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Comment by jrkelly | Hacker News Reader

The very first commercial application of GMOs was recombinant insulin for diabetics. Followed by a slew of other drugs - GMOs now make 50% of drugs (all the protein ones). The agriculture applications came 5-10 years later as plants were harder to engineer than microbes.

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Other examples: The enzymes in washing powders are generally produced by GM bacteria, too, together with the chymosin needed for cheese production.

There used to be a GM-tomato called FLAVR SAVR about 15 years ago, which had direct benefits to end customers = the tomatoes stayed fresh longer. Public opposition out of fear killed it (also a good lesson: don't give flashy, technical names to food).

http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu/landingpage.cfm?artic...

Also, GMO tomatoes have poor flavor and too taut a texture…

I'd like to see the citation on that (there are no GM tomatoes on the market), I'd also like to add that the 'watery', huge, flavour-poor tomatoes you often get in Europe have been created by traditional non-GM breeding: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/06/2...

There have been efforts to create GM-tomatoes with better taste, here's one example from 2007: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gm-tomato-tastes-b...

Citation: my taste buds.

So where are you getting the GM tomatoes?

Shockingly, I was alive in the mid-90s :) It's also a given that any GMO tomato would be a hybrid, a.k.a. a cardboard-esque rubber ball. A little experience and common sense can go a long way in determining something's flavor (lol)!

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

My girlfriend is diabetic. Her mom is pretty stereotypical anti-GMO hippie type. To me, the irony is delicious.

Course, then I realize that my girlfriend's mom is essentially anti- her living and it stops being funny

Yeah, for diabetics that was a major revolution. A simple explanation on how it is done here: http://www.iptv.org/exploremore/ge/what/insulin.cfm

Glargine is one of the key recombinant products out there.

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