Say "NO" to GMO!

There is so much misinformation going around about GMO's, it's terrible. Many of the American public are swayed by the fact that a leading promoter of GMO's is a corporation that has had a large share of notoriety in the past however it doesn't take away from the fact that GMO's are a wholly positive introduction to our world.

The ability to create stronger, more nutritious plants with MUCH larger crop yields and efficiency. People seem to have this absurd idea that GMO's = an evil scientist injecting a tomato with fluro chemicals but the process is incredibly safe and very intricate.

Aside from the benefits it has to the everyday consumer, it is terribly ignorant to fob them off as being bad when you come from a developed country. Consider under-developed countries with arid environments that do not take well to many crops. GMO's increase the chance of successful crops being harvested in a larger scale to be used for poorer communities so please do consider that.

Almost all (if not every?) current fresh harvest we have has technically been genetically modified, we've just become more clever and inventive with the things we can do to plants.

People have been "genetically modifying" crops since we started growing them thousands of years ago. Except it was slow and took many generations. Now we can do it in a lab and people freak out from it. It's really no different, only the process is sped up. Get over it.

Much of the problem with GMOs isn't even the modifications themselves (although mixing my food with bacteria that kill insects or with a virus just doesn't sound all that safe to me). One major reason they are doing it is to be able to use more and stronger herbicides and pesticides. They are spraying our food with more and more chemicals. Plus, cross-pollination is causing the weeds to become resistant, so they engineer stronger plants and use more chemicals, and the cycle continues.

GMOs save lives. You clearly didn't get all the information.

frootums wrote: »

No, they create SMARTER and more efficient pesticides & herbicides. You realize that organic produce uses pesticides too right? :P

If they were creating "smarter and more efficient pesticides and herbicides" why would they need to genetically modify the plants?
Yes, pesticides are a necessary evil. Without them too many crops would be lost. I still prefer a sprayed on pesticide that can be washed off over a built-in pesticide that's part of my food.

miriamtob wrote: »

If you watch the video in the link I posted above, she talks about the different patented seeds. There are seeds which will only germinate if they are fertilized with monsanto's fertilizer. This only profits the mega corporations, not the farmers or the consumer. Other countries are not allowing some of the modifications to food that we see in the US until they are proved harmless. Since the early 90's the FDA has been giving the go ahead to food GMOs on the premise that they are safe until proven dangerous. Many people with gluten sensitivity find that when they go to Europe, they do not react as badly to wheat products.

Did you know that there is little evidence that gluten sensitivity even exists?

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/05/gluten_sensitivity_may_not_exist.html
"when the placebo diet was identical to the baseline diet, subjects reported a worsening of symptoms! The data clearly indicated that a nocebo effect, the same reaction that prompts some people to get sick from wind turbines and wireless internet, was at work here. Patients reported gastrointestinal distress without any apparent physical cause. Gluten wasn't the culprit; the cause was likely psychological. Participants expected the diets to make them sick, and so they did. "

Did you know that Europe imports 1.1 million tons of US wheat each year?

No GMO wheat is currently on the commercial market.

miriamtob wrote: »

So, they splice soil bacterial DNA with corn DNA to make it weed resistant and fish DNA with strawberries to make it frost resistant. This would never happen on its own in nature. Scientific studies are often flawed especially when so many special interests are involved. Allergies and autoimmune diseases are on the rise big time. I know correlation is not causation, but show me a really good study on how safe GMOs are, please.

As far as I know neither fish nor soil is going to be killing me anytime soon.

miriamtob wrote: »

Since the early 90's the FDA has been giving the go ahead to food GMOs on the premise that they are safe until proven dangerous. Many people with gluten sensitivity find that when they go to Europe, they do not react as badly to wheat products.

There is no GMO wheat in production, anywhere.

mustgetmuscles1 wrote: »

tabarilla wrote: »

I am so glad I'm not the only one who thinks the whole "Hell No GMO" idea is ridiculous. If you are really worried about modified foods, why don't you attack something like high fructose corn syrup or other refined sugars? What about all of the artificial sweeteners that cause cancer and kill brain cells? And honestly, I don't have numbers, but I would hazard to guess that these refined and artificial sweeteners are killing more people in our society than GMOs. I don't know the validity of any of it, but I can tell you this - I bet that you would be a lot healthier if you worried more about your refined sugar intake and less about whether or not something is genetically modified.

But honestly, do not take one documentary or one scientific paper as gospel. You have to research many, many, many different resources to make an informed decision about these things.

You cant find them because they dont exist. Fear mongering about sugar and sweeteners is just as bad as fear mongering about GMO.

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/10/sugar_is_not_toxic.html

I would have to agree with you. Sugar is not toxic. I don't believe I ever claimed it was. However, if you eat too much sugar, it is really bad for you, and with a lot of refined sugar in almost everything (with the exception of whole, unprocessed foods), it is difficult to cut down on it. One of the worst things about sugar? It is addictive, which can lead to obesity and other related illnesses. And while artificial sweeteners have mixed results in their studies (which render them inconclusive), I don't see a need to take the chance, especially when you can easily avoid it, and use other, more natural sugars instead.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/health-effects-of-sugar
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/9987825/Sweet-poison-why-sugar-is-ruining-our-health.html

tabarilla wrote: »

mustgetmuscles1 wrote: »

tabarilla wrote: »

I am so glad I'm not the only one who thinks the whole "Hell No GMO" idea is ridiculous. If you are really worried about modified foods, why don't you attack something like high fructose corn syrup or other refined sugars? What about all of the artificial sweeteners that cause cancer and kill brain cells? And honestly, I don't have numbers, but I don't know the validity of any of it, but I can tell you this - I bet that you would be a lot healthier if you worried more about your refined sugar intake and less about whether or not something is genetically modified.

But honestly, do not take one documentary or one scientific paper as gospel. You have to research many, many, many different resources to make an informed decision about these things.

You cant find them because they dont exist. Fear mongering about sugar and sweeteners is just as bad as fear mongering about GMO.

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/10/sugar_is_not_toxic.html

I would have to agree with you. Sugar is not toxic. I don't believe I ever claimed it was. However, if you eat too much sugar, it is really bad for you, and with a lot of refined sugar in almost everything (with the exception of whole, unprocessed foods), it is difficult to cut down on it. One of the worst things about sugar? It is addictive, which can lead to obesity and other related illnesses. And while artificial sweeteners have mixed results in their studies (which render them inconclusive), I don't see a need to take the chance, especially when you can easily avoid it, and use other, more natural sugars instead.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/health-effects-of-sugar
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/9987825/Sweet-poison-why-sugar-is-ruining-our-health.html

Over consumption is a problem but modern people are eating to much of everything. I have not seen any evidence that " these refined and artificial sweeteners are killing more people in our society than GMOs."

The article talked about HFCS and how it is processed in humans.

miriamtob wrote: »

So, they splice soil bacterial DNA with corn DNA to make it weed resistant and fish DNA with strawberries to make it frost resistant. This would never happen on its own in nature. Scientific studies are often flawed especially when so many special interests are involved. Allergies and autoimmune diseases are on the rise big time. I know correlation is not causation, but show me a really good study on how safe GMOs are, please.

Lol, if we were just to abide by nature, then why create medicine or medical procedures? Why not just let people die naturally? If they have cancer, influenza, measles, etc. the "natural" way would be to just see if they survive it.
And yes studies that funded by special interests (ala Mercola) are flawed. That's why one should search out PEER REVIEWED CLINICAL STUDIES.

http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/articles/biotech-art/peer-reviewed-pubs.html

http://academicsreview.org/reviewed-content/genetic-roulette/section-1/1-1-pusztais-flawed-claims/

http://genera.biofortified.org/view/Řehout2009

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691511006399

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MTDDS18 wrote: »

What's so horrible about GMO's exactly?

Hopefully you don't ever need to take insulin, a genetically modified bacteria is used to make it.


eta: I don't mean to come off as snarky, but having my BS in biology it often gets me riled up when people attack GMOs and generally have no solid evidence backing up their claims other than biased documentaries and websites with an agenda.

Without GMOs there would be an even larger gap in those who go hungry and don't have enough food to eat. Farmers are being driven to grow more food than ever on less land than ever, without GMOs that would be impossible. Oh yeah, those fruits and vegetables you (probably) love, wouldn't be half the size without genetic modification.

by all means, be snarky, because you're correct and the arguments against are baseless and stooopid. similarly stooopid arguments against actual science are the reason we're having children die of diseases that we have vaccinations for.