. We made them that way in efforts of genetic engineering (though, because it's botany, we don't really think about it that way). I hear all kinds of things about "frankenfish" (though, like the origins of "corrective rape", this too is something I've not actively gone researching just yet) and how people hate the thought of them. I do think of that term as a charged buzzword people use to engender automatic despise of the idea (like Obamacare).

We genetically engineer viruses and bacteria to produce vaccines, mass-produce silk, and try to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes. These are all so we can be comfortable, or not die... Hell, we're all [eyeroll] living longer partly because of these things.

Is it more correct for genetic engineering to happen over millennia that to artificially give it a boost? Gregor Mendel kind of did that with his experiments.

My moderation wants to keep it in check, and I suppose after thinking about how moderate I am and how I want things in check, perhaps I'm leaning towards labeling. But people shouldn't care that it is a GMO, because there are plenty of things that are without the labeling anyway.