Why we need GMO

agthorn

New GM organisms could be patented so that life itself could become commercial property.

Patents have been issued on GM organisms since 1980. If you create something novel that doesn't exist in nature, then it is new patentable material.

lizzzylou

2. Roundup ready soybeans. Here the gene codes for roundup resistance, allowing the use of roundup to kill weeds. Weeding is needing, organic agriculture tills the soil, requiring a lot of work, fossil fuel and cause soil erosion. Alternative herbicides used have a much larger environmental impact. So benefit, higher yield, use of less toxic herbicide and less soil erosion. Downsides none that I can see.

Roundup ready corn & beans decomposion at a much slower rate. Plus some weeds are beginning to become immune to roundup & strong doses are needed when spraying

lizzzylou

IMO - People who have weren't raised on a farm, been on a farm long enough to understand all working components, or driven a planter - please leave this forum, your ignorance is annoying me :huh:

lizzzylou

I second this. The OP has entirely missed the negative social and economic impacts of genetically modified foods. Small farmers are increasingly being squeezed into difficult positions by large multi-national companies who now own huge portions of our food supply.

Actually if you read the Ag census data of 2007 - that's quite the opposite. The trend across the midwest is reversing & there becoming more farms with few acres....

lizzzylou

This goes beyond GMO. Monsanto is killing off our farmers and dominating an industry that can't survive under these conditions. Watch Food Inc.

Yes, yes! Blindly watch Food Inc, and be drawn in to their biased world. Forks Over Knives is a good one too. Also, George Bush actually flew the planes into the Twin Towers and Obama dropped the 2nd backpack at the Boston Marathon. Oh, and he orchestrated the Newtown Massacre to get us on his side for gun control. I saw it on YouTube.

Agreed, lets look at actual data - like maybe the Ag census data I said earlier :drinker:

MistyEE

IMO - People who have weren't raised on a farm, been on a farm long enough to understand all working components, or driven a planter - please leave this forum, your ignorance is annoying me :huh:

Pretty offensive....We all eat.
People should be able to decide for themselves and their families, what they consume. The food is not free. It is purchased.

Heck, I don't know anything about building automobiles, or how to process oil into gasoline or (insert any other form of industrialization here); yet we all use them or their products everyday. My ignorance of the processing, and their intelligence on the processing doesn't mean that they always choose the least harmful methods to the FUTURE. Profits seem to trump common sense and responsibility in the Business World.

BeachIron

I seriously wonder how some of you feed yourselves without stabbing yourselves with the fork.

Ophidion

I seriously wonder how some of you feed yourselves without stabbing yourselves with the fork.

Hey!! who says I don't stab myself with a fork.

BeachIron

I seriously wonder how some of you feed yourselves without stabbing yourselves with the fork.

Hey!! who says I don't stab myself with a fork.

You won't find me arguing with you there

bumblebums

I seriously wonder how some of you feed yourselves without stabbing yourselves with the fork.

Yep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KvgtEnABY

moontyrant

This goes beyond GMO. Monsanto is killing off our farmers and dominating an industry that can't survive under these conditions. Watch Food Inc.

I COULD watch food inc. OR I could do my own independent research and utilize my critical thinking skills. GMO aren't a perfect technology, but they don't deserve the demonization being heaped their way.

Nobody is "killing off our farmers". Farming as career sucks a lot, which is why people have been leaving that profession for over a century, including most of my family.

By the way, don't shed too many tears for farmers. It IS hard, unpredictable work, but the median income of farmers who do it for a living is over $75K which is WAY over the median non-farm income. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-well-being/farm-household-income.aspx#.UcBWe_nVBRY

Actually, suicide is prevalent in India among farmers because they cannot afford the cost of Monsanto seeds and they cannot afford to leave the farming industry. Monsanto is killing people in a roundabout way.

Christie0428

Why do I argue for GMO?

Umm, let me guess – you work for Monsanto?!?

…
What I, and many others have an issue with is not the idea of GMO but the WAY in which it is practiced. GMO seeds are for the most part non-heritage seeds, which means that farmers cannot lay a stock of seeds for planting next season, and have to purchase more, giving profit to the organisation that created them. Granted, this allows the seeds to remain pure (and not-crossbreed as I am sure the plants themselves will attempt to do given the way evolution works....), and it also allows the GMO organisation to remain in business -after all, a business model that simply gives away its inventions isn't much of a business model (aside from people like Trevor Bayliss that is...)

GMO is NOT a cure for World Hunger. It is a way of creating more resistant crops, fighting diseases and generally attempting to mount a defence against what could be argued the natural order of things. It is necessarily a profit-making industry, but it is some of the bullish tactics that many people find offensive.

^ Well said!

‘Monsanto Protection Act’ grants GMO juggernaut Monsanto full immunity from federal courts in the event that one of its genetically modified creations is found to be causing damage to health or the environment. Essentially, it grants Monsanto power over the United States federal government... sounds totally legit to me, you know the power to have full immunity because your crops are so safe. I am no scientist but does this not seem slightly nefarious.

Monsanto is nefarious at best! I avoid supporting them by avoiding product that use monsanto producted food (as much as possible). I don't think organic is always necessary, but unfortunately it is the only way to gaurentee you are avoiding GMO until foods are properly labeled!

BeachIron

IMO - People who have weren't raised on a farm, been on a farm long enough to understand all working components, or driven a planter - please leave this forum, your ignorance is annoying me :huh:

While I disagree with you specifically, I do understand your point in the sense that there seems to be a general belief that educating one's self on an issue, and considering the opinions of those more experienced and educated on a subject, is not necessary. It applies here as much as it applies to people who don't bother to listen to experienced weight lifters, dieters, runners, etc. before they form their opinions as to why a specific program just won't work for them. People would rather watch a "documentary" full of hyperbole and outright lies than to listen to calm and reasoned opinions.

agthorn

This goes beyond GMO. Monsanto is killing off our farmers and dominating an industry that can't survive under these conditions. Watch Food Inc.

I COULD watch food inc. OR I could do my own independent research and utilize my critical thinking skills. GMO aren't a perfect technology, but they don't deserve the demonization being heaped their way.

Nobody is "killing off our farmers". Farming as career sucks a lot, which is why people have been leaving that profession for over a century, including most of my family.

By the way, don't shed too many tears for farmers. It IS hard, unpredictable work, but the median income of farmers who do it for a living is over $75K which is WAY over the median non-farm income. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-well-being/farm-household-income.aspx#.UcBWe_nVBRY

Actually, suicide is prevalent in India among farmers because they cannot afford the cost of Monsanto seeds and they cannot afford to leave the farming industry. Monsanto is killing people in a roundabout way.

Well, the post you responded to was referring to the US. But farmer suicide in India predates GMO crops. "Agriculture in India is often attributed as gambling with monsoons because of its almost exclusive dependency on precipitation from monsoons. The failure of these monsoons can lead to a series of droughts, lack of better prices, and exploitation of the farmers by middlemen, all of which have led to a series of suicides committed by farmers across India." Two scholarly articles concluded that while the costs of Monsanto products may have been a factor in a few specific instances of suicide, the overwhelming cause was due to socioeconomic and weather related factors.

Big_Bad

Maybe we do, but they don't:



The world's population growth is currently on a trajectory where we will soon not be able to sustain everyone's food needs using traditional agriculture. In case you haven't noticed, problems in other parts of the world have a way of coming back around and biting the West in the *kitten*. I don't mind eating some meat substitutes and GMO yams if it means everyone else gets some, too.

Bahahahahahahaahaha!!!!! The argument that GMOs will solve world hunger is the most RIDICULOUS thing ever! Have you no sense of economics or even basic political systems? People don't starve because there isn't enough food in the world. People starve because of economic inequality. I'm betting someone has never looked into dumpster diving. We waste an incrdible amount of food in the US. Increasing crop yield will only lead to more waste, not put happy faces on sad bloated African children. So delusional.

hseipel12

IMO - People who have weren't raised on a farm, been on a farm long enough to understand all working components, or driven a planter - please leave this forum, your ignorance is annoying me :huh:

Thank you! As a farmer myself, it is really frustrating to read debates like this. I bet most on this board read one article, or talked to one person that is either for or against GMOs and that is what they base their entire decision on. Ignorance is a plague.

ninerbuff

Don't really see what the problem is here:

If one doesn't like GMO foods, then shop where they aren't sold. That takes care of the labeling issue. If one shops where there might be (more than likely will be) GMO in the product, then expect it.

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iAMsmiling

Thanks for the hogwash monsanto

See, I was actually hoping for interesting discussion rather than the monsanto haters just to reitierate that they hate monsanto without discussing anything. Oh well. Maybe I will just check back tomorrow.

Duh, don't you see? Monsanto is the antichrist and the reason anything BAD happens in the world! Let us crucify this one corporation on the cross of ignorance!

Wait, I'm still crucifying haliburton...I am so behind the times.

Joreanasaurous

IMO - People who have weren't raised on a farm, been on a farm long enough to understand all working components, or driven a planter - please leave this forum, your ignorance is annoying me :huh:

Thank you! As a farmer myself, it is really frustrating to read debates like this. I bet most on this board read one article, or talked to one person that is either for or against GMOs and that is what they base their entire decision on. Ignorance is a plague.

So by that logic does that mean that you are ignorant on everything that doesn't have to do with farmering?

Weeblessings

One of the many problems i have with GMO's is the fact they are effecting the bees and other beneficial insects. Our bee keeper said he and several other people he knows personally have see this for themselves. He raisies his bee hives by flowers and organic farming, he's had very few bees die off during the winter. His neighbor who is a crop farmer, AND a bee keeper, has had NO bees survive our MN winters since he started buying GMO corn. That's been for the last 8 years. This is one of the reasons why, if not the reason why Poland has banned GMO corn from being grown in their country, since they started to see their bee populations being effected.


I also have issue with the fact that people who held big important positions with Monosanto are now holding major positions within our government, to me that screams conflict of interest. Nor the fact that they will label their products. Regardless of where I stand on the GMO issue, it should be labeled, and let us consumers choose for ourselves what we want to purchase for our consumption. I hate not having all the information and being able to make an educated decision when I'm making decisions for myself or my family.

We can all agree that knowledge is power, and when we aren't being given the full story how can anyone be comfortable with making a decision?