Hammer and Pickle
2:48 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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I'll put my oar in on JW and Coffee's side here.
It is a generally good rule of thumb that the more you fiddle with a genome beyond a certain point, the less overall value you get out of a crop.
I know farmers whose prize crops are tomatoes of a very old and basic variety. Unfortunately, you simply cannot purchase the seeds any more. And yes, the tomatoes are delicious, though maybe not so large and so red and the bush may not yield such a large crop.
Also, has anyone mentioned how GM modified seeds have to be bought every year? In my gardening experience, the resulting plant bears no fruit. Same as if you sprouted an supermarket avocado pip, the chances are the plant would be sterile.
So I believe the corporations responsible for much GM policy like Monsanto and Cargill are a prime example of capitalism gone wrong.
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Joke Whole
2:30 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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norwaytips 10:48 Wed Jan 21
And I'll go back to my example of radiation: for almost a generation "science" was saying about radioactivity what it is now saying about genetically modified food.
A lion may mate with a tiger, a dog with a wolf and maybe even a sheep with a goat, but a cuttlefish share genes with a grape? I don't think so...they evolved along different paths that separated thousands of years ago, and for very good reasons.
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MrCrowmanSir
2:16 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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Also the possibility of cross pollination with other plants, that could become a real problem.
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Big Dave
11:02 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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I thought the issue was more to do with the effect on the environment and the possibility of cross resistance?
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norwaytips
10:48 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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Joke. That isn't how science works. If you make an assertion that something is dangerous, then you have to produce evidence. I think you are confusing two, very different, issues. GM foods are safe and there is no evidence; and never has been, to suggest that they are not. The other issue, is Monsanto and their herbicides and pesticides.
We have to eat and, to do that, we need to farm crops and animals. Every single one of them is and has been gene manipulated. This thread is about GM foods and, IMO, anyone that tries to say they are dangerous, are arguing from ignorance and talking bollocks. They aren't and never have been. Had the thread been about Monsanto herbicides and pesticides, I would have argued from another standpoint. I would also argue against allowing a patent on a gene, or a seed, modified with that gene.
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Coffee
9:58 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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Some really good discussion on this thread.
From the little I know of the subject, it seems - as Norway has emphatically pointed out - that there is no evidence that GM foods themselves pose any further health risk than their non-GM equivalents.
If that is true, commercial exploitation and changing ecology are the key problems.
It seems to me to be utterly and non-negotiably wrong for a for-profit company to own the rights to any agricultural product. The implications of that are just horrendous, and the world's food security would be severely compromised if that were allowed to happen beyond experimentation (i.e. in full-on commerce). This is where an organisation such as the UN *must* have ownership and responsibility.
Second, ecosystems are terribly complicated things. They are webs of interdependent relationships and to mess with them is to invite trouble further up the food chain, and elsewhere.
Mr Anon (5:13 Tue Jan 20) makes an interesting point: "At some stage we'll have to learn not to be so squeamish about GM food, our only chance to fend off famines in the future." The thing is, Mr Anon, there's also an argument that says that increasing food availability acts to increase population numbers. Take that further and you end up with a situation where the demand for food overtakes food production, so that while the famine risk you refer to has been overcome -- but only temporarily. The global capacity for food production is finite.
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Dapablo
9:41 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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There isn't an issue with GM foods, there is an issue with Monsanto seeds, two completely different issues.
I hear no-one saying that GM foods are bad it's not really part of the debate, the issue was and still is the chemicals GM foods allow the use of.
Farmers are sold seed that will accept Roundup as a pesticide, everything else living on the land is killed apart from the crop.
It's similar to the DDT debate of the sixties, farmers encouraged to nuke their fields by the chemical industry.
It's not about gene's at all.
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Joke Whole
9:30 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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norwaytips 6:07 Tue Jan 20
The process from inception/creation/discovery to market is the same - EXACTLY the same. the producers of GM food appear to want to cut out the required testing and go straight to market, effectively using the public as expendable Guinea Pigs: so long as they get the required returns on investment, they couldn't give a fuck if 1,000 or even 1,000,000 suffer - especially if they're not even proper Americans (as defined by them, naturally) living in a developed nation.
Add to that there's no actual proof that the process of cross-breeding cattle and plants (but not with each other) over 10,000 years ago did not directly result in fatalities, from which the domesticaters learned. We, today, only have the successful end results and I, for one, certainly don't wish to see the return of a trial & error system where human lives are regarded as mere collateral in the rush to profit..
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Westham67
2:26 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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I have no idea , US Evangelical nonsense . Genes cannot cross species, The don't even know yet if they can use farmed Human genes to change Humans
So if you eat GM celery you have as much chance of turning you green as non GM celery
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deanfergi
2:23 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLzELDt3d2I
Stuff like this could be why they are not liked or trusted by many...
maybe...
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deanfergi
2:17 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Cd2q8Jf6k
Oh, seems it's ok after all...!
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stomper
2:13 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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Collateral damage. Insects and weeds and thus the entire ecosystem.
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deanfergi
2:12 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6_DbVdVo-k
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deanfergi
2:07 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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http://www.naturalnews.com/040727_GMO_feed_severe_inflammation_pig_stomachs.html#
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deanfergi
2:05 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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http://earthopensource.org/index.php/news/60-why-genetically-engineered-food-is-dangerous-new-report-by-genetic-engineers
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deanfergi
2:03 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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http://gmojudycarman.org/new-study-shows-that-animals-are-seriously-harmed-by-gm-feed/
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deanfergi
2:01 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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http://rt.com/usa/gmo-gluten-sensitivity-trigger-343/
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deanfergi
2:00 Wed Jan 21
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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http://www.alternet.org/food/major-study-demonstrates-monsanto-gmo-corn-product-can-cause-damage-liver-and-kidneys-and
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Scraper
7:55 Tue Jan 20
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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Why would they possibly be bad for you? Same nutrients.
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HairyHammer
7:47 Tue Jan 20
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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norwaytips
I bow to your knowledge, i guess many do not trust things being manipulated even slightly i have absolutely no problem with it as i sadly but true eat any old shit sold at most supermarkets.
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cholo
6:36 Tue Jan 20
Re: Can someone explain why genetically modified food is supposed to be bad?
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In a recent survey conducted by Oklahoma state university, 80% of Americans said they would support mandatory labels on food containing DNA! Shows you how much ignorance there is on the subject.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/mandatory-labels-on-foods-containing-dna-80-of-americans-support-that-011915.html
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