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Non-GMO foods aren't any safer or healthier

Caroline393
Caroline393 Posts: 71 Member
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm tired of hearing about how a food is so much healthier because it's "organic" or not genetically modified. And when I search for healthy recipes, all this stuff comes up about "GMO-free!" GMOs are safe, people!
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Replies

  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Just here to point out that exposing plants to mutagens like radiation is one of the methods of conventional, non-GMO breeding.
  • BodyByBex
    BodyByBex Posts: 3,685 Member
    edited June 2016
    Also true. Humans have been genetically modifying our food and animals since we quit becoming hunter-gatherers. Just look at corn, watermelon, and peaches as they are now and what they looked like wild and before domestication. The only difference now is that we can do what took hundreds of years now in a single generation. http://www.businessinsider.com/what-foods-looked-like-before-genetic-modification-2016-1

    Yes, @Caroline393. We picked AGRICULTURE! How could we pick AGRICULTURE?! We now have even LESS time for scoodlypooping!

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yocja_N5s1I?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9
  • marm1962
    marm1962 Posts: 950 Member
    marm1962 wrote: »
    I just hate all the misinformation and fear-mongering surrounding GMOs despite the FDA and numerous other organizations finding them completely harmless to consume. The reason patents exist is no different than for drugs- R&D costs are high, so for a certain amount of time after they are approved and available on the market, the company who developed them gets to be the only one selling and recoup their costs. That's what drives research and innovation, and I think it's fair. Eventually it will expire and other companies will be able to market their own versions. Secondly, scientists aren't just randomly splicing some genes together and hoping they'll achieve a result they like. They know exactly what genes they are removing and inserting and have a very good idea of what its effects will be. Thirdly, like someone said above, organic farming isn't nearly as sustainable as industrial farming is. It uses far more land and produces less food. They also still use pesticides- they just fall under different requirements, and some may not be any better for us or the environment. Genetic modification is also hugely beneficial to some third-world countries. Just look at Golden Rice. It was genetically engineered to bio-synthesize beta-carotene to help combat vitamin A deficiencies which kill about 670,000 children under the age of 5 annually. And the "evil" Monsanto (as I've heard it described so many times) gives it to subsistence farmers for free and allows them to keep the seed for replanting, free of royalties.

    So I think there's huge opportunity for GMOs to fight malnutrition and starvation around the world, if people would stop being so afraid and uninformed. By all means, know what's in your food, but get good information from reliable sources. I have no issues with GMO products being labeled except for the fact that it's likely to hurt sales for those products in this current climate of fear.

    Yes, because the FDA is never wrong, that's why several years down the road a drug that was passed by the FDA is recalled because it causes severe health issues. Just sayin'....

    If you live by that, you can't eat anything because it might turn out years down the road that it's not healthy. Even fruits and veggies. Too much fiber might increase risk of colon cancer for example. Just sayin'...

    I don't go by any of it, I was just saying that the FDA can be wrong...mainly because the companies that want the product to go through have lied through their teeth, but the FDA does not do any testing of their own so the statement above saying that they have found GMO's to be completely safe is not something that gives me great comfort.
  • Caroline393
    Caroline393 Posts: 71 Member
    @gogoyubarino Right, much of the issue is a distribution problem. And a lot of the waste stems from the result of heavy regulations on when food must be sold by. Grocery stores have to throw out tons of perfectly edible food all the time because of that. I think somewhere in Europe they've either relaxed regulations or passed new legislation saying stores must donate unsold, unspoiled food to food banks or something like that, which I think is a good step to take.

    However, the world's population is expected to reach 9.5 billion people by 2050 (according to the UN), and that means somehow we're going to have pretty much double food output while using about the same amount of land that we do now. How are we going to do that? Well, Monsanto is developing drought-resistant strains of corn and wheat, which make up the large portion of people's diets around the world and account for half the calories they consume. They are donating these genetic markers and breeding resources to several drought-prone African countries who sometimes suffer from total crop failures due to drought.

    GM crops and other biotech advances will undoubtedly play a huge part in being able to increase global food output. And if that technology can be shared with the people who need it the most, then that will help alleviate the distribution problem as well.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    ... it's "organic" or not genetically modified.

    You do appreciate that organic <> not genetrically modified, they are different things.

    Whilst I acknowledge that artificially modified foods are as safe to consume as breeding modified foods, I do have some open questions about the wider impact on the environment and the business practices exhibited by suppliers. That said I'd note a significant difference between the agriculture industries in the UK and the US, both requiring significant state aid, but somewhat less monoculture in the UK.


  • joeneely71
    joeneely71 Posts: 49 Member
    And this is funny (copied from a post above): you know what I am really tired of? This whole 'wash your hands to prevent disease' trend.