Why You Should Say No to SynBio "Ice Cream"

You would have to be a very brave robot to eat this.

I saw an alert from GMO Free USA that a new type of ice cream was hitting supermarket shelves. Only a few days later, I found this horror in the flesh at a nearby grocery store. This "ice cream" would be pretty special...you see, while most ice cream ingredients come from the ground or from creatures that eat grass, this one would come from elsewhere. It's the first ice cream ever to be made using synthetic biology. 

What is this mysterious synthetic biology? It's a new form of genetic engineering. According to genome.gov, "In synthetic biology, scientists typically stitch together long stretches of DNA and insert them into an organism's genome. These synthesized pieces of DNA could be genes that are found in other organisms or they could be entirely novel." If that's not sufficiently unappetizing, remember that synthetic means fake. Brave Robot is fake ice cream, and it's not the only brand to embrace these lab-grown proteins as a substitute for old-fashioned dairy.

Oh, and because synthetic biology is just different enough from the genetic engineering/genetic modification done to certain foods, it doesn't have be labeled as GE/GMO.

The concerns surrounding the use of this product are mainly centered on human health. You can see on the packaging that Brave Robot ice cream is lactose free, and "animal free," but it also contains the milk allergen. It's no secret that incidents of food allergies have sharply risen in the past few decades, as the prevalence of GMO corn and soy has increased in our farmland and in our diets. Allergenicity is a concern here. There have been no long-term safety studies done on this product.

Health issues are deservedly a significant concern here, but the argument I'm not hearing is: 

Why would we let the food industry elbow out farmers from the food supply chain?

I can't stress this enough. If you eat this product, it is not coming from farmers, and it could stand to impact the livelihood of farmers raising dairy cattle, and those growing nondairy products such as oats and almonds that are processed into vegan ice creams. Do we really want farmers to be out of work? Should farmers be in competition with chemical manufacturers? Do we want to eat things that weren't planted or raised, but grown in a lab after DNA was inserted into its genome? 

It might be one thing to walk away from the actual foods that God and nature have had us eating throughout the life of mankind, if we lived in some sort of nuclear holocaust of a world where plant and animal life was extinct...but we don't. Let's keep in mind that there is no shortage of calories or dairy in this country either. If you want an alternative to cow's milk ice cream, goat and even sheep's milk versions are available in stores. If you want a vegan ice cream there are many kinds made from coconut milk, oat milk, almond milk, soy, and more in regular supermarkets.

And robot ice cream won't save you money either. It was on sale for $5.99 for less than a pint. It was the most expensive "ice cream" in the store. There is simply no benefit from this and no need to have this experimental ingredient in our food supply.

Say no to synthetic biology in your ice cream. Also known as synbio or "Perfect Day."