The Deadly Opposition to GMO Food

[nehalem256]

Its not just people living outside large cities in asia and africa that have nutrition issues.

In the 1960s Life magazine wrote an article about coal miners in Kentucky or Tennessee. Even though the people lived in a rural area, they did not work the land.

I would assume they mined coal. Are there vast untapped coal resources in the Philippines?

This is very common all over the world for people to work at industrial jobs, live in a rural area, and try to buy their food instead of growing food.

Either empower the people with higher wages so they can buy a wider range of food, or teach them how to grow extra food.

What if they don't have room to grow extra food?

Why not given them "super" crops?

 

[nehalem256]

Irrational to insert spider genes into a goat to produce silk?

I see nothing irrational about doing that.

I didn't realize dusting corn plants with other corn plants could be construed as tampering. Inserting fish genes into tomatoes is tampering.

Humans have been playing God with plants for 1000s of years. I fail to see how having more control over the process makes it inherently more dangerous.

I have no idea if peanuts are GMO and I am not bothered to find out. Its the recent epidemic of common food allergies that should worry people about the safety of GMOs which could be the trigger.

It sure is easy to create fear when you can just pull things out of your ass.

 

[bononos]

Obviously you are poorly educated and have never been outside large cities in South East Asia or Africa.

From the World Health Organization..

http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/vad/en/

I work in south east Asia and know that your post about "soil/water content of the soil prevents them from growing other vegetables?" is nonsense. So again which south east Asian country has soil/water issues that hinders them from planting vegetables in favour of rice instead?

Its the very poor who have no access to land for subsistence farming and have to rely on mostly rice for their diet - like the urban poor, so poverty and not agricultural science is the problem here.

 

[Texashiker]

I would assume they mined coal. Are there vast untapped coal resources in the Philippines?

You are missing the point. It is common for people who live near urban areas to buy their food rather then raise it.

These people who live off rice, are other foods available, but the family can not afford to buy the food?

Would raising the income of the family provide them with a wider range of food?

What if they don't have room to grow extra food?

Why not given them "super" crops?

I have no issue with rice that provides vitamin A.

What I do have an issue with is not addressing the root cause of the problem.

Why dont these people have access to foods like sweet potatoes, which is a vitamin A super food.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I work in south east Asia and know that your post about "soil/water content of the soil prevents them from growing other vegetables?" is nonsense. So again which south east Asian country has soil/water issues that hinders them from planting vegetables in favour of rice instead?

Its the very poor who have no access to land for subsistence farming and have to rely on mostly rice for their diet - like the urban poor, so poverty and not agricultural science is the problem here.

Try growing corn, wheat, beans in 2 feet of water.

 

[Texashiker]

Try growing corn, wheat, beans in 2 feet of water.

You make it sound like asia is completely under water.

Its the very poor who have no access to land for subsistence farming and have to rely on mostly rice for their diet - like the urban poor, so poverty and not agricultural science is the problem here.

It sounds to me like the government has failed to provide for its people.

 

[bononos]

I see nothing irrational about doing that.

Humans have been playing God with plants for 1000s of years. I fail to see how having more control over the process makes it inherently more dangerous.

It sure is easy to create fear when you can just pull things out of your ass.

Yeah playing god by letting animals copulate, planting seeds and dusting pollen. Golden seal of approval from the catholic church. The GMO way is shooting spider genes into goats.

If novel GMO genes can leak out from our digestive tracts and cause inflammation, cellular changes, infertility in mice, mess about with the immune system, why shouldn't we worry about food allergies as another possible side effect?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

You make it sound like asia is completely under water

There are areas that are flooded every year by monsoon and/or seasonal rains. They have a rainy season that causes vast areas to be flooded. Then they have a dry season where they get no rain and there's no rivers to use for irrigation. So many grow rice (two to three harvests per year).

I own 3 large rice paddies in Indonesia and you can't grow anything during the dry season due to the lack of rain.

 

[nehalem256]

If novel GMO genes can leak out from our digestive tracts and cause inflammation, cellular changes, infertility in mice, mess about with the immune system, why shouldn't we worry about food allergies as another possible side effect?

One, they aren't novel. You said they came from spiders.

Two, genes don't "leak out". What you are saying doesnt even make sense.

 

[zsdersw]

There are areas that are flooded every year by monsoon and/or seasonal rains. They have a rainy season that causes vast areas to be flooded. Then they have a dry season where they get no rain and there's no rivers to use for irrigation. So many grow rice (two to three harvests per year).

I own 3 large rice paddies in Indonesia and you can't grow anything during the dry season due to the lack of rain.

Hey, didn't you know... your experience means nothing because someone who has never been outside the US said so. /s

 

[bononos]

Try growing corn, wheat, beans in 2 feet of water.

You are obviously ignorant in your geography. South east asia, Bangladesh, parts of India are not constantly inundated under 2 feet of water the whole year round. The monsoon season brings the rain to flood the diked fields. There is always space for vegetables outside of the most rainy season. And farmers eat chickens, ducks and fish in the flooded fields and rivers which are also very good providers of vitamin A (livers).

So again, which country is suffering so much from flooded fields all year round that rice is almost the sole crop displacing vegetables and depriving the population from vitamin A as claimed in your previous post?

 

[bononos]

One, they aren't novel. You said they came from spiders.

Two, genes don't "leak out". What you are saying doesnt even make sense.

Yeah well spider genes were used on goats to make them produce silk.
Beetle genes in tomatoes. Why nit pick instead of examining the studies of gmo problems in animal studies in my previous link?

 

[zsdersw]

Yeah well spider genes were used on goats to make them produce silk.
Beetle genes in tomatoes. Why nit pick instead of examining the studies of gmo problems in animal studies in my previous link?

The idiocy is strong in this one.

 

[Cerb]

What if they don't have room to grow extra food?

Then why should growing more humans be subsidized? Especially in China and India, that is a fundamental problem. Their infrastructures have not been able to keep up with the population.

If there's not room to grow more or other food, then what can be grown, or otherwise offered for value, should be used to get it. If there isn't enough of that, then they are being irresponsible by having children in the first place.

 

[airdata]

nobody cares when starving kids get cancer, right?

 

[nehalem256]

nobody cares when starving kids get cancer, right?

Dead of starvation. Dead of cancer. Dead is dead.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

You are obviously ignorant in your geography. South east asia, Bangladesh, parts of India are not constantly inundated under 2 feet of water the whole year round. The monsoon season brings the rain to flood the diked fields. There is always space for vegetables outside of the most rainy season. And farmers eat chickens, ducks and fish in the flooded fields and rivers which are also very good providers of vitamin A (livers).

So again, which country is suffering so much from flooded fields all year round that rice is almost the sole crop displacing vegetables and depriving the population from vitamin A as claimed in your previous post?

Yet there's still a large amount of people, specially children who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency in many countries.

http://www.who.int/vmnis/vitamina/data/database/countries/en/index.html

 

[cwjerome]

You don't need to be some luddite to oppose GMOs. The technology is new and unproven, theres no good studies that support the notion that GMO foods are totally safe. Instead the GMO industry has managed to put the onus on detractors to come up with evidence that GMOs are unsafe instead of the other way around. The article sounds like a hack job from the industry.

So far your arguments in this thread have been based on fear-based rhetoric and continuous mentioning of spider genes and such. As far as I've seen, the anti-GMO crowd puts out all kinds of alarmist, unproven worries that seem mostly to be thinly veiled attempts to hide their true fears of big-agri domination and general dislike of the social and economic aspects. I am not too worried about this because science and reason will continue to win out in the long run, especially as more developing countries embrace it.

 

[Texashiker]

Yet there's still a large amount of people, specially children who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency in many countries.

http://www.who.int/vmnis/vitamina/data/database/countries/en/index.html

What is the root cause of the problem? Poverty, famine, war,,, combination of things?

I am not opposed to GMO rice. But shouldn't those nations be working on fixing the real cause of the food problems?

Lets use india for an example, its difficult to justify starvation in india when cows are treated like a god.

 

[Lalakai]

I still haven't seen solid conclusive evidence to support GMO's. At the same time the evidence against them is just as spotty. There are significant advantages to GMO's and some serious disadvantages. I've been in agriculture for the last 25 years. Before that was 2 years in the Philippines with the Peace Corps, working with the farmers there. I helped harvest and process more rice then I care to remember. For myself, I view GMO's as the "monkey's paw" of food production, and the companies pushing them.........in the same boat as the people that caused the financial melt down. Many in the farming sector are already holding our breath, looking for the other shoe to drop, in regards to GMO's.

 

[Texashiker]

For myself, I view GMO's as the "monkey's paw" of food production, and the companies pushing them.........in the same boat as the people that caused the financial melt down. Many in the farming sector are already holding our breath, looking for the other shoe to drop, in regards to GMO's.

Some of the things I am concerned about with our modern crops is the lack of genetic diversity, and mono-cropping.

How long until we see something like the Irish potato blight, but in corn, soy beans and rice?

Monsanto releases a rice that provides vitamin A. The world things its great, farmers plant that one type of rice for a decade.

Isn't that what helped cause crop failures all through history?

 

[nehalem256]

What is the root cause of the problem? Poverty, famine, war,,, combination of things?

I think poverty is likely

I am not opposed to GMO rice. But shouldn't those nations be working on fixing the real cause of the food problems?

Which do you think is easier?

Solving global poverty or growing improved rice?

Also, do you not think that growing rice that keeps your kids from dying and going blind might have benefits in reducing poverty?

 

[Texashiker]

Which do you think is easier?

Solving global poverty or growing improved rice?

Also, do you not think that growing rice that keeps your kids from dying and going blind might have benefits in reducing poverty?

Growing improved rice so people can be kept in poverty is probably the easiest route.

I am not being sarcastic.

I see GMO rice has keeping the wage slaves healthy. GOD forbid companies that setup sweat shops in low wage nations be required to pay a liveable wage.

Its not like the companies are growing the GMO rice in Texas to be exported, or even used here in poverty stricken areas of the U.S.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I prefer my food all natural as God intended :sneaky:

Ah, so you like your bread unable to rise, your almonds highly poisonous, your corn tiny and hard as a rock and your strawberries the size of your finger nail?

 

[Paul98]

GMO in it's self isn't harmful, the results can be, but it simply has to do with what is put in or taken away from the organism. The results from GMO can also give you healthier results than their none counterpart. It will just depend on what is done.