Genetically modified food

[JPT]

What are your thoughts on this matter? Personally I am appauled by the masses of people that don't understand it (because they don't want to) and bash it up and down... I will leave the question as is and see where it is led... Have fun!

 

[Feisters]

I don't have a problem with it. I also don't have a problem with food being irradiated. That sterilizes and prevents spoilage and a lot of food poisoning. But people are uninformed.

 

[convex]

I don't have a problem with it, animals are already bread as food, why not make it so you get better harvests from the animals?

 

[JellyBaby]

My thoughts? Genetically altered food is fine provided the changes are for nutritional purposes or to increase yields or make a "better" food to grow. Selective breeding of cows is a simple way to improve milk production, and that's been going on for centuries. Generally this has been harmless.

The danger is moving too quickly. It takes nature a long, long time to create balance. We may not run a high risk of utter disaster by moving too quickly, but there are health and environmental concerns. Everyone wants fat-free pizza that tastes as good as anything they've ever had. But they don't want to become allergic to pizza (yeah, dumb example but I'm hungry for pizza right now).

 

[JPT]

But what about cloning a gene of some important protein in, say, corn, or rice, or any other plant?
The whole point of genetic engineering is to do 'nature's job' much faster (especially for increased plant resistance to plagues or chemicals...)

 

[Windogg]

No probs here. Its eventually gonna have to happen because we will no longer be able to grow enough food to support everyone.

Windogg

 

[Lorax]

it is good; higher yields=better prices.

uninformed americans think anything with "radiation" or "genetics" are bad.

i like in canada how they have those milks in clear pouches that get radiated and have a longer shelf life. they are cool.

 

[kranky]

Here's the part that I do understand: One of the first modifications that was patented was the ability to make seeds infertile so that farmers would have to buy new seed every year from the seed companies. Of course, the genetically modified (GM) plants have the ability to cross-pollinate with normal crops. So if a farmer using his own seed is unlucky enough to be near another farmer using the GM seed, and the GM plants cross-pollinate with his and he ends up with no usable seed for the next year, should that mean tough luck for the farmer?

The US Dept. of Agriculture gets a 5% royalty on sales based on this technology, so it's obvious what side they are going to be on.

Farmers need to be able to select seeds and cross-breed them to suit their local soil and weather. If the GM seeds end up cross-pollinating with regular plants, they can't do that any more.

There are obviously advantages to be able to make plants disease-resistant, but let's not fool ourselves that companies like Monsanto are doing this research just to make the world a better place. They'll make sure they get their money out of the deal, and if that means crops that do not produce any usable seeds - so the farmers must buy new seeds every year - that seems like a serious problem to me.

 

[JPT]

Well, like everything else in the world, there are always people trying to get as much money as they can out of other people. But what about engineering new forms of a plant that is basically the 'wild type' plus say vitamin A (this example exists with rice: it was produced so that underdeveloped countries, that rely heavily on rice, could have a good source of vitamin A - of course after all the research had been done it was attacked by everybody...)

 

[Tominator]

Why worry about it? Probably 90% or so is already 'modified.'

And I'm not worrying that ADM makes a bundle. It takes $$$ to do the research.

The Government PAYS Farmers not to grow crops! The farmland in the US could literally feed the world!

There is enough food. It just needs to get where it's needed...

 

[BigToque]

I just read somewhere that someone grew a 45 kilogram cabbage! I dont know if it was genetically altered, but can you imagine if someone could do that to a cow or something?

Can you even imagine a cow the size of a small building Lots 'o' steak for me.

 

[lowtech1]

No problem here.

 

[Triumph]

who here remembers the x-files episode that talks about this? i'm not some kind of wacko believe everything on x-files person, but the episode was pretty interesting. apparently a tobacco company genetically engineered a new kind of plant that was undigestable or something to tobacco beatles, so now their crops wouldn't get ruined. but the beatles mutated into something that could digest the plants, only the beatles were harmful to humans also. or something like that. bacteria do this type of thing all the time. so i'm just saying there could be side effects to this that no one has thought of.