WTO to EU: You'll eat GM food and like it!

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Oerdin


I think this would be a great experiment to do. Ask people to sign a petition to ban hydrogen monoxide because X number of people are killed by hydrogen monoxide each year (via drownding or what not but don't tell them that). It would be funny to see how many people agree with the proposed ban.

I and some friends made exactly that some years ago; got a few hundred people to sign it in a couple hours.

Sure, some understood it was a joke and signed it just for the hell of it, but many enough took it seriously.


As for GM crops, anything that brings greater profits to US agrobusiness has to be a bad thing.

[DanS]

Here's some context for the crop yields discussion from something I read today.

Glyphosate, known to many as Roundup, is by far the most heavily used herbicide in the US. It has been for decades. It basically "burns down" all plants in a field except for crops. Glyphosate breaks down quickly in the environment (within days, IIRC) such that any runoff is merely unharmful pollution. From what we know, it is a relative very "good actor" among pesticides.

In the last several years, Monsanto, the company that once held the patent for glyphosate, has introduced Roundup-Ready (GM) crops that are resistant to glyphosate's burndown effect. You can put a lot more glyphosate on a field and your crops will still flourish. Because Roundup-Ready is so effective, it has taken lots of market share away from perhaps more dangerous herbicides, especially in cotton and soybean fields.

From 1997 to 2002, due to the massive introduction of Roundup-Ready crops, US farmers increased their glyphosate application from 35 million pounds to 102 million pounds per annum. Presumably, much/most of the increase in Roundup-Ready was in 2002, the last year of data that is in the report that I am reading. That explains these runups in yields.

However, a more interesting fact is that while glyphosate use has exploded, herbicide use as a whole from 1997 to 2002 decreased by 62 million pounds per year. Assuredly, GM crops had a lot to do with that in one way or another.

[Drogue]

You can force us to allow it in, but as long as it's labelled, people won't mind too much, and people, by and large, won't buy it. I would, I like the idea of GM crops. But many people won't, and it's their decision whether or not they eat GM food.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by axi
Exactly. We have had the technology to feed all the world since ages, but capitalism won't let that happen. Why should this be different with GM foods?

That's silly. The capitalists and the free market is what has lead us to this over production situation we have now. That means food is cheaper then ever even for the poorest people and that supply isn't the problem with world hunger. Instead it is distribution especially in countries which have corrupt governments and crime rates so high most people won't do business there.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
whats with the tomatoe complaints? You eat tomatoes out of season, shipped thousands of miles, of course they were bred to resist bruising. If you want old fashioned tomatoes, you do the following, in descending order A. Buy locally grown ones, in season B. Buy from a farm stand or farmers market C. Grow them yourself

Tomatos grow year round where I live. They're still one of the lead crops in this area for that reason.

[Az]

GM.

The whole "no-taste" argument interesting, but AFAIK has nothing to do with GM, but with nutrients. Maybe a change of those is required, but this has nothing to do with GM, again, AFAIK.

[Last Conformist]

I suppose genetic engineering could be used to put the taste back into hydroponically grown tomatoes ...

[Drogue]

Or to make them taste of CHUTNEY!

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly

I'm sorry to hear it. I thought we were the only country that willingly gave up that pleasure. When I moved to Turkey in 2000, I actually tasted tomatoes for the first time since my childhood (in the 1960s). My first thought was, "What a treat!" Followed quickly by, "how freakin' perverse that it's a 'treat.' "

I grow more "heirloom" tomatoes every year in my garden than I can eat. They still taste great.