Genetically Modified Food

[Reeka]

The US produces tons of GM foods. They are banned in Europe (won't take the imports). Thus, the European farmers have no competition. Zimbabwe and Tanzania have turned down tons of GM food products offered by the US, using the ratinal that it is better that the people starve to death than risk being possibly made ill by GM foods. In the ten years or so that GM foods have been consumed in the US, no ill effects have been attributed to the GM foods.

So, what's your opinion?

BTW, if I have any of my facts wrong, PLEASE correct me. Thanks!

*hugs*

[Zero Alpha]

people are scared. Pansies. they think that becasue we tampered with it that it is somehow 'inferior' or 'dangerous'. i think that these rumours only started to promote buying of organic foods. greedy farmers. the way GM works is to remove, replace , or add genes to foods that should and do give positive effects like larger growth. if you could have a larger tomato for cheap, would you choose it? i know i would

once you know how it works (properly) it doesnt seem so worrying

[Timber Loftis]

Apparently you missed the whole Starlink corn issue. I'm outta here right now, but if you'd like to do a search I've posted links and railed on this issue at least thrice now.

You may have also probably missed that in the WTO beef-hormone case the UK provided several experts and piles of documents regarding possible ill health effects of GMO beef. The US produced NOTHING, claiming Monsanto trade secrets. Hmmm... no evidence vs. some evidence. Let me think.

Studies in other countries have determined that rBGH consumption may cause young girls to begin lactating earlies. Well, since that's what it does to the cow, that makes some sense.

Roundup Ready corn + natural cross-pollination = Roundup Ready weeds. What then?

Anywho, I'll dole out more on this later. I've only written 400 or 500 pages on it so far, what's a few more.

[IronDragon]

The US produces tons of GM foods. They are banned in Europe (won't take the imports). Thus, the European farmers have no competition. Zimbabwe and Tanzania have turned down tons of GM food products offered by the US, using the ratinal that it is better that the people starve to death than risk being possibly made ill by GM foods. In the ten years or so that GM foods have been consumed in the US, no ill effects have been attributed to the GM foods.

Your statement that there have been no ill effects is incorrect. There is at least a doubling of food-related illnesses in the United States since 1994.

http://www.netlink.de/gen/Zeitung/2001/011103.html

You present the argument that Europe has banned genetically modified food as a forl of farmer protectionism however this argument holds no water. Foods that have not been genetically modified are still imported across Europe. The truth of the matter is that European countries have looked at the danger of genetically modified foods and unlike their American counterparts at the FDA declined to be bribed or coerced by the food producers and effected their ban as a measure of public safety.

The response of the United States to Africa’s declining of Genetically Modified foods as famine relief is to deny any food relief unless African nation take the GMF’s and to continue to make unsupported claims that GM foods are not only safe bet better.
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/service38.htm

For more information read:
http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/health/gmo.htm
http://www.natural-law-party.net/key...ified_food.htm
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=1488
http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/17/kelloggs_gm_corn.htm

In the United States it is illegal to mark a food as either genetically altered or irradiated. The only reason for this law is that people will not purchase such foods and the food manufactures demanded that consumers remain unaware of the dangers of such practices.

All of which was academic to me. My sister-law is a genetic engineer (not employed in the food industry) and her thoughts on genetically modified foods is painfully clear. She will not allow her children to eat anything she has not approved. All their families food is either grown by them or by local organic farmers and herders. She says we have no idea just how dangerous these things are.

[dragon_lord]

Well their testing GM canola here to see if its "safe" at the moment. Even though I have read they go through more testing and might even be safer than regular food as a result (take nuts for example, many people are very allergic to nuts but they are still sold). Although I have also read that there hasnt been any long term studies of GM foods (10/20 years etc).

once you know how it works (properly) it doesnt seem so worrying

Properly being the operative word there. Once GM crops are planted on a wide scale they can not be recalled so easily. Why you ask? Contamination. GM crops can contaminate Non GM crops, even weeds can be cross bread with pollen from GM crops. So say you placed a gene in wheat to make it resistant to a spray. Everything works great for a few years and then slowly more weeds are becoming resistant. So guess what the biotech companies will do? Change the gene in the crop and the spray and it starts again. Or place genes that make the plant produce its own pesticides. Which has the same problem as before; the bugs will get resistant to the disease and the biotech companies will have to change the gene again so as to produce new pesticides. Sounds a lot like conventional spraying no? And who knows what kind of effect a plant that produces its own toxins will have when consumed on a large scale. There is already enough extra chemicals floating around in the body (I read there are 500 extra chemicals in the body that werent there 100 years ago).

I would write more, but I'v got to dash. Might not be written that well.

[Reeka]

I appreciate being updated and corrected on this. I really wanted to know and did not know much about it.

[dragon_lord]

To add...

Another problem with GM foods is that it isnt required for food companies to label if their product have GM content (here anyway). So if someone is allergic to the component gene that has been added to a particular food and the person then buys a product with it in, they could end up dying from an allergic reaction. The thing here is how would anybody know what caused it? The product wasnt labelled, so how is it possible to tell how much of an effect GM foods are having on a population? Another problem is contamination of Non GM grains/etc after harvest. GM wheat could be added in with Non GM wheat unknowingly, then if someone eats it and gets sick it would be impossible to trace the cause.

Explaining Contamination better: With pollen producing crops such as canola insects and wind will move the seeds a considerable distance. Bees are known to travel up to several km to find pollen. So lets use a standard farm setup as an example: Ok lets say we have 2 farms seperated by a road. One farm has GM canola the other does not. Theres 25m between the 2 farms, not much at all. So along comes pollenation season. The bees, who live in a tree beside the road, go about their business of finding pollen unaware of what they are doing. One bee flies across to the GM farm and lands on some canola. Full the bee then flies back to the hive, but this time the bee flies over to the Non GM farm. Landing on Non GM canola the bee has just pollenated that canola plant, through the pollen that was stuck to its underbelly (how natural pollenation occurs). The GM supporters would have you believe that this cross pollenation is very minimal (less than 0.01% i think i heard), but what they fail to mention is that its compounded. Year after year more and more of the Non GM crop is contaminated, and what if there is another Non GM farm next to the first Non GM farm? The contamination would continue to spread, totally unstoppable. This is why it is impossible for GM and Non GM crops to exist in the same area/country. Contamination will occur.

What would happen if an organic farmer's crop was contaminated by a GM farmer's crop? Would the organic farmer be able to sue the GM farmer for compensation? So now the government passes legislation enforcing segregation of the two crops. Adding another cost to farmers. And theres the fact that the biotech companies own the GM seeds, so every year a GM farmer has to buy new seed. Instead of being able to take a cut from the previous years harvest and resow that.

GM crops are not wanted by alot of consumers (growing popularity of organic foods), the full effects of GM crops on people over long periods of time are not known, the benefit of decreased spraying needed is no better than the current setup (see above for why) and the benefit of GM do not out weigh the risks at this point in time (IMO). Farming is a marginal and unpredictable business (especially in this country) as it is with out all the extra costs encored through GM crops.

>I live on a farm btw

[wellard]

Originally posted by dragon_lord: What would happen if an organic farmer's crop was contaminated by a GM farmer's crop? Would the organic farmer be able to sue the GM farmer for compensation? So now the government passes legislation enforcing segregation of the two crops. Adding another cost to farmers. And theres the fact that the biotech companies own the GM seeds, so every year a GM farmer has to buy new seed. Instead of being able to take a cut from the previous years harvest and resow that. >I live on a farm btw

Thanks for an informative post Dragonlord.

IIRC I believe there has been a few instances were Monsanto (sp) have sued non-GM farmers for having GM crops, denying that the rate of cross-pollination would have caused the amount of gm crops found in the farmers field. They have accused them of stealing. And I have heard that you have as much chance of getting compensation out of Monsanto (sp) for your unwanted crop contamination as you have from tobacco company’s if you are a cancer victim

Reeka, Im A OK with GM foods, I am also quite happy to allow irradiation to be used to sterilize and preserve food as well. Most of the objections are "what If" scenarios with no real scientific backing. Hysteria, and Hype are the weapons used against both which of course I detest. As you say, we have been eating them for decades and our expected life span has steadily increased, not decreased.

With GM foods there is a problem with cross polination, but without modified foods and farming technique we wouldn't have 6 billion people alive right now. I think it is unconscionable that people are starving while tons of GM food sit untouched.

All just my opinion on what I have seen in the press.

Originally posted by wellard: And I have heard that you have as much chance of getting compensation out of Monsanto (sp) for your unwanted crop contamination as you have from tobacco company’s if you are a cancer victim

Last I heard a couple of dozen states received several billion dollars from tobacco corps so Im guessing that monsanto must be paying out a lot. [img]smile.gif[/img]