Presently they are about resistance to insects, better weed management practices, and virus resistance, and they work.
Of course this works against the targeted diseases and parasites. No objections so far. But still there's a chance of diseases an parasites missed or adapting to the modified organisms.
And as a matter of fact, I have asked biologists about this very subject. University professors in genetics, biochemistry, plant biology, and agriculture. Guess how many of them opposed genetic engineering? None.
No wonder. I don't think it's all about genetic engineering in general, but how it can be used (and misused) by profit seeking corporations.
Whenever you take and engineer biological entities such as plants, that are gentically identical and create entire artificial eco systems that have low diversity, or in the case of GMO, _NO_ diversity, all sorts of catastrophic destruction can happen to the population.
That doesn't even make sense. Yes, lack of biodiversity is bad. Genetic engineering however is a way of improving a plant, not a system of agriculture. What you are saying is like saying that modifying cars with spinning rims means that there will only be one car on the market. Furthermore, even with GE crops, they breed the trait into numerous different lines of the crop.
Your point is valid.
Biodiversity is what you grow. genetic engineering is a way to improve it. That's a false dichotomy that makes absolutely no sense and could just as easily be applied to conventional breeding.
True.
GMO has got to be the worst possible idea of all time.
Tell that to the papaya farmers in Hawaii who would no longer be papaya farmers without the GE Rainbow papaya. Tell that to the farmers in India who stole Bt cotton seeds from test fields. Tell that to the farmers all across America, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina who willingly choose to buy GE seed every year.
According to my sources (various newspapers) the reality looks a bit different: The Indian farmers experienced a crop shortfalls due a fungus. The ones that stole Bt cotton most likely expected a wonder like the ones who purchased it because the advertisements from Monsanto promised exactly that wonder.
I'm sure many farmers are still willing to buy GE seed, as they expect more yield. But many of the farmers have no other chances: In the USA and possibly in other countries too it's nearly impossible to get unmodified seed for corn. And if you get unmodified seed you'll face the risk of contamination with GE seed and be sued for unauthorized use of GE seed. Or you can't simply find a seed washer because most of them got sued.
It isn't by accident you know, they will not put GMO labels on food. They know it is not safe, and they do not want you to know about it.
They?
Most likely he means the bio tech industry like Monsanto.
I always wondered why a country dedicated to the power of the free marked let the consumers uninformed about the content of the products they buy. Only an informed consumer can make the right decision. And if it works so well the producers will be proud to print a "contains GMO ingredients" on their products like the ones who are proud to print "contains no GMO ingredients" on their salad.
GMO also is causing massive extinction rates in our grain crops from gene contamination. If this isn't stopped, there won't be any grain species left that are safe to eat.
Really? Care to explain in detail how a single new transgene could possibly do that? Because it sounds like you just made that up.
It sounds like you know nothing about biology or agriculture, but you've got conspiracies down.
The the original comment implied that GMO are inherently unsafe to eat. Of course it's possible to create GMO that are harmful it's not true for every modification. GMO food must be rigorously tested in long therm studies to be sure. And exactly here the companies cut short, because a thorough study it's too expensive. Still this doesn't mean that the food is harmful, but we simply don't know. (If you argument conventional bred organism also carry the risk to be harmful: Yes of course this is possible, but as the whole process is slow and the modifications small this is a much smaller risk)
~Andy
