Why GM crops are vital

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

It's not supposed to save the poor farmers. We don't need the poor farmers. They should get a job doing something useful rather than doing something that can be done far more efficiently without them.

There is a difference between efficient and profitable.

[Kuciwalker]

Not in this case.

[snoopy369]

Just let GM raise the crops. They'd do an outstanding job of it, just like they have with cars.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


It's not supposed to save the poor farmers. We don't need the poor farmers. They should get a job doing something useful rather than doing something that can be done far more efficiently without them.

And what jobs would that be, exactly, given that subsistance frarmers would hardly be capable of going into industrial jobs, given that industries in said countries are horribly non-competative against existing industry?

So GM crops can lead to amss social instability and bloodshed? Then what the **** do we need them for?

[Dinner]

A lot of GM foods are designed for mass use in the third world. The grains which allow for more nutrients or which are disease resistant would likely be given away to farmers for free just like the new cross breeds have been done in the past. Sure, it's just a PR campaign but it is a PR campaign which results in a lot of people being able to eat.

[General Ludd]

Why exactly is it assumed that feeding a growing population is a good thing, anyways? In a finite environment, such as we live in, there will always come a point where it is simply impossible to feed the entire population if it continues to grow. The longer it is prolonged, the more catastrophic it will be when it happens.


It'd be better to spend resources towards birth control than to try to support a runaway population growth (which is futile anyways).

[Kuciwalker]

Back in the real world, Ludd, population growth isn't "runaway".

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Back in the real world, Ludd, population growth isn't "runaway".

Then why is being able to feed everyone a question?

[Kuciwalker]

Even you should be able to comprehend the difference between population and population growth.

[General Ludd]

Nay, not even I can comprehend your ambiguous statements of profound wisdom and absolute truth.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Oerdin
A lot of GM foods are designed for mass use in the third world. The grains which allow for more nutrients or which are disease resistant would likely be given away to farmers for free just like the new cross breeds have been done in the past. Sure, it's just a PR campaign but it is a PR campaign which results in a lot of people being able to eat.

Only if the farmers can use seed from the crop they grew one year to grow the next year's crop. Otherwise, it was nothing but a PR stunt, and I also doubt that such PR stunts in the past have really stopped any sort of mass hunger.

I have no problem with GM crops. I have a problem with the GM industry- genomes are not things to patent, and no, I don't give a **** about "profit motive" since it was not the profit motive that brought about the Green revolution, and it won't be profit motive that will bring about a new one.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Back in the real world, Ludd, population growth isn't "runaway".

Yes it is. It always is and probably will be. Without wars, natural disasters and disease to cull it, it grows to the point where food is scarce and starvation the big killer. Population grows faster than agriculture production, and faster than the world can support. it's not necessarily a bad thing, something has to hold it back, but it does mean a happy balance, with food and population growing in balance, isn't ever going to happen.

[Kuciwalker]

Humans aren't Malthusian.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by GePap


And what jobs would that be, exactly, given that subsistance frarmers would hardly be capable of going into industrial jobs, given that industries in said countries are horribly non-competative against existing industry?

So GM crops can lead to amss social instability and bloodshed? Then what the **** do we need them for?

Can you point to a nation where moving population from farming to industry did not raise the standards of living over the long haul?

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Humans aren't Malthusian.

No, but they still multiply faster than agriculture grows. Just not in a geometric/arithmetric dichotomy.