Genetically Modified Organisms

[Selinagirl]

I heard that GMO are quite accepted in the US, unlike here in Germany. We have great fears about what it can do to us and the environment and our farmers often burn down fields where GMO are planted, if you are a farmer and decide to plant it on yoir field you will never be accepted by your neighbours. What is your opinion on GMO?

 

[Riverwolf]

Our foods are already genetically modified. We've been genetically modifying our food for thousands of years, ever since the Agricultural Revolution. In other words, we've been eating GMOs for all that time in the first place.

My opinion is that this whole scare about "GMO" being some kind of new problem seems to be simple neophobia fed by misrepresentation in the media. The media (news outlets, magazine articles, etc.) is, quite simply, one of the single worst places to get scientific information.

'Sides, I understand that US farmers have been basically screwed over for about a century, now, with money being wasted on pesticides, and the false notion that fields need to be "virgin".

 

[Willamena]

They are only as acceptable as the lobbyists' promote them being such. Such is the power of lobbying.

 

[columbus]

What is your opinion on GMO?

At the very minimum, food packages that contain GMO ingredients should be labelled as such. Let the consumer decide if it is acceptable or not.

Here in the USA things don't work like that.

A small organic dairy went under assault from big companies because they put "No bovine growth hormones" on their packages. It was true and everyone knew it. So the big dairy producers dragged them into court, at enormous expense, claiming that it was unfair to put that on the label. The companies tried to put them out of business with legal fees.
I don't know if they were successful or not.
Tom

 

[Selinagirl]

They are only as acceptable as the lobbyists' promote them being such. Such is the power of lobbying.

Now, here in Ger, amy the lobbyists don't have much suchess. Genetically Modifying is only accepted in medicine, when it is vital. And Monsanto is maybe one of tje most evil companies of present days.

 

[Wirey]

Nonsense. Unless you can get people to stop having babies, you'd better get ready to feed them.

Mankind has been selectively breeding forever. This is just an extension of that.

 

[columbus]

This is just an extension of that.

This is no more an extension of selective breeding than deep water drilling is an extension of campfires.
Tom

 

[Selinagirl]

This is no more an extension of selective breeding than deep water drilling is an extension of campfires.
Tom

There is a difference between selective breeding and playing god by turning lifeforms in something completly new.

 

[George-ananda]

I heard that GMO are quite accepted in the US, unlike here in Germany. We have great fears about what it can do to us and the environment and our farmers often burn down fields where GMO are planted, if you are a farmer and decide to plant it on yoir field you will never be accepted by your neighbours. What is your opinion on GMO?

What are the bad things that Germans fear about GMOs?

 

[YmirGF]

I heard that GMO are quite accepted in the US, unlike here in Germany. We have great fears about what it can do to us and the environment and our farmers often burn down fields where GMO are planted, if you are a farmer and decide to plant it on yoir field you will never be accepted by your neighbours. What is your opinion on GMO?

I have not the slightest fear of so-called "GMO" foods. None, whatsoever. I simply don't understand the hysteria.

For the record, Monsanto is not an evil company. That is just silly.

 

[Selinagirl]

What are the bad things that Germans fear about GMOs?

Maybe it can change our own DNA or produce unknown toxic elements. By the way, we are also a big market for organically grown food, so we are sceptic even about conventional farming. And the organic farmers fear the pollution with GMO polls so they can no longer sell their products as organically grown. The main thing is, i think, we aren't that progress - believing than the Americans. We also don't accept nuclear power as much as you do, we are on the way out of it since Fukushima.

 

[Selinagirl]

I have not the slightest fear of so-called "GMO" foods. None, whatsoever. I simply don't understand the hysteria.

For the record, Monsanto is not an evil company. That is just silly.

Ask the indian farmers who bought Monsanto seed.

 

[Selinagirl]

And by the way, it is not needed. Even if Bush told the opposite, there is allready enough food in the world with conventional farming. It's just a matter of distribution.

 

[columbus]

There is a difference between selective breeding and playing god by turning lifeforms in something completly new.

Exactly. This is not a difficult concept.
But the USA is run by profit. Intellectual honesty is for losers.
Tom

 

[columbus]

And by the way, it is not needed. Even if Bush told the opposite, there is allready enough food in the world with conventional farming. It's just a matter of distribution.

Exactly.
But intellectual honesty is for losers.
Tom

 

[columbus]

Ask the indian farmers who bought Monsanto seed.

Or small farmers whose fields are adjacent to Monsanto's. They were prohibited by law from selling their crops freely by copyright laws. The GMO pollen had drifted across fences and Monsanto had the legal rights to tell them what they can and cannot do.
But Monsanto has no legal liability for ruining "heritage" strains when their pollen invades other people's fields.
Tom

 

[Marisa]

I heard that GMO are quite accepted in the US, unlike here in Germany. We have great fears about what it can do to us and the environment and our farmers often burn down fields where GMO are planted, if you are a farmer and decide to plant it on yoir field you will never be accepted by your neighbours. What is your opinion on GMO?

I don't have a problem with GMO's. There are people starving in parts of the world that could benefit greatly from hard to kill seed crops that produce reliably.

That said, I have a major disagreement with the way companies like Monsanto do business, and the fact that their corporate bigwigs often have a way of turning up in our government.

 

[Musty]

I don't have a major issue with GMO's as long as there are safeguards in place to ensure that wild populations don't attain genes which give them significant advantages over competitors which could cause serious environmental damage. With the threat of climate change I suspect that GMO's are going to be a necessity for meeting future food demands in the face of fluctuating global weather patterns that would otherwise fatally disrupt current food production capacity.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I heard that GMO are quite accepted in the US, unlike here in Germany. We have great fears about what it can do to us and the environment and our farmers often burn down fields where GMO are planted, if you are a farmer and decide to plant it on yoir field you will never be accepted by your neighbours. What is your opinion on GMO?

A number of farmers over here say they wouldn't eat what they grow themselves. Rather telling imo.

 

[Paranoid Android]

There is a difference between selective breeding and playing god by turning lifeforms in something completly new.