GM foods

[ríomhaire]

There seems to be some fear of genetically modified foods in this country. It's not a religious thing. People don't seem to think it's an afront to God or anything, just that there is a wrongness associated with it. I don't understand this at all. Is it just a fear of the unknown or what? What are people's attitudes in other parts of the world?

 

[Stigmata]

Personally, I'm just a bit skeptical that GM foods are/will be 100% safe. Genetics is an incredibly complex field of study, and just because a GM strain of corn (for example) looks and behaves exactly like natural corn, doesn't mean that it's perfectly safe. We all know how bad... unforeseen consequences... can be.

That being said, I don't really have a problem with its existence or my consumption of it. I'm just on the lookout for zombie corn, is all.

 

[Blackthorn]

The main danger of GM food is that you're basically creating new life that may have dangers that we know nothing about. We know what is/is not safe to eat from thousands of years of trial and error, throw something new into the mix and you have no idea what you might be messing up for our own bodies and the ecosystem the plants are grown in. New toxins, allergens, and questionable nutritional quality make them tricky business. Also I don't think anyone's gonna trust GM food when the main producer is the Monsanto Company.

 

[Stigmata]

The main danger of GM food is that you're basically creating new life that may have dangers that we know nothing about. We know what is/is not safe to eat from thousands of years of trial and error, throw something new into the mix and you have no idea what you might be messing up for our own bodies and the ecosystem the plants are grown in. New toxins, allergens, and questionable nutritional quality make them tricky business. Also I don't think anyone's gonna trust GM food when the main producer is the Monsanto Company.

QUIT FEAR-MONGERING YOU CONSPIRACY THEORIST

i just want to eat my vegetables in peace

 

[Blackthorn]

I'm not theorising, I'm fact...ising...

Edit: To anyone not familiar with Monsanto, there's an interesting article here detailing their activities. The part describing their use of terminator genes is especially intimidating.

 

[CyberPitz]

Who's to say over long periods of eating the GM food, we start to grow crazy ass mind controlling parasites?

NOTHING!

 

[Darkside55]

Do we control the parasites or do the parasites control us? Because I could certainly go for commanding a horde of mind-control worms that come out of my body.

 

[giant384]

*first thought i had*

"Gm makes food now?"

 

[Saturos]

The main danger of GM food is that you're basically creating new life that may have dangers that we know nothing about. We know what is/is not safe to eat from thousands of years of trial and error, throw something new into the mix and you have no idea what you might be messing up for our own bodies and the ecosystem the plants are grown in. New toxins, allergens, and questionable nutritional quality make them tricky business. Also I don't think anyone's gonna trust GM food when the main producer is the Monsanto Company.

Except they aren't creating life, just manipulating life.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

There seems to be some fear of genetically modified foods in this country. It's not a religious thing. People don't seem to think it's an afront to God or anything, just that there is a wrongness associated with it. I don't understand this at all. Is it just a fear of the unknown or what? What are people's attitudes in other parts of the world?

It's the same in this country. People are always naturally distrusting of things that are new. Give it time.

 

[Blackthorn]

Except they aren't creating life, just manipulating life.

My point is still valid.

It's the same in this country. People are always naturally distrusting of things that are new. Give it time.

Or, don't. Genetic modification gives multinationals far too much control over the crop. And once it contaminates the wider seed, it could **** up the crops of the farmers who choose not to use GM. Our crops have taken thousands of years to perfect, make drastic changes to them in just a couple is very risky. The economy relies far too much on farming, especially in poorer countries, to take this kind of gamble. And it's in these poorer countries, such as India, where these grains are being tested with disastrous results. Don't just think about price and convenience, look at the wider picture.

 

[99.vikram]

Mosanto's terminator genes are pure undiluted evil. That's all I know about this subject.

 

[Sulkdodds]

My point is still valid.

Or, don't. Genetic modification gives multinationals far too much control over the crop. And once it contaminates the wider seed, it could **** up the crops of the farmers who choose not to use GM. Our crops have taken thousands of years to perfect, make drastic changes to them in just a couple is very risky. The economy relies far too much on farming, especially in poorer countries, to take this kind of gamble. And it's in these poorer countries, such as India, where these grains are being tested with disastrous results. Don't just think about price and convenience, look at the wider picture.

This is my worry: allowing companies like Monsato to literally own the necessities of life itself. Private interests in the UK can own gene sequences.

Furthermore, while various PR deceptions have been working in overdrive for the last decade, there has still not been sufficient testing (to my knowledge). Not to mention the scandallous way in which GM foods have been continually pushed upon the public. This article is revealing...

Two years ago, the Roushes planted just over a quarter of their fields with the company?s herbicide-resistant soya. Though they recorded precisely what they planted where, and though an independent crop scientist has confirmed their account, Monsanto refuses to accept that the Roushes did not deploy its crops more widely. It is now demanding punitive damages for the use of seeds they swear they never sowed. The Roushes maintain that they are, in effect, being sued for not buying the company?s products. So next year, like hundreds of other frightened farmers, they will plant their fields only with Monsanto?s GM seeds.

In April, a Canadian farmer called Percy Schmeiser was forced to pay Monsanto some $85,000, after a court ruled that he had stolen Monsanto?s genetic material. Schmeiser maintained out that the thinly-spread GM rape plants on his farm were the result of pollen contamination from his neighbour?s fields, and he had done all he could to get rid of them. But Monsanto?s proprietary genes had been found on his land whether he wanted them or not. Following the time-honoured convention that the polluted pays, Mr Schmeiser was forced to compensate the company for what he insists was invasion by its vegetable vermin.

Biotech companies have been pressing to raise Europe?s legal limit for the contamination of conventional crops with modified genes: in time, they hope, genetic pollution will ensure that there is so little difference between GM and ?non-GM? food that consumers will give up and accept their products. The US government has begun pressing for a worldwide ban on the labelling of GM food, to ensure that consumers have no means of knowing what they?re eating.

 

[Baserape>]

9 out of 10 bee's prefer natural, non GM produce.