Many Americans are concerned that people and organizations like Bill Gates and the World Health Organization are trying to push weird diets of bugs or laboratory-grown “meats” on people. Now there’s another popular item that they need to be warned about before consuming it: Beer. A California company called Berkeley Yeast has been genetically modifying strains of yeast to alter the taste of beer.
The company says it has the ability to enhance or diminish certain flavors that are found in beers that are made from non-Frankenstein products. The company’s Tropics yeast, for example, has been altered in a laboratory so that it will make certain beers taste more fruity.
Berkeley Yeast adds that it’s been genetically modifying yeast strains to remove certain undesirable byproducts like diacetyl. That’s a product that makes a beer occasionally taste “skunky” or like something is seriously wrong with it.
The most annoying thing about this rush to create food in a laboratory instead of growing it naturally is that food companies never bother to ask consumers if we want our food and drinks tampered with. It’s also not encouraging that regulatory agencies don’t seem to care about the long-term health effects of this stuff, either.
Most people don’t realize that the “lab-grown meats” that are starting to appear on store shelves are actually created from cancer cells. Wouldn’t you just rather eat chicken that comes from a chicken?
A lot of consumers are wary about all of these genetically modified food products. Who could blame them? Tampering with the food supply without any safety testing seems like a way to make a civilization-ending mistake of some kind.
Fortunately, a lot of traditional brewers are snooty enough that they prefer making their beer the old-fashioned way, with real products. Consumers will have to watch warning labels on foods closely in the years to come if they want to avoid GM foods—or beers.
