Rennin

Rennet is used by cheesemakers (blessed be they) to curdle milk. Vox Day and other members of that side of the 'Web have noticed that most rennet is now a GMO. By Pfizer. BOOO

Er, except that this has been going on since 1990. Paul Shapiro recalls the 1980s movement toward less-cruelty against domestic animals, which forced food-producers to find alternatives. Once we got those alternatives, like fermentation-produced chymosin / rennin, nobody cared that this was GMO except Pfizer-haters, on the far fringe of Big Granola. Then came the 2019 lableak. Note that this leak wasn't even from Pfizer's lab; all Pfizer did was create a safe and effective vaccine against it.

What smarter nonleftists used to say in the 1990s, to the extent it was even on the radar (it wasn't on mine) was that synthetic rennet was a huge win for vegetarians (like me this month). We now didn't have to worry about animals being harmed for the product. At least - not as much; we take victories against cruelty where we can find them.

Not that Theodore Beale ever cared about cruelty, or basic honesty.

Having scotched one talking-point, I now have to ask if Pfizer still holds the "90%" chymosin monopoly we're being quoted. Shapiro lists some competitors here: some of them powerful (like Dupont) some smaller ("organic"?); some not even using chymosin. At least animal rennet is no longer the monopolist.