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Are GMOs bad for you?

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Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I ran in to this so-called profit motivation when I researched the treatment of animals on the farm. A profitable farmer is one who produces healthy livestock. If the animals are healthy, they don't need antibiotics or growth hormones. Regular feed is a lot cheaper than hormones and antibiotics.

    Where you find illness and disease is where the farmer is a poor manager and is losing money. That's when corners will start to get cut.

    For crop farmers, they are going to be looking at yield. They will be looking at ROI, yield per acre, and suitability of the crop on their land.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
    megpie41 wrote: »
    I'm glad you all are so secure in your belief that the FDA couldn't possibly allow anything to harm you. You are completely allowed to hold that opinion, just as I am allowed to hold mine (although you all don't seem to feel anyone is allowed to differ from you).

    If gmo is 100% safe, why have so many counties ban it and ban the import of it?

    You are welcome to have your beliefs about the safety of GMO's. The only thing that I have seen questioned is what you are basing those beliefs on.

    Nobody on this thread has said that GMO is 100% safe. Hell, life isn't 100% safe and there are no foods (GMO or not) that are consumed today that are 100% safe so let's get realistic here. If a product has been shown to not cause harm 99% of the time, then I will quite happily consume that product - as MY personal choice, regardless of what the conspiracy/fear mongers of the world would have me believe.

    As to the ban of GMO in many countries - initially it was done based on flawed studies that even the EU (one of the most liberal and paternalistic organizations around) has repudiated. I don't have a good answer as to why the bans are continued given that scientific evidence does not support the position - maybe they have better lobbying efforts on behalf of the food producers than we have in the US. Maybe they simply believe the hype and have made it a part of their laws.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    megpie41 wrote: »
    I'm glad you all are so secure in your belief that the FDA couldn't possibly allow anything to harm you. You are completely allowed to hold that opinion, just as I am allowed to hold mine (although you all don't seem to feel anyone is allowed to differ from you). Yes...your response will be that I can't back my claims. I just don't see the point when you will just rip it to shreds anyway. Books, websites, first hand accounts....it's not good enough so I don't bother. If I name am author, you will say they are stupid. So why waste my time.

    If gmo is 100% safe, why have so many counties ban it and ban the import of it?

    Since not naming sources is making you look awesome
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
    ccrdragon wrote: »
    megpie41 wrote: »
    I'm glad you all are so secure in your belief that the FDA couldn't possibly allow anything to harm you. You are completely allowed to hold that opinion, just as I am allowed to hold mine (although you all don't seem to feel anyone is allowed to differ from you).

    If gmo is 100% safe, why have so many counties ban it and ban the import of it?

    You are welcome to have your beliefs about the safety of GMO's. The only thing that I have seen questioned is what you are basing those beliefs on.

    Nobody on this thread has said that GMO is 100% safe. Hell, life isn't 100% safe and there are no foods (GMO or not) that are consumed today that are 100% safe so let's get realistic here. If a product has been shown to not cause harm 99% of the time, then I will quite happily consume that product - as MY personal choice, regardless of what the conspiracy/fear mongers of the world would have me believe.

    As to the ban of GMO in many countries - initially it was done based on flawed studies that even the EU (one of the most liberal and paternalistic organizations around) has repudiated. I don't have a good answer as to why the bans are continued given that scientific evidence does not support the position - maybe they have better lobbying efforts on behalf of the food producers than we have in the US. Maybe they simply believe the hype and have made it a part of their laws.

    On average, a bottle of water is more dangerous than GMO vegetables or meat.
  • Sloth2016
    Sloth2016 Posts: 846 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Monsanto secretly runs the world (although their secrecy apparently isn't that good -- get better, Monsanto!). I believe that all Monsanto officers and directors also were members of Skull and Bones and, of course, are Masons.

    It all fits together really, first the flying saucers on the grassy knoll, then Elvis is falsely proclaimed dead, and now aspartame.

    http://www.npr.org/2011/01/02/132591244/our-brains-are-shrinking-are-we-getting-dumber
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    megpie41 wrote: »
    jdlobb wrote: »
    You can not be of the "opinion" that GMOs are bad for you. That is simply a misunderstanding or a delusion. You can be of the opinion that you think they taste worse than "natural" foods. That's subjective. But the nutritional facts of a food are an objective fact. You aren't entitled to opinions on objective facts.

    Yes I certainly can be of the "opinion" that GMOs are bad for you...it hasn't been proven 100% either way that they are safe or harmful, hence my stance of "I believe they are harmful". There are just as many studies that say they are harmful as those that say they are safe, so maybe you are "delusional" to think they are safe.
    megpie41 wrote: »
    jdlobb wrote: »
    Obviously. Since it's not backed up by a shred of empirical evidence.

    Oh how I love posting in these forums and getting wise crack responses for simply stating my opinions and beliefs. I feel like every post I make I must have fully cited sources...like being back in school.



    So people should just blindly believe each other just because someone says something as fact without backing it up? You claim that they are faking studies. That's a big claim and potentially slanderous. You can't say things as fact without providing proof especially when they are controversal and damaging. If it has come out the proof should be easy for you to cite.

    I don't bother backing up my "opinions" with Prof because every time I do in this forum I get told it's not scientific enough. I am not saying anything slanderous...I'm simply paraphrasing what I had read on other websites (and there are plenty).

    I find it funny that you guys will blindly believe a study the government/FDA puts out, yet you condemn all others.

    No where in my posting did I say people should believe what I say...I simply gave my opinion and clearly stated that at the end.

    Well no. What you are essentially defining is a logical fallacy.

    This is the same as stating that wearing blue pants on your head will cause cancer. How do I know you ask? Well you have not proven that wearing blue pants on your head will not cause cancer, hence the statement is valid.

    There is no evidence suggesting that GMO carries any more inherent risks that any other food product.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    megpie41 wrote: »
    I'm glad you all are so secure in your belief that the FDA couldn't possibly allow anything to harm you. You are completely allowed to hold that opinion, just as I am allowed to hold mine (although you all don't seem to feel anyone is allowed to differ from you). Yes...your response will be that I can't back my claims. I just don't see the point when you will just rip it to shreds anyway. Books, websites, first hand accounts....it's not good enough so I don't bother. If I name am author, you will say they are stupid. So why waste my time.

    If gmo is 100% safe, why have so many counties ban it and ban the import of it?

    Wanting to see evidence for your conclusions doesn't mean that we believe the FDA couldn't possibly allow anything to harm us. What a ridiculous strawman argument.
  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
    are you an anti-vaxxer too? what are your thoughts on chemtrails? how do you feel about floride in the water?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    megpie41 wrote: »
    megpie41 wrote: »
    jdlobb wrote: »
    Obviously. Since it's not backed up by a shred of empirical evidence.

    Oh how I love posting in these forums and getting wise crack responses for simply stating my opinions and beliefs. I feel like every post I make I must have fully cited sources...like being back in school.

    Saying monsanto wrote studies themselves and just slapped a scientist's name on them is not an opinion, it's a lie. And probably slander.

    Can you prove that it's not true then?

    Are you saying the emails that came out are made up/forged? Prove it with vetted sources. (You don't actually have to do this...just being like everyone else. You can't 100% prove they are fake just like you can't prove 100% they are real. You can't prove GMOS are safe just like I can't prove they are harmful. All the testing in the world can't predict what will happen in the future...hence the reason I choose to avoid them.

    Since you refuse to share your sources or where you heard these claims, we can't even be sure what emails you're referring to.

    Yet the burden of disproving the unsourced, unnamed claims is on the people who doubt them?

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    johnwelk wrote: »
    finny11122 wrote: »
    Well on mammal tests the subjects got cancer
    Citation?
    And humans are mammals
    So I guess it's safe for pregnant women to take thalidomide because it's safe in pregnant rodents?

    Or we shouldn't eat chocolate because it can kill a dog?

    Thalidomide is perfectly safe and good for morning sickness, so long as you get the correctly handed version. It's when you take the mirror image that things go south.

    To me, thalidomide is a warning. It was approved for human use before we understood it properly. Our eagerness to say "this is safe" resulted in great human suffering. How do we know we aren't making the same kind of mistake now?
  • wmd1979
    wmd1979 Posts: 469 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    The only websites I could find that tried to provide any "proof" that Monsanto has infiltrated the FDA in order to ensure their unsafe GMO seeds were approved, also had 9/11 conspiracy theory stories and anti-vax propaganda. And most were selling supplements. :neutral:

    Does it have the "Stevie Wonder isn't really blind" conspiracy theory on there? That one is my favorite, and I'm not going to lie, I kind of sort of feel like that one might be true.