GMO's

What are your guys' thoughts on them? If any, I myself don't think they should be used.
Discuss.

P.S. When we use them on crops some of the crops are eaten by farm animals which then affects the animals.

 

One word. NOPE.

 

NOPEEE NOPE NOPE!!

 

They did a study on millions of cows, and found that they were not affected at all by GMOs.

I can ask many people what a GMO is, and many won't even know where it comes about. In truth, GMOs have been used since long before genetic engineering and predates our understanding on how to use restrictive enzymes to cut/paste favorable traits in the DNA of our crops. Cross pollination is a natural method of creating a GMO. The idea of being able to rip into the DNA of an organism and take out unfavorable traits and/or add favorable traits seems to strike fear in people. Believe me... bio-engineering involving the modification of DNA offers no major hazard because it's impossible to accidentally add something that can harm you. By the slim chance that they mess up a DNA modification, bio-engineers would immediately see the problem and not release the crop to the public.

You are able to make crops last longer, grow bigger, and even add nutrients inside them. An example would be a common genetic modification on tomatoes which includes removing an enzyme that causes them to go soft. There is nothing new added, but people seem to be scared of it because they don't understand it. The tomato is just as healthy as before, but it now has the benefit of lasting longer.

The problem here is lack of education. I've heard the dumbest claims going as for as "radioactivity" and "deadly chemicals" involved with GMOs. Literally, anyone with a basic understanding of how genetic modification works will tell you that GMOs don't cause the health problems that people are so worried about. I bet most people against GMOs don't even know what a restriction enzyme is, let alone how GMOs affect people and animals.

Now... to be on the fair side. I'm concerned with only one thing about GMOs. Pesticides. Pesticides that are grown as a result of GMO organisms pose a threat to our ecosystem... particularly that of the honey bee. Humans and animals can safely consume the crops, but unsuspecting insects wouldn't be so lucky. If we can do aware with the pesticide enriched GMOs, then there is literally no threat to allowing GMOs.

It's like someone being scared of drinking a clear liquid even though scientists can confirm it's just water.

 

Then* Than is comparative; then is not.

Personally, no. They should not be used. The fact is, food made w/o them tastes the same

 

There was also a study they did on rats and they fed some of them normal organic food and some food with GMO's in it, the ones that ate the GMO food wound up having large tumors and kidney problems and the organic eaters were perfectly fine.
Over 80% of all GMOs grown worldwide are engineered for herbicide tolerance. As a result, use of toxic herbicides like Roundup has increased 15 times since GMOs were introduced. GMO crops are also responsible for the emergence of “super weeds” and “super bugs:’ which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons like 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange). GMOs are a direct extension of chemical agriculture, and are developed and sold by the world’s biggest chemical companies.

 

If it weren't for GMOs, y'all wouldn't be eating

 

I've stated I do have a concern for the ecosystem. The problem is people seem to group all GMO crops as bad. It's not a matter of whether or not GMOs as a whole are bad; it's a matter of which GMOs are bad. Harmless changes (such as the tomato example) are not a hazard to health. There is, however, admittedly a lack of understanding for how it impacts our ecosystem. Major companies really don't care about the environment since they will be making money.

My point is more about the lack of understanding of GMOs, rather than what GMOs actually do. I have reasons in favor of them, just as I also have reasons against them. I can say that the food is safe, but I can't say that the ecosystem is.

 

When we first domesticated wheat, it was found that the first few generations after died of eating malnutrition, their bodies just weren't equipped to handle that type of food. However, eventually, their bodies evolved, and we've relied on it for thousands of years after.


Eventually we'll be fine.

 

Can you give a link to this study? Clearly if you know about it it was published.
There's such little evidence against it, people just don't understand what they are (which Skaros accurately showed)

 

I am not sure if this is exactly it because I saw the study on a documentary but here:http://www.gmoseralini.org/en/

P.S. I have not read this site so it might be different

 

When it comes to food, the difference between a non-GMO and a GMO isn't really that much different from the difference between an apple and an orange. Like Skaros said, the problem is that your average Joe doesn't know what "genetic modification" entails.

 

I live in St. Louis Missouri meaning I have seen Monsanto (The worlds largest supplier of GMOs) up close. They have a big impact in the St. Louis region and elsewhere. My uncle used to work for them before retiring too. I believe GMOs can be very good such as when you make a seed that is more resistant to drought and disease. On the other hand, GMOs can be a bad thing, especially when companies insert some traits such as kill traits which make the seeds die after one year meaning farmers have to buy more GMO seeds for the next year harvest.

 

Can you explain this article then? If you are willing to read it. --> http://www.responsibletechnology.org/health-risks

 

I'm 99.999% sure that that study was extremely small, small enough that anyone could have conducted it and that no real conclusions could be drawn from it. Also, if I remember correctly they study was biased in the first place.

 

The study was 2 years long.
Monsanto used the same kind of rats but only did it for 3 months, and it came out good, but they did not make a long enough study.

 

If I remember correctly it was like 20 rats lol

 

They used 200.

 

I could spend all night going into this, but ^this is basically my answer.
The same people who dislike all GMOS are the same people grasping for gluten free items without understanding what gluten is, and the same people who reiterate the word "organic" without knowing how its defined in law.

Largest GMO study: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonenti...-is-over-thanks-to-a-new-trillion-meal-study/

List of other GMO studies, all concluding the same thing as the next: http://www.fass.org/page.asp?pageID=52&autotry=true&ULnotkn=true

We, the people, should hate Monsanto because of their super shady business practices, not their GMOS.

Im suprised at the poll results here.

 

200 is basically nothing if you are trying to actually have a real study to prove a big point, I could do a "study" with 200 rats.