Dailydirt: GMO Food — You Are What You Eat?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are invading the food chain. Some folks say that the trend to grow more and more GMO food is almost a requirement to keep up with the world’s demand for food. Others disagree, arguing that there are alternatives to GMOs that could meet demands without potentially endangering our fragile ecosystem. Here are just a few examples of the seemingly unstoppable development of GMOs for food.

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Comments on “Dailydirt: GMO Food — You Are What You Eat?”

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23 Comments
Brad Hubbard (profile) says:

A little intellectual honesty, now

Let’s be real here – we’ve been eating genetically modified foods (animals and plants) for the last 6000 years or so. Domestication, selective breeding and cross-breading of species has been a staple of human cultivation of food sources.

Except now we have people with advanced degrees, selectively modifying genes, instead of randomly cross-breeding species and hoping for the best.

Cross-breeding gave us killer bees. Genetic modification gave tomatoes that can be grown naturally, without harsh pesticide chemicals because they naturally repel insects.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: A little intellectual honesty, now

The problem isn’t whether GMO are safe to eat, its about the fact that GMO’s are a grreat way for a few companies to effectually gain (and they have for years now) an oligopoly on the entire world food chain via ‘patents’ and ‘copyright’ on nature. Monsato being a (in)famous example of what that entails.
This is a little known secret they forget to tell you when they talk about GMOs.
You can read more about what I’m talking about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Food_Nation
and
http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/food-industry-monopoly-occupy-wall-street

cybernia (profile) says:

Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now

The reason such multinationals like Monsanto control the supply is due to the lengthy and expensive process of getting GMO seeds approved for use. They are the only ones who can afford to do it.

There are universities and small businesses that have GMO just sitting on their shelves and they can’t afford to get them approved.

It’s ironic, really. The anti-GMO folks who support these strict regulations are the ones complaining about how Monsanto controls the market.

Suzanne Lainson (profile) says:

Re: Re:

The food we eat today is GMO, just GMO the old fashioned way splicing, cross breeding, selective breeding, hybridization, how much different is direct genetic manipulation?

The reason it is relevant to Techdirt is the combination of GMOs and patents. The engineered plants spread and then the big ag companies want people to pay for growing those crops even when they didn’t plant them.

It’s this in a nutshell: “We’re going to contaminate your crops and make you pay us because we did so.”

Now, if you eliminate patents on GMOs, you reduce some of the financial incentives in creating them and then we can talk about whether it is good science or not.

NowUNoIT (profile) says:

Re: Re: GMO'S = CANCER / REAL ORGANIC FOOD = NON-PATENTABLE

High Fructose Corn Syrup usually comes from GMO corn. And as we know – “Cancer cells love high fructose corn syrup”

“Published in the journal Cancer Research, the findings also reveal that not all sugars are the same, a widely held belief in mainstream medicine. Tumor cells love both glucose sugar and fructose sugar, but fructose directly causes cancer cells to reproduce and spread in a way that glucose does not.

So the study solidifies the fact that there is a major difference between high fructose corn syrup, a highly-refined sugar commonly used in processed American foods and beverages, and refined sugar cane. Both can lead to health problems, but high fructose corn syrup is worse in terms of cancer growth.” – source: http://www.naturalnews.com/029374_cancer_high_fructose_corn_syrup.html#ixzz1Zn0t5s1J

As for the India story and the lawsuit – here’s the source:
India vs. Monsanto: seeds of discord
http://www.france24.com/en/20110921-india-monsanto-gmo-brinjal-bio-piracy-biopiracy-steal-seeds-terminator-cotton-onion-melon-debt-suicide

pringerX (profile) says:

A note on the issues around GMOs

GM crops are 100% safe to eat. Up to date, the natural pesticides produced by such plants are all stuff that is harmless to people, so unless they start inserting genes for botulin or whatnot, such plants and animals completely safe for consumption. Another common misconception is that meat engineered to produce extra hormones can somehow affect human development. This is rubbish, as hormones are delicate molecules that do not survive the digestive process (never mind the trace quantities they will be in, and the species differences). In fact, GM crops and livestock are often more nutritious because of their engineering.
What is of concern is how GMOs interact with our environment, a point Mike brought up earlier. A prime example are genetically modified salmon on open-water fish farms. This is downright irresponsible, as the GM fish can and do escape, and impact the natural salmon populations. The same can be said for pollen from GM plants- they might theoretically interbreed with native species or otherwise become invasive, or otherwise impact the local environment.
The final point is completely unrelated to biology, and that is the patent system. I do not claim to have any expert knowledge in this area, but it doesn’t take a genius to see there are bad things happening that are probably detrimental to our farmers.

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