OMG, Toedtoes -- I had to do a little checking on that raspberry flavoring thing! This article might offer a little reassurance (and likely a good laugh) to anyone who has now sworn to never again eat anything with raspberry flavor ...
https://www.npr.org/sections/t....

I wouldn't expect everyone to agree with me, and don't care if nobody does. The number of people who agree with an opinion are not a reflection of the validity of the opinion. It is valid because it exists.

If others think it's a good idea to manufacture genetic anomalies, then that is what they think.

No opinion was expressed against earning a profit, as I've said explicitly several times. One can argue if society should be structured otherwise, but we live in a world where one has no food or shelter without $, so that is what is traded for effort in current times.

But when one seeks a profit at the expense of the health of some living thing, or in lieu of doing something better than treatment of symptoms vs. curing the actual disease, I'm against that. There's no reason to not seek a profit from something beneficial, vs. whatever it is that some scientists are doing. I am specifically saying not all, just some.

Yes, of course science does some good things. I don't remember anyone saying here that all science is bad, and can't say I've ever heard anyone say that anywhere. Quoting myself, "Science is great when it does something worthwhile."

Let's try an example. My profession uses info that could be used for nefarious purposes. If I spent the workweek ripping people off instead of making sure they don't get ripped off, it would be similar, to me. What if a farmer spends all of his time growing poison to sell to people who want to off their spouse instead of food to eat? The farmer is working hard, producing a crop, but the motivation is a negative one, not a positive benefit to society. And clearly criticism of that would not be criticism of all farmers or farming.

Comparing selective breeding, or purposely pollinating is not comparable to gene splicing. One can't pollinate a plant with any part of an animal.

"Organic" as a regulatory term has little to do with the basic meaning of the word, from what I've seen. Under that definition there is stuff that is put on food that I would never want to eat and would not want to put in the soil around my home. Slightly less scary than the other chems & cides, maybe.

Outside of being a regulatory term, "organic" simply means "of nature." There is a huge gulf between the two definitions so it can be difficult to discuss "organic gardening" without first agreeing on how the term is being used in the discussion. I wish we had more words to be more specific. Maybe we do and I just haven't met them yet. Nothing in the organic realm is related to a discussion about GMO.

On an amusing note, it's fun that the vegs are like Shaggy on the subject of "why are they doing this?" "Wasn't me" LOL!

purpleinopp said:
But when one seeks a profit at the expense of the health of some living thing

Isn't that what every farmer/rancher does?

Isn't killing animals for meat to sell "profiting at the expense of the health of some living thing"?

Isn't growing roses to sell for Valentine's day " profiting at the expense of the health of some living thing"?

Harvesting Christmas trees?

This is why I don't think there is a black and white answer to this. I stopped eating meat when I drove past a turkey farm. It was a HUGE barn and all you could see were all these beaks trying to poke out the vents. Personally, I think that is far more disgusting than a genetically modified tomato.

purpleinopp said:
On an amusing note, it's fun that the vegs are like Shaggy on the subject of "why are they doing this?" "Wasn't me" LOL!

There was an NPR interview with some scientists who made meat from cells. They specifically said that they are looking for an alternative way for meat eaters to get their meat. They aren't looking to cater to vegetarians/vegans.

Look at the Impossible burger ads. They aren't marketing to vegetarians/vegans, they're marketing to meat eaters.

Weedwhacker said: OMG, Toedtoes -- I had to do a little checking on that raspberry flavoring thing! This article might offer a little reassurance (and likely a good laugh) to anyone who has now sworn to never again eat anything with raspberry flavor ...
https://www.npr.org/sections/t....

Yeah, it's not quite as bad as I hyped it to be. But isn't hype a lot of the issue in this topic? 😁

Red food dye: https://www.bbc.com/news/busin...

The point is, what we consider "natural" isn't necessarily obvious. And here is an article on "natural flavorings" in general: https://www.healthline.com/nut...

Lucy68 said: Thank you for proving my point. I have been a vegetarian for over 50 years and never felt the need to eat something with "hamburger like texture."

Well, in my over 20 years of being vegetarian, I've had many veggie burgers and I can honestly say that the old standard "garden burger" or a "nut burger" tastes dry and bland and I will rather skip it altogether. But give me a soy patty or a portabella mushroom and I will happily eat my burger with everyone else - it's firm but juicy and doesn't feel like sawdust in my mouth.

But texture is a big thing for me. I won't touch coconut or pineapple because of their textures - they make me gag. Coconut feels like I'd imagine biting into maggots feels like.

And it's not a NEED, it is more of a preference. If I'm going to eat a burger, I want the overall sensation to be of eating a burger. I want the juiciness and the crunch of the lettuce, etc.

Just like if I want mashed potatoes, mashed cauliflower is not going to cut it - they don't have the same texture. Zuchini noodles don't have the same feel as regular noodles.

I never was a big meat eater to begin with. I preferred other tastes far more. But if I'm going to eat something that traditionally is a meat based dish, then I want that same overall texture/feel.

And no I'm not part of a "young affluent generation of consumers who are willing to pay big bucks to be vegetarians". I just want what I want.

My purple tomato update:
Plants are very robust growers, adapting to their pots easily, and growing large!



And blossoms!
Since they are cherry tomatoes, and I assisted mother-nature to assure self-pollination by flicking the blossoms-
We might have a taste test within the month.


Why in pots still?
It started snowing just before I took the picture and I had to haul them from the driveway to safety indoors.

My yard one hour later!

Any taste reports yet?

Mine is growing gangbusters (a foot taller than all the other tomato plants) but so far, no flowers.

How about you?

I'm not growing (at least not this year) but am very curious about it! I do have small green tomatoes on a few plants, mostly on the micro dwarfs.

I got my garden in over month later than usual so everything is behind. for a long summer. There are flowers, I'll have to go look for baby green tomatoes.

Lucy68 said: Mine is growing gangbusters (a foot taller than all the other tomato plants) but so far, no flowers.

How about you?

Mine is also looking very vigorous, no flowers yet; my first plant to have a tomato is Maglia Rosa (a cherry type).

I have lots of flowers and some baby tomatoes. I gave away my biggest plant-

sallyg said: If this is off topic, please ignore..soybeans with pig protein
https://moolecscience.com/
( but I feel as if any GM is in this conversation)

Hmm, transgenic food. No thank you.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

I hope that crummy tomato tastes so bad no one will ever grow it again.

TomatoNut95 said: I hope that crummy tomato tastes so bad no one will ever grow it again.

Wow. Did you not read the first post?
If I could downvote you I would.
If you have something to ADD to the conversation then do. Otherwise…

Iochroma said:
If I could downvote you I would.

Then ignore my posts if you don't like them.

None of us will ever agree 100% on anything but most of us can either say something polite or say nothing at all. We can choose to ignore you or you can choose to not interrupt conversations with childish comments.

Lucy68 said: …We can choose to ignore you or you can choose to not interrupt conversations with childish comments.

TomatoNut95 said: I hope that crummy tomato tastes so bad no one will ever grow it again.

THAT is a childish comment.