Beaverstate

I try to eat a diet high in greens and low in red meat. Don't give much thought to GMO's. My laymans understanding is without GMO there is no chance of feeding the third world.

Speedwell

I was a vegetarian and strongly against GMOs for a while. It tied into my anti-government views in that I didn't trust the motives of "government scientists" and "their puppets" like Monsanto to be honest and ethical in their product development and what their real goals are. I now recognize this as paranoid thinking.

I think it's more realistic to say that not every GMO is going to perform exactly as intended, and that some may have unforeseen consequences, just as any engineer or product developer would say of any new product line that has never been used on a wide scale before. We can't know which GMOs are going to cause problems until they do, and we can't conclude that every GMO is dangerous just because some are. As far as the fear of being "guinea pigs" for the new technology, that has never NOT been true for ANY new technology, strictly speaking. Even the first stone knapper to supply a new sort of arrowhead to his tribe potentially affected the health and safety of his whole society, and impacted the local hunted animals to some degree.

I don't happen to like some of the tactics used by companies that claim intellectual property rights over the new organisms and use abusive tactics to "protect" those rights. But that's not a problem with the GMOs themselves. More of concern is the effect on other organisms and the biosphere generally. It's not easy to recall a GMO found to be a biohazard, though every effort should be made to do so.

I guess what I'm saying is that you can't write off the whole idea as flawed, or embrace it as a new hope, any more than you could "pharmaceuticals". Just as you have to judge a medicine by its effect on people and the relative risk of its use, you have to do the same thing with an individual GMO.

I deliberately didn't address the pointless and naive rantings of those who believe we shouldn't "play god". Show me your god first and then we can argue about what playing one even means. I'll just content myself with pointing out that we can only manipulate nature, not create it, and that we are ourselves natural and part of nature.

Pulaski

The "genetics" of "genetically modified" relates to DNA molecules that are in most cells in everything we eat, plants, animals, and fungus alike. My dinner of steak, chips and mushrooms does not cause me to sprout horns, my skin to develop "eyes", nor my toes to turn into mushroom caps, and the introduction of "foreign" DNA into any of my foods is not going to change the simple fact that tinkering with DNA does not mean that I am any more likely to develop any of the characteristics of the foods that I eat. That there is any media "traction" to this issue reflects very poorly on the quality of science education in American high schools!

Speedwell

Indeed. I didn't cover that because it's so SCIENCE FAIL I thought I'[d be insulting the intelligence of better-educated people

dakota44

Whether there are potential long term health concerns from eating GMO food, or not, is open to debate. But you can check this link to get an idea of what the real story is. The modifications in insecticide in genetic form. http://naturalsociety.com/monsantos-...-kidney-cells/

Or...Toxins implanted into GM food crops to kill pests are reaching the bloodstreams of women and unborn babies, alarming research has revealed.

A landmark study found 93 per cent of blood samples taken from pregnant women and 80 per cent from umbilical cords tested positive for traces of the chemicals.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...rn-babies.html

There are other concerns. As for corn, the modification was to make it resistant to the weed killer Roundup (also made by Monsanto so they had a vested interest in keeping Roundup as the spray of choice for corn fields) as well as resistance to certain insects, butterflies included. Can't speak for you but I do not know what genetic modification they made to accomplish that other than the infusion of insecticide directly into the plant, the infusion of the Bt gene directly into the seed. Bt was never intended to be ingested.

Bt toxins found in the blood tests o 93% of pregnant women tested and 80% of umbilico cords.

Their GMO manipulations have also caused super weeds to thrive as well as super insects that are now Bt resistant. http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philp...-super-insects

Also the tactic on the part of Monsanto to sue farmers and seed cleaners out of business (forcing farmers to buy new seed from Monsanto every year) is potentially risky, not to mention evil. Seed cleaning and saving have been the backbone of farming since farming began. Without it, food species would have disappeared, and in some instances, have actually vanished. If there are no more non GMO seeds for a specific food crop, and there turns out to be a problem, there will be no natural seed to replace them and therefore no crop.

"Monsanto has never been afraid to sue any farmer that they suspect of growing their patented seed, even if that seed arrived on the farmer’s property from a bird flying by or on a particularly windy day. Over the years, Monsanto has sued 410 farmers in more than 27 states, in some cases destroying generations-old farms. And while organic farmers struggle to keep Monsanto seed out of their crops, conventional farmers often find that they no longer have a choice about what to plant since 93-percent of soybeans and 88-percent of corn grown in the US now comes from Monsanto’s genetically modified seed. This domination has resulted in superweeds an extreme lack of biodiversity and skyrocketing seed cost for farmers, who are constantly vulnerable to legal action."

GeoffM

I remember that being a thorny issue in the UK as well. Natural crops can be overrun with unrestrained GM crops.

Nutek

I do not think I have much say in what I eat in any case, due to the complete mistrust I have in any labeling that applies to foodstuffs.
Considering the main source of protein in many foods is now suspect, the GM part of things seems a small concern.

Agree with all of this... Just have to watch out for Tribbles in your Quadrotriticale

Speedwell

There has never been any point in history where the food supply has been uniformly safe and trustworthy. Everyone in every set of circumstances has had to inspect their food and know where it came from. If anything we have more information and safer food today than ever before, not less.

ottotheboar

I recently planted about 2 acres of corn and a Soya bean / Cow Pea mix for the deer.
The cost of Round Up Ready corn is very high and you have to sign that you will not sell any for seed or use any for planting next year.
Here in Virginia there are two standard ways to grow corn.
Firstly you burn off the grass or whatever greenery is there with a herbicide which will prevent weed growth for the season or secondly you plant Round Up Ready corn which enables you to spray just Round Up which is less expensive.
I opted for neither as I am not a big lover of chemicals, we disced up a patch spread some manure and planted the corn use the cheapest seed at the local co-op, the same went for the Soya bean / Cow Pea mix.
So far it is looking good.

SultanOfSwing

Since genetic engineering is at the heart of botany, it's hard to find any plant that hasn't been genetically modified. Even cross pollination is genetic modification at the simplest form.

Fair enough, GMO might not be the best for you but I refuse to buy into the hype that it is outright bad for you.

I'm in the WGAF camp. I like eating junk food and all kinds of crap that isn't good for me but we all end up in the ground and I'm ****ed if I'm going to live an unhappy life eating a bunch of hippy rabbit food and not die well fed and satisfied

Nutek

kind of hard to worry too much when one of the best things in life is a Pickled Onion Monster Munch sandwich.

SultanOfSwing

I have never had them in sandwich form ...

I'd kill for a bag of those now though

Nutek

You have to squish it to make em stay in properly. (Works best with cheap sliced bread and anchor butter... for that extra burst of health).


Me too.

markwm

Well said: nearly every plant we eat is some form of hybrid and bears little resemblance to the plant originally found in nature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize

dakota44

There is a huge difference between hybrid plants like regular corn.. and plants that are engineered with a pesticide gene implanted (Bt), or a gene to resist weed killer (Roundup ready). Surprised that you cannot see that.