"Non-GMO" eating "organic" produce's lunch, baffling yuppie Moms

[dainthomas]

The antibiotics are being used prophylacticly. As a side-effect, the animals grow a little faster and they can keep them in more cramped conditions. But the use of antibiotics in the farm setting is irresponsible. Even though they aren't the same ones used in humans, it is helping to create large populations of bacteria resistant to those classes of antibiotics, which is a big problem. The release of new antibiotics on a yearly basis has been dropping for years, while antibiotic resistance has risen dramatically over the same time frame.

This is the big problem with it.

 

[Moonbeam]

This is a terrible source. How is that not blatantly obvious to you? From their first point:

"Numerous health problems increased after GMOs were introduced in 1996. The percentage of Americans with three or more chronic illnesses jumped from 7% to 13% in just 9 years; food allergies skyrocketed, and disorders such as autism, reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and others are on the rise. Although there is not sufficient research to confirm that GMOs are a contributing factor, doctors groups such as the AAEM tell us not to wait before we start protecting ourselves, and especially our children who are most at risk."

We don't really have evidence to back up our claims, but JUST IN CASE GUYS! PROTECT YOURSELF EARLY! CORRELATION EQUALS CAUSATION!

I've had a lot of GMO-based conversations with my GF, a topic she studied while pursuing a degree in biology. She's not concerned with GMOs inherently (her explanations were good, and she could pretty easily point out how half-baked and skewed a lot of anti-GMO "research" is), though corporate practices surrounding GMOs can be questionable. That's a VERY important distinction to make. Too many bleed the two together and get confused.

I am not confused. I don't believe in taking technological risks that can have potentially irreversible consequences.

 

[zinfamous]

so you're saying non-GMO label is the Ralph Nader, sucking away votes from Gore and Kerry and Organic, such that Bush and non-organic/GMO foods can win?

:hmm:

(feel free to replace Ron Paul with Nader)

 

[lozina]

Why do people want to be totalitarian about how people eat? You want to dictate to people what and how they should be having food?

Let people choose to eat what they want, and allow them the information to know what's in the food to make the choices they want to make.

 

[zinfamous]

Why do people want to be totalitarian about how people eat? You want to dictate to people what and how they should be having food?

Let people choose to eat what they want, and allow them the information to know what's in the food to make the choices they want to make.

would be a grand idea--problem is people really have no choice in what and how they eat.

You think you are making choices at the supermarket? lulz...that choice has been made long before the seeds were planted.

 

[marincounty]

Not sure what the outrage is over GMO. Unless they are splicing corn with man eating sharks, that results in corn that becomes man eating itself,... I see no problems with it.

I'm starting a new company called Buttsanto. My first product is cross between a tomato and human buttocks. It's a giant tomato the size of a butt cheek and it tastes like ass.
But it's cheaper to produce and ship so it will take over the supermarket. You can thank me later.

 

[SagaLore]

you realize without insecticides and pesticides that crops would have dramatically lower yields and prices for foods would be significantly higher.

There are organic versions of insecticides and pesticides.

 

[Brainonska511]

There are organic versions of insecticides and pesticides.

Organic does not mean safer.

 

[Moonbeam]

Organic does not mean safer.

Does too.

 

[Brainonska511]

Does too.

http://embor.embopress.org/content/early/2014/01/09/embr.201338286

But, is it really true that organic food is infused with natural vitamins and ethical values and free from extraneous toxins? The answer can be inferred from looking carefully at the laws that govern the use of the term ‘organic’. The term itself is, of course, quaintly inaccurate.
...

More serious enquiry leads to the astonishing fact that wine made from organic grapes in the EU or the USA is frequently derived from crops treated with the ‘organic’ fungicide copper sulphate. Organic farmers may use any amount of this chemical deemed necessary for the protection of their crops, provided they take steps to minimize its accumulation in soil. In addition to copper sulphate, a long list of ‘natural’ chemicals is allowed in organic farming in most jurisdictions, including sodium hypochlorite (aka household bleach), lime sulphur (a corrosive mixture of calcium polysulfides) and nicotine sulphate (a highly toxic compound derived from tobacco).
Rotenone, used in mitochondrial research labs worldwide as a highly potent inhibitor of respiratory complex I, has been demonstrated to cause a Parkinson's disease‐like pathology in experimental rodents. But in many countries it can also be liberally sprayed on your organic strawberries.
....
the decision as to what is and isn't permitted [on the list of allowed chemicals] in the organic sector seems arbitrary, and there is no guarantee of it being less poisonous or more wholesome.
...
But it would be far more credible if it were truly evidence‐based. The blanket rejection of genetic modification technologies, under the organic label, is a particularly glaring example of what's wrong. Each case should be judged on its merits. The current public attitude of ‘organic good, GM bad’ is pure prejudice. Intelligent consumers, or the regulatory agencies that represent them, should be able to consider all relevant facts that are needed to reach rational decisions. This should include the right to judge whether a particular genetic technology is preferable to the indiscriminate use of toxins, preservatives or fertilizers – whether these were invented by chemists or just happen to have been widely applied in past centuries.

 

[AdamantC]

Moonie butthurt in 3...2...1...

 

[Stewox]

Mankind has been fucking around with crop genetics since the dawn of agriculture. So you're pretty much going to have to stop eating if you want to avoid GMO food.

bullshit

Those were natural crosses, not forced DNA merging with animal DNA.

And it wasn't designed to be resistant to any pesticides like glyphosate.

All GMO supporters are full of crap, because these things are biological weapons, an avreage citizen won't notice anything until all his friends and family drop dead, there's too many people to wake up, I alert those I can, but ofcourse I don't lose anything just because some stoner on a forum doesn't agree and rationalized the whole thing, I know how to save my self, do you ?

 

[WelshBloke]

And it wasn't designed to be resistant to any pesticides like glyphosate.

This is the bit that bothers me.

We need to genetically modify something so that we can douse it in a chemical in concentrations that would kill it if it were unmodified.

So everything else that's not modified gets zapped by the lovely chemical dousing hopefully not including you.

 

[pcgeek11]

Somebody has to say it:

All food is Organic.

or·gan·ic
ôrˈganik/
adjective
adjective: organic

1. of, relating to, or derived from living matter.

 

[AdamantC]

bullshit

Those were natural crosses, not forced DNA merging with animal DNA.

And it wasn't designed to be resistant to any pesticides like glyphosate.

All GMO supporters are full of crap, because these things are biological weapons, an avreage citizen won't notice anything until all his friends and family drop dead, there's too many people to wake up, I alert those I can, but ofcourse I don't lose anything just because some stoner on a forum doesn't agree and rationalized the whole thing, I know how to save my self, do you ?

Whoa, dude, calm the fuck down. You act like someone is messing around with small pox. This is the real world, not the Fallout universe.

 

[WelshBloke]

Somebody has to say it:

All food is Organic.

or·gan·ic
ôrˈganik/
adjective
adjective: organic

1. of, relating to, or derived from living matter.

Now you wouldn't have happened to have accidentally left off a few lines of that dictionary entry there would you?
I mean I'd hate to think that you were being deliberately disingenuous. That would say something terrible about your character so I guess that it must have been accidental.

 

[Sulaco]

bullshit

Those were natural crosses, not forced DNA merging with animal DNA.

And it wasn't designed to be resistant to any pesticides like glyphosate.

All GMO supporters are full of crap, because these things are biological weapons, an avreage citizen won't notice anything until all his friends and family drop dead, there's too many people to wake up, I alert those I can, but ofcourse I don't lose anything just because some stoner on a forum doesn't agree and rationalized the whole thing, I know how to save my self, do you ?

Translation: I have no background or education in biology, science, or medicine, and stuff that sounds weird or is made in laboratories is scary and was never shown in Fern Gully.

 

[Meghan54]

There are a couple of unintended consequences from GM foods that are just waiting to happen.

First, lower diversity of crops can potentially lead to the complete loss of a particular crop due to viral, bacterial or fungal attack, esp. if the fungus, bacteria, virus has genetically altered itself (mutated) to elude the GM modification intended to keep the infection(s) at bay in the first place. So, with GM crops becoming increasingly less diverse, the looming problem of a complete crop loss across an entire nation is becoming closer to reality.

Second, it's been postulated that the bee population, which in recent years has been plummeting in numbers, may be indirectly or directly being caused by some GM crops.

 

[feralkid]

Somebody has to say it:

All food is Organic.

or·gan·ic
ôrˈganik/
adjective
adjective: organic

1. of, relating to, or derived from living matter.

So is shit, but we don't need to make sandwiches with it.

But seriously, you do know that the term is used to denote foods grown using certain legally (well sort of) defined methods, right?

 

[AdamantC]

the looming problem of a complete crop loss across an entire nation is becoming closer to reality.

Except that can happen with any plant, GMO or not. Irish potato famine, anyone?

 

[Moonbeam]

Except that can happen with any plant, GMO or not. Irish potato famine, anyone?

Nice job of disproving your point. We have resistant potatoes today because of there was genetic variety outside of Irish fields.

 

[Brainonska511]

Nice job of disproving your point. We have resistant potatoes today because of there was genetic variety outside of Irish fields.

Blight isn't and wasn't limited to Ireland. It is present in the US too, and exotic strains of blight, now in NA, make it worse: http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_LateBlt.htm

And not all plants grown are resistant to all types of blight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans#Resistant_plants

Of course, there is a genetically modified potato resistant to blight that took a gene from a wild relative, working its way through approval channels:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26189722

 

[ivwshane]

You know what would be nice? If foods were labeled properly so people, if they want, can make their own informed deciscions on what they put in their body.

That way those that don't care about GMO products can still eat them while those that do care can avoid them. Even better is that this creates a more diverse market with people with different needs and wants being catered to, which in turn creates a better more competitive marketplace.

I'm sure there aren't people or political parties who would oppose labels! /s

 

[Darwin333]

I am well aware of what genetic engineering and selective breeding are. You can still get your desired trait to arise if you use directed evolution (selective breeding) processes. It will just take a lot longer. Cutting out what you want and putting it into the plant is a way to bypass that whole process while having much tighter control of the end product.

I wouldn't take the views of the Center For Food Safety as fact. They're a well-known anti-GMO organization.

How do you get traits from bacteria or even an apple to appear in corn via selective breeding?

BTW, I fully support GMO food and think that some anti-gmo organizations, specifically in places like Africa, are directly responsible for hunger and loss of life. With that said, I like facts.

 

[Darwin333]

bullshit

Those were natural crosses, not forced DNA merging with animal DNA.

And it wasn't designed to be resistant to any pesticides like glyphosate.

All GMO supporters are full of crap, because these things are biological weapons, an avreage citizen won't notice anything until all his friends and family drop dead, there's too many people to wake up, I alert those I can, but ofcourse I don't lose anything just because some stoner on a forum doesn't agree and rationalized the whole thing, I know how to save my self, do you ?

Yeah, I bet that is exactly what millions of Africans who are currently starving to death are worried about right now. Thank heavens they were saved from GMO food or they might have potentially dangerous food to eat versus no food to eat! Lucky bastards.