GMOs

[IHateMyJob2004]

Are people really afraid of them because they think that consuming them is bad for their health?

I always thought it was due to some moral obligation or concern for the effects on the environment.

Really?

 

[Markbnj]

Because people are afraid of what they don't understand, and that fear is constantly nourished by loud people with agendas.

News, apparently: everything we eat is genetically modified through selective breeding, at least. None of it is remotely "natural."

 

[imagoon]

Because people are afraid of what they don't understand, and that fear is constantly nourished by loud people with agendas.

News, apparently: everything we eat is genetically modified through selective breeding, at least. None of it is remotely "natural."

I love bring this up, it makes them so angry...

Horses, cows, pigs, corn, wheat, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cats and dogs are just to list a tiny selection of "GMOs."

 

[WelshBloke]

Are people really afraid of them because they think that consuming them is bad for their health?

I always thought it was due to some moral obligation or concern for the effects on the environment.

Really?

I get the impression that it's more of a deep distrust of Monsanto and their motives and trying to avoid giving them even more control over the food supply.

 

[TheSlamma]

I just hate supermarkets in general. Too much access to food, too many fatties.

We need way less fatties on earth.

 

[TheSlamma]

I get the impression that it's more of a deep distrust of Monsanto and their motives and trying to avoid giving them even more control over the food supply.

Wait.. corporations and police walk on water though

 

[Smoblikat]

I get the impression that it's more of a deep distrust of Monsanto and their motives and trying to avoid giving them even more control over the food supply.

Thats what it is for me. I do not trust the companies that modify the foods, therefore I will not ingest the food.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Learn to hate them and you will swim in pussy.

 

[z1ggy]

I read back in 70s there was an article published, that was pretty biased and unjust in concluded GMOs were bad for you.

I don't think it's really been scientifically shown that they are "bad" for your health. Maybe it has and I just need to be educated.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I get the impression that it's more of a deep distrust of Monsanto and their motives and trying to avoid giving them even more control over the food supply.

While I don't agree with some of what Monsanto does, alot of the issues people have with that company is just stupid and doesn't align with reality.

 

[Brainonska511]

Because people are afraid of what they don't understand, and that fear is constantly nourished by loud people with agendas.

News, apparently: everything we eat is genetically modified through selective breeding, at least. None of it is remotely "natural."

Modern, 'selective' breeding involves gamma irradiation or chemical bathing of seeds (both induce DNA damage, which then leads to mutations via DNA-repair pathways) and then growing up and picking plants with the desired traits. These can then be grown up and sold as 'organics' and all that jazz.

Organic foods and their peddlers are nothing more than modern snake-oil salesmen.

 

[artvscommerce]

Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance GMOs.... and the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and... and, and see, they're all corporation-y... and they make money.

That's why GMOs are bad.

 

[Brainonska511]

I don't think it's really been scientifically shown that they are "bad" for your health. Maybe it has and I just need to be educated.

Except for a few flawed studies (eg: Seralini's bs rat study), the overwhelming scientific consensus is that the current crop of GMO plants are as safe for human consumption as "natural" varieties, have no nutritional difference compared to the "natural" varieties, and as a bonus, give better yields (which means less resources per pound of food harvested), and have actually led to a decrease in pesticide usage.

Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance GMOs.... and the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and... and, and see, they're all corporation-y... and they make money. That's why GMOs are bad.

I love when people argue this line. It's as if they think organic foods are grown by small-time farmers and all that jazz, and the benevolent corporation Whole Foods is looking out for their interests instead of their own profit margins.

 

[Gillbot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z_CqyB1dQo

 

[BlitzPuppet]

They're bad because like Monsanto patents the seeds and like little farmers go out of business because the bees pollinate their crops with the Monsanto pollen and like they get sued and go out of business. And like GMOs cause cancer because they are not natural and only natural stuff doesn't cause cancer...you know like crude oil, coal, asbestos, etc.

Any time I hear someone talking against GMOs I usually go into la-la land in order to defend myself from the bombardment of stupid and anger. I never bought into the organic craze, and I will not be buying into the GMO craze. EVERYTHING is GMO'd if you think about it, nothing is how it was in the wild when we first encountered it.

 

[Brainonska511]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z_CqyB1dQo

It's a shame that a great science communicator of our time is rejecting the scientific evidence (and consensus) and peddling GMO-denialism. link

 

[Mixolydian]

I'm generally against artificial food ingredients, but honestly I don't really give a fuck.

 

[HN]

It doesn't stop at GMOs.

Over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA”

 

[Carson Dyle]

How about consuming Roundup (glyphosate) in your food? Mmmmm. What could possibly go wrong?

One of the biggest things being done with GMOs is to create Roundup-resistant seeds so that farmers can clear fields and control weeks by dousing fields and crops with Roundup. The company doing the engineering of these foods is the chemical giant Monsanto, the makers of Roundup.

 

[DrPizza]

It doesn't stop at GMOs.

Over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA”

lmao, I came into this thread to post that.

So, in other words, a large percentage of Americans are scientifically illiterate.

 

[artvscommerce]

I don't know about you guys, but i am FAR more concerned about the Dihydrogen Monoxide in our drinking water!

Research conducted by award-winning U.S. scientist Nathan Zohner concluded that roughly 86 percent of the population supports a ban on dihydrogen monoxide.

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

 

[jagec]

bees pollinate their crops with the Monsanto pollen and like they get sued and go out of business.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I read back in 70s there was an article published, that was pretty biased and unjust in concluded GMOs were bad for you.

I don't think it's really been scientifically shown that they are "bad" for your health. Maybe it has and I just need to be educated.

Bill Nye was on NPR (don't laugh). He has researched it. There are no studies that show that GMOs are bad for you. The scientific community largely agrees with this. Bill Nye has a different concern. How do you prove that GMOs don't have a negative effect on the environment where a food chain could collapse because some insect can no longer consume it's primary food source because it is a GMO?

 

[Brainonska511]

How about consuming Roundup (glyphosate) in your food? Mmmmm. What could possibly go wrong?

One of the biggest things being done with GMOs is to create Roundup-resistant seeds so that farmers can clear fields and control weeks by dousing fields and crops with Roundup. The company doing the engineering of these foods is the chemical giant Monsanto, the makers of Roundup.

Yep. Those farmers are just "drowning" their crops in RoundUp.

You think "organic" farmers aren't using pesticides? You think "natural" pesticides are less toxic than synthetic? Natural is not a synonym for safe and synthetic is not a synonym for dangerous. In reality, RoundUp is a very safe-to-humans product when used according to the directions.

 

[DestinyKnight]

As a gardener, I'm a proponent of heritage seed crops and open pollinated varieties that will breed true from saved seed. This allows me to grow quality food crops year after year from saved seed stock.

Concerning GMO and hybrid food crops, the seed stocks are all controlled by corporations with patents on their genetic handywork; you cannot save seed from GMO crops because it will either be sterile, or will also not breed true to the original plant; so you have to purchase new seed year after year after year to maintain that food crop. This is fine and dandy while that corporation continues to sell and produce that seed, but what happens when they no longer do so and all your saved seed from that crop is worthless?

Beyond that, I have general concerns about genetic manipulation of plant genome where genes from entirely different kingdom of life are introduced. We've seen this in food crops such as corn and adding genes from bacteria to produce a corn that provides it's own built in pesticide. I worry about potential long term consequences to our health and food supply in general. This is a new level of genetic manipulation well beyond traditional cross breeding and trait selection practices that have been used for thousands of years.

However I am not a scientist and I must trust them and the organizations that they work for that they have the best interest of humanity in mind when producing these food crops. I am at their mercy, as are all of us. For the greater good, as it were. How much faith do you have in Monsanto's altruistic nature?