Plus GMO's become obsolete pretty fast. Eventually the disease, or bug that the GMO is supposed to stop, evolve so that they can still do damage. They basically create super bugs and diseases. All they do is spray herbicides, and pesticides, because they have no real knowledge or care for farm ecology. This is what is killing the soils and ecosystems of third world farmers, leaving them worse off than they were before monsanto.
"may get cancer from eating it"<<<< Really? One french study claimed this, and it has since been rigorously discredited. That's not what I'm talking about when I say that GMOs will save the third world. In a lot of third world countries , the staple foods of many of the inhabitants are just pure carbohydrates with little or no nutrients. Scientists are making steady progress in developing genetically modified versions of these foods that contain the nutrients that these people need to survive. We shouldn't stop developing these foods out of fears of the negative consequences (most of which are WILDLY overstated), we just need to perfect them. Research into radioactivity killed Marie Curie and many other scientists, but the we would be much worse off without x-ray and radiology. Most forms of science have their teething problems, that is undeniable, but what's the point in banning all GMOs when they hold so much potential for the future? Some of what people say about GMOs is true, and there's a lot that we need to reconsider, but people need to stop the lies and politically/religiously charged hyperbole because it's not helping us progress.
Actually, this isn't true. It's been proven that when you improve health/resources/overall quality of life, people have less children. When you raise life expectancy and lower infant mortality rates, the number of children per family falls. http://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/geography/populations/revise-it/world-population-change Edit: Not to say that there wouldn't be a generational gap in which there are a large number of healthy people as the new way of life becomes available. However, birth rates would fall in the next generation. Also, we can solve world hunger. We can solve nigh on everything with technology, particularly now that we've hit the exponential curve. We've almost entirely wiped out polio globally, and smallpox in the first world, because of our understanding of science.
Why not just teach them to grow, cook and eat foods that are naturally better? We absolutely should stop growing these gmos that destroy soil fertility. Not many people realize it, but soil health is the single most important thing(besides water quality) for the long term survival of humanity. And we have been absolutely destroying our soils, especially now with GMO's. If you destory the soil, there will be no food, GMO or not.
I was actually thinking about that study when I wrote that. They improved the overall quality of there life in the study, not just threw some bags of rice and corn at them. You get rid of poverty, then they start having less kids, not by just throwing rice and corn at them. Also education was a big part of that study.
Most of these people have beel living in farming communities for hundreds, if not thousands of years. They don't grow these foods out of their own lack of skill, they grow these foods because nothing else can grow there. If certain GMOs are causing soil fertility problems, we need to go back and rethink them. The problem is that GMOs cover a wide range of crops and organisms, not just these limited examples of failed experiments. The vast majority of GMOs cause no harm at all, but that doesn't make a very good headline.
Why do we need GMO's to do what nature has been doing for millions of years? All we have to do is have a better understanding of nature, and the interactions between different organism. With that we will be able to utilize already existing processes that have been developed and refined by nature for who knows how long, in order to meet food demands. We dont need gmos, and we DEFIANTLY dont need industrial agricultures one track mind set of "If theres a problem, spray chemicals".
Im sorry but thats complete BS, about any plant can grow about anywhere, they are very resilient. Nothing else can grow there because they have most likely already destroyed there soils and ecosystem before the GMO's were even created, or they simply dont know how to grow other stuff in that environment, but I guarantee that you can grow other stuff. You just have to regenerate the environment, not deplete it. edit- Ive seen a banana tree grow in the mountains of north carolina during the winter, with no electricity. And your telling me that third world people can only grow a small number of unhealthy crops? Yea I know not all GMO's are bad, but I just dont see the point of them. We already have everything we need to survive, we dont need GMO's, and they just seem to cause a lot more problems then they fix IMO
Bad GMO's are only part of the problem, they are merely a symptom of the cancer that is industrial agriculture.
not without a lot of human intervention (greenhouses, many generations of breeding for hardiness, LOTS of care, etc.) and even then some plants simply will not grow in the wrong climate. some plants may grow but never go to fruit or seed because of the conditions. your claim leads me to believe you know little about plants in general. also, how are gmos ruining the soil? even if they do, you can always replenish the soil. tobacco is a soil killer and they rotate crop planting with plants that replenish the soil. why would that not work with gmos?
The reason that a lot of plants can grow in multiple climates is because we have selectively bred them to do so. We have fundamentally changed the genetics of plants to make them able to grow in different climates and conditions, which is exactly the same as using GMOs, just the process is slower.
gmo's themselves don't necessarily harm the soil. the problem happens is when the soil gets sprayed with chemicals (which the plants were made to survive by genetic modification)... these chemicals are very toxic. they get absorbed by your food, the soil and so on. and further distribution of these chemicals in the ecosystem (i.e. eventually sipping into rivers) is what's causing a lot of problems.
it's similar.. but not the same. also you have to consider the purposes of cross-breeding and hybridization vs why the GMO's where introduced in the first place.
Certainly, but the scientific issues that people talk about concerning GMOs are exactly the same issues that occur with selective breeding, and yet people have a problem with the former rather than the latter.
i worry about all the lost farming knowledge that will likely result from farmers using the fancy expensive seeds and their related chemical brethern. just seems like a dumbing down of agriculture and the loss of farming freedom. especially in the third world where farmers are more or less promised fields paved with gold and because they are mostly uneducated and poor, they don't understand the full scope of their new farming endeavor. by the time they figure this out, they may be legally on the hook and without viable options moving forward. i find that alarming and quite sad.
agreed, however GMO's come with a few other "side effects": - are the plants really insect resistant or chemical resistant? .. how about evolution of bugs that resist gmo's? http://www.wired.com/2014/03/rootworm-resistance-bt-corn/ (nothing natural about that). - having to purchase gmo seeds from the manufacturer each year and getting sued if you don't. so we know that this happens: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Syngenta_Charged_for_Covering_Up_Livestock_Deaths_from_GM_Corn.php now, if that's true, i'd personally avoid gm meats. could this happen naturally in other circumstances? sure. but the amount evidence piling up against GMO's doing more harm than good is overwhelming.
For the record, the people.comparing gmos to selective breeding don't know what they are talking about. The most common gmos are engineered to produce pesticides inside the plant, and genes are taken from completely unrelated species Humans do not consume this toxin naturally from any plant Edit: talking about the bt toxin here, not gmos in general Sent from my LG-E739 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Seriously, you have to be completely brain dead comatose for at least a solid year or two where there is no chance for your brain to ever be active again because of oxygen starvation to really believe that Monstanto is a) on your side b] cares about your health c] doesnt sacrifice babies for satan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qMh9jJk4fQ If youre fine with feeding your kids with poison, thats your prerogative, but allow me to have a choice on whether or not I want a delicious stomach ulcer, or kidney failure, liver shutting down, oo so exciting yes yes, but thats too much excitement for me. Ill stick with food that mother nature 'scientifically engineered' instead of a corrupt douche who feels no empathy and has no capacity to comprehend what this sort of 'science' leads to, like the egg heads who split the atom but didnt have the wisdom to see what their inventions would bring. and history repeats it self...
Maybe I over-exaggerated a little bit, but yes plants can grow almost anywhere. Yes they may not fruit or seed in certian conditions, but it is fairly easy to create micro-climates, with anything from greenhouses to hugelkulture beds. I assure you I know a lot about plants and ecosystems, thats what my degree is in. A lot of gmo's require pesticides/herbicide. These gm's are made to be resistant to the pesticide, so that the pesticide kills everything except for the desired plant. That wipes out all of the insects, most of which are actually beneficial. It knocks out all the weeds, and other plants, many of which are beneficial to soil fertility. It wipes out the bacteria, and fungus which are essential to soil health. There will be barely any organic matter being returned to the soil, because of the lack of cover crops, and beneficial plants. These chemicals leach into the soil, and will not decompose for a long time. Some gmo's such as Bt corn, actually releases harmful stuff into the soil. Many of these chemicals that are either sprayed, or that leach our of GMO plants have all been shown to degrade minerals in the soil. You can regenerate soils that have been destroyed, but not by using the same thinking that destroyed them. You dont need wealth to grow plants, everything you need is around you. The problem is education.