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Non-GMO foods aren't any safer or healthier
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@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.4 -
samwiserabbit wrote: »
Plus, there's the social and economic ramifications of things like patented organisms, which sounds harmless at first, but there are deep and insidious impacts on farmers personally, the security of our food future, the balance of the economy, and the health of the biosphere.
I would advise you to hear opinions of real farmers and food producers. Many of them tried organic production and found it unsustainable.
Knowing how round up works and how it saves fields from use of herbicides, having crops that are pest resistant and therefore eliminating the use of pesticides these are the things that can secure our future and feed the world.
Not to mention some organic practices are much worse than conventional farming, just to mention not using antibiotics in animals...
This is going to sound like a line, but it's true: Some of my best friends are farmers and food producers, mostly organic, but not totally. It sounds like yours are, too. Cool. And cool that they tried organic.
Also, Round Up (by Monsanto) is an herbicide, that's why crops are bred or genetically modified (by Monsanto) to be resistant to it, so farmers can use a lot of it on their fields to kill the undesired vegetation without affecting the crop. Sorry to pick on one little word, though, maybe I misunderstood.5 -
I'm tired of hearing about how GMO's are completely safe.
But I guess it does make sense, I mean why would the people making a huge profit off of them lie to us?
Why should they have to prove they are safe, I mean it's only FOOD and the environment.
you know what I am really tired of? This whole 'wash your hands to prevent disease' trend.
Actually, profit margins on food production are pretty narrow, which is one of the big reasons that so much of it has been consolidated into high volume operations. If you can only make a small profit on a product, the only way to increase income is to sell more product.
But no one ever seems to ask, "why would anyone who makes money by producing and selling food go out of their way to deliberately sell products that sicken and kill their customers?" If your business relies on volume to make money, shrinking your customer base is a poor business move. They have a lot more to lose than to gain by pushing unsafe food onto the market.
There's a huge logic disconnect with those who claim conspiracies to profit by selling poison as food. That disconnect seems to stem from a failure to grasp fundamental economics.15 -
Caroline393 wrote: »... 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.
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Does the anti-gmo crowd realize that many organic seeds are patented as well? And that organic uses pesticides as well, such as copper sulfate?10
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There is a difference between selectively breeding/developing/hybridizing and genetically modifying. Not all gmo's are bad, but I prefer to avoid them when possible.5
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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.4
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joeneely71 wrote: »There is a difference between selectively breeding/developing/hybridizing and genetically modifying. Not all gmo's are bad, but I prefer to avoid them when possible.
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I'm a GMO. You're a GMO. All your foods are GMOs. Some were modified faster but what does that matter? The only reason you fear GMOs is scientific illiteracy.12
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I'm tired of hearing about how GMO's are completely safe.
But I guess it does make sense, I mean why would the people making a huge profit off of them lie to us?
Why should they have to prove they are safe, I mean it's only FOOD and the environment.
you know what I am really tired of? This whole 'wash your hands to prevent disease' trend.
Why do they need to prove something safe when there's no logical or scientific evidence to suggest they aren't?9 -
joeneely71 wrote: »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.
As long as you aren't tired of the "Was your hands after you take a leak" trend...
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joeneely71 wrote: »There is a difference between selectively breeding/developing/hybridizing and genetically modifying. Not all gmo's are bad, but I prefer to avoid them when possible.
One of the non-GMO ways of breeding is exposing a plant to chemicals or radiation to induce mutation.
They aren't even always labeled as such. You might be nomming on something derived that way right now, with a big colorful sticker on it saying "GMO FREE!".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding
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Caroline393 wrote: »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!
What is the long term proof that they are safe? I am guessing many or most are close enough to what we would eat in nature to not mess with our health, but all of it? I tend to avoid GMOs if I have a choice. Same goes for organic.
I have a good friend who was suffering with an autoimmune disease that basically paralyzed part of her face. She is an ICU nurse who had to stop working for a while because her eye slumped closed and she couldn't see to work. She took steroids to help with it for years. She was a big believer in medicine to fix things but it couldn't fix her. She eventually stopped the steroids and revamped her food and environment. She switched to only whole, organic, non-GMO foods which eventually put her disease into remission for the last 14 years. For her, GMO and non-organic were affecting her health in an obvious way. For others it may be less obvious or not at all, but I can't agree with a blanket statement that (all) GMO and not organic foods are safe (for all).
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I prefer eating GMOs, even ones grown with the use of Roundup, to eating organic crops grown with copious amounts of the "natural" pesticides that are permitted in certified organic farming.2
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I'm tired of hearing about how GMO's are completely safe.
But I guess it does make sense, I mean why would the people making a huge profit off of them lie to us?
Why should they have to prove they are safe, I mean it's only FOOD and the environment.
Actually, only GMOs are studied for safety. It takes a decade, or more, to bring a GM crop to market, because of multiple safety studies required by the FDA, USDA, and EPA. It's your non-GMO crops that don't have to be proven safe, even if they're genetically modified by conventional means.9 -
Caroline393 wrote: »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!
What is the long term proof that they are safe? I am guessing many or most are close enough to what we would eat in nature to not mess with our health, but all of it? I tend to avoid GMOs if I have a choice. Same goes for organic.
I have a good friend who was suffering with an autoimmune disease that basically paralyzed part of her face. She is an ICU nurse who had to stop working for a while because her eye slumped closed and she couldn't see to work. She took steroids to help with it for years. She was a big believer in medicine to fix things but it couldn't fix her. She eventually stopped the steroids and revamped her food and environment. She switched to only whole, organic, non-GMO foods which eventually put her disease into remission for the last 14 years. For her, GMO and non-organic were affecting her health in an obvious way. For others it may be less obvious or not at all, but I can't agree with a blanket statement that (all) GMO and not organic foods are safe (for all).
With all respect to your friend's health issues, I really doubt GMOs were a contributing factor if she's been in remission for 14 years. They weren't all that common yet during the time of her illness, and she would have primarily consumed them as corn or soy additives in processed foods. The switch to whole foods (and therefore a nutrient-dense diet) probably had the greatest impact on her health.
Which GMOs do you have concerns about? There aren't that many varieties available that are approved for sale and consumption, and the ones that are have been extensively examined. I'd really like to understand some of the fear that they're unsafe beyond "We just don't know." Is 20 years not a long enough assessment period? Are the newer ones of more concern because we've had less time to see what will happen?10 -
lilaclovebird wrote: »Caroline393 wrote: »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. We picked AGRICULTURE! How could we pick AGRICULTURE?! We now have even LESS time for scoodlypooping!
LOL Great video!0 -
mskessler89 wrote: »Caroline393 wrote: »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!
What is the long term proof that they are safe? I am guessing many or most are close enough to what we would eat in nature to not mess with our health, but all of it? I tend to avoid GMOs if I have a choice. Same goes for organic.
I have a good friend who was suffering with an autoimmune disease that basically paralyzed part of her face. She is an ICU nurse who had to stop working for a while because her eye slumped closed and she couldn't see to work. She took steroids to help with it for years. She was a big believer in medicine to fix things but it couldn't fix her. She eventually stopped the steroids and revamped her food and environment. She switched to only whole, organic, non-GMO foods which eventually put her disease into remission for the last 14 years. For her, GMO and non-organic were affecting her health in an obvious way. For others it may be less obvious or not at all, but I can't agree with a blanket statement that (all) GMO and not organic foods are safe (for all).
With all respect to your friend's health issues, I really doubt GMOs were a contributing factor if she's been in remission for 14 years. They weren't all that common yet during the time of her illness, and she would have primarily consumed them as corn or soy additives in processed foods. The switch to whole foods (and therefore a nutrient-dense diet) probably had the greatest impact on her health.
Which GMOs do you have concerns about? There aren't that many varieties available that are approved for sale and consumption, and the ones that are have been extensively examined. I'd really like to understand some of the fear that they're unsafe beyond "We just don't know." Is 20 years not a long enough assessment period? Are the newer ones of more concern because we've had less time to see what will happen?
Yet as you said, corn and soy are in many processed products. I do agree that whole orgainc foods probably made the greatest impact.
My concerns are mainly because we just don't know. I don't want to experiment on myself and my family.1 -
mskessler89 wrote: »Caroline393 wrote: »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!
What is the long term proof that they are safe? I am guessing many or most are close enough to what we would eat in nature to not mess with our health, but all of it? I tend to avoid GMOs if I have a choice. Same goes for organic.
I have a good friend who was suffering with an autoimmune disease that basically paralyzed part of her face. She is an ICU nurse who had to stop working for a while because her eye slumped closed and she couldn't see to work. She took steroids to help with it for years. She was a big believer in medicine to fix things but it couldn't fix her. She eventually stopped the steroids and revamped her food and environment. She switched to only whole, organic, non-GMO foods which eventually put her disease into remission for the last 14 years. For her, GMO and non-organic were affecting her health in an obvious way. For others it may be less obvious or not at all, but I can't agree with a blanket statement that (all) GMO and not organic foods are safe (for all).
With all respect to your friend's health issues, I really doubt GMOs were a contributing factor if she's been in remission for 14 years. They weren't all that common yet during the time of her illness, and she would have primarily consumed them as corn or soy additives in processed foods. The switch to whole foods (and therefore a nutrient-dense diet) probably had the greatest impact on her health.
Which GMOs do you have concerns about? There aren't that many varieties available that are approved for sale and consumption, and the ones that are have been extensively examined. I'd really like to understand some of the fear that they're unsafe beyond "We just don't know." Is 20 years not a long enough assessment period? Are the newer ones of more concern because we've had less time to see what will happen?
Yet as you said, corn and soy are in many processed products. I do agree that whole orgainc foods probably made the greatest impact.
My concerns are mainly because we just don't know. I don't want to experiment on myself and my family.
I don't think it's fair or reasonable to blame GMOs when we DO know a nutrient-poor diet can cause health issues but DON'T have any good evidence that GMOs cause problems.
Do you (not just you, but everyone who's anti-GMO) feel safer eating crops that have been mutated through radiation? Organic fruit and veggies that don't disclose the quantity of pesticides they use? I'm genuinely curious, GMO seems like a very selective fear to me when there's all sorts of other issues with farming that need to be tackled.0 -
Most of the scientists that I know that do this type work are people just like you and me. They eat the same food we do. Want their kids and families to be healthy etc. I know there is nothing sinister going on. What amazes me is that the some of the people who raise the biggest stink about the GMOs don't don't think twice about drinking alcohol. Alcohol is a toxin to your system. Most of the "special diet" people in my family won't eat this that or the other thing but have minimum three to four glasses of wine. Guess it's easy to do without your favorite foods when you are sloshed. I don't have that luxury.9
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