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.
- If there was a baby formula product that came from a cow and was more similar to human breast milk, would mothers be wiling to try genetically modified cow milk? The Magic8ball says: "My sources say no." [url]
- The Gates Foundation is working on GMO crops to increase food production in developing nations. But there are ethical questions about using the developing world as an experiment for GMO foods. [url]
- The FDA has reviewed the first genetically modified animal for human consumption -- the AquAdvantage salmon. This fish grows bigger and faster than wild Atlantic salmon, and it's made sterile so its genes won't get loose in the environment. [url]
- To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]
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Formula
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Re: Formula
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A little intellectual honesty, now
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.
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Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
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/2011/1 0/food-industry-monopoly-occupy-wall-street
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Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
Patents are used to help them make more money at the behest of various countries. It's amazing...
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Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
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.
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Re: Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
Leave food out of greedy hands
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Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
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Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
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Re: Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
Get some of the conflicts of interest out of it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: A little intellectual honesty, now
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About the "made sterile"...
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Re: About the "made sterile"...
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Re: About the "made sterile"...
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Re: About the "made sterile"...
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I think we have much more to worry about with invasive species.
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Re:
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.
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GMO'S = CANCER / REAL ORGANIC FOOD = NON-PATENTABLE
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Re: GMO'S = CANCER / REAL ORGANIC FOOD = NON-PATENTABLE
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Re: GMO'S = CANCER / REAL ORGANIC FOOD = NON-PATENTABLE
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Re: Re: GMO'S = CANCER / REAL ORGANIC FOOD = NON-PATENTABLE
"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-s eeds-terminator-cotton-onion-melon-debt-suicide
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A note on the issues around GMOs
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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About "made sterile"
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