The real problem with GMO foods is not that they are dangerous but that they are patented and they are engineered so they cannot perpetuate themselves.
Monsanto (or whoever holds the patent) can have entire crop fields seized and destroyed if one of their "products" cross-pollinates with one of God's.
Farmers are then held hostage to the patent owners because they have to purchase new seeds or seedlings every season.
Okay. Those of you who missed the point, commence flaming.
Totally different issue which has nothing to do with the science. Although it does need to be addressed in some fashion that still respects the patent holder, it has nothing to do with the issue of whether they are safe or not.
> Okay, I’m going in. Somebody cover me.
Funny!
Cross species GMO are a problem, imo
Corn being grown by American farmers GMO or not is all produced through the use of hybrid seed. You don’t want to harvest the seed produced by that corn as it will not reproduce that hybrid but rather the parent components if it is not a “mule” being sterile.
They are engineered that way so that the newest generation of GMOs cannot interbreed with wild stocks--in other words, because of a concession to fear-mongers who predicted dire consequences if some GMO should start reproducing in the wild.
As someone else already pointed out, every seed company protects its intellectual and financial investment through the use of hybrid seeds.
I should mention that every food grown on a farm or ranch is, in fact, GMO. A number of methods for genetically modifying organisms have been developed over the last few thousand years. The only difference is that using modern methods allows us to target the modifications. So, instead of haphazardly crossing or radiating organisms causing random and unpredictable effects on the genome, we can target one single gene and change that one gene without touching the tens of thousands of other genes in that organism. If changing the genome of an organism is potentially hazardous, then modern methods have introduced a level of safety that was never before possible.
Fang has had an organic garden for quite a while now. -
My grandparents used to have a big garden every year. I
clearly remember them gathering seeds from their favorite
crops and spreading them out on a big table on their
screened-in back porch. Fang has been getting heritage
seed from old varieties for a long time & gathering them
for his personal use.
(What few neighbors we have live a long way off & would
not garden even if those companies donated dead-end seeds
to them.) LAZY is the new PRODUCTIVE. I’m not judging
here. I believe in LIBERTY for all.