The return of Quetzalcoatl: Amaranth fights back Monsanto

[Fake Boris]

I also got a good laugh from how they poo-poo on 2-4-D in the article while cheering for the (way overblown) demise of Roundup ... If Roundup Ready crops are no longer economical, farmers will simply have to return to what they would have been doing if there had never been Roundup Ready crops available. While it's good the article can understand that those alternatives are actually more harmful than GMO crops ... it's silly they dream of a day Nature forces those more harmful alternatives on us.

Read again.

Farmers are forced to manually de-weed.

All around the world, (notably Indian cotton and Georgian soy) fields are being converted back to non-GMO crops. This is just the beginning.

[Fake Boris]

...as does vegemite and natto?

I don't know about your tastes, but I would rank any fast food as disgusting. I visited an amaranth plant in Mexico, and the amaranth products they had us taste were pretty tasty.

[Fake Boris]

Oh, no, an unintended consequence! Quick, abandon science!

You are ****ing stupid.

Genes are cross-breeding from gmo crops to wild species. Science can tell you it's a bad idea.

[Lorizael]

Studies began documenting weed resistance several years ago but the problem continues to mount, with The New York Times warning of the “Rise of the Superweeds” analogous to that of the ‘superbugs’ in medicine.

Right, and superbugs are appearing due to overuse of antibiotics. Despite that, antibiotics are still one of the greatest inventions of modern medical science, responsible for saving millions upon millions of lives. So antibiotics are still a good thing despite having some bad consequences. Similarly, GMO crops can also be net good things despite having some bad consequences. This story is an argument for the careful use of GMO crops, not an argument against GMO crops entirely.

[Fake Boris]

1) The comparison between superbugs and superweeds fails.
2) Define "careful use". How do you prevent cross-fertilization?
3) There are several more dangers associated to gmo crops.

[Lorizael]

1) The comparison between superbugs and superweeds fails.

Your poorly written article made the comparison, not me.

2) Define "careful use". How do you prevent cross-fertilization?

I don't know; I'm not a geneticist.

3) There are several more dangers associated to gmo crops.

Yes, and?

[Lorizael]

New things are often dangerous. Again, that's an argument for being careful, not an argument for doing nothing.

[Hauldren Collider]

Cars kill people ergo we should get rid of ambulances

[Fake Boris]

What makes you think that we're being careful with gmos?

By definition, corporations can't be trusted to handle the security of their products. And the legislation about gmos in North America is grossly deficient.

[Aeson]

Read again.

Farmers are forced to manually de-weed.

No. There are many herbicides that can still be used. In cases there aren't herbicides to use, no one outside the 3rd world is manually weeding grains. It's called mechanical cultivation... using tractors with cultivators. (Usually you will see a combination of mechanical cultivation and herbicides used.)

The problem with mechanical cultivation is it requires more spacing between the rows ... it increase soil compaction, runoff, and erosion problems. That all means less yield per unit of area, thus more area planted, thus even more soil compaction, runoff, and erosion problems.

Not to mention more cost and fuel use.

[Aeson]

The Roundup Ready gene being transferred* to other species only has one known effect, and that's to make the species resistant to Roundup. While this is bad for farmers, it's bad in the way that not using Roundup is bad. It means the economic advantage from using Roundup is no longer possible to achieve. As such, Roundup Ready wasn't bad, it was temporarily good. (And still good in many cases where it hasn't been misused.)

*In most (perhaps all) cases of resistance developing to Roundup the gene isn't being transferred from the Roundup Ready crop, weeds are naturally becoming resistant through their own evolution. This happens with EVERY herbicide or pesticide. The survivors survive because of genetic resistances, and thus populations become more and more resistant if a single method is used to control them. This is why in modern agriculture, farmers rotate several control methods with different modes of action. That way the survivors (and their spawn) who were resistant to mode X get killed by mode Y or mode Z... when farmers ignore this and use only one method is when problems arise.

[Dinner]

Why do they keep saying it's resistant to "Roundup ready" in that article? Roundup ready is a label for crops that have been genetically modified to be resistant to Roundup (the name of the herbicide). Amaranth clearly isn't resistant to Roundup ready because it got knocked up by it and now is making Roundup ready babies.

Yep, and this is just another example why no-name hippy blogs are not a decent source for news.

[Dinner]

I wonder if it is possible to make amaranth taste good.

After years of trying in my younger health conscience days I can conclusively say that no it is not possible. Quinoa always sucks as well. This is why I've given up on being healthy.

[Fake Boris]

Aeson still hasn't figured that 3rd world = majority of the world

and that

the issue is gene transmission at large, not just the Roundup fiasco.

[Fake Boris]

Yep, and this is just another example why no-name hippy blogs are not a decent source for news.

Worthless semantics.