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[CornBurrito]

You're sure right that GMOs extend beyond the crops. Like grain that is Round-up ready to kill off the weeds competing with it, and the weeds become resistant, so in the end the farmer has to spray more in order to kill off the weeds your GMO strain can't kill off anymore. Where do you think all that extra spray goes? Does it disappear? Does it magically go away to some far away land that doesn't exist for you? How about this...it goes into your water supply, it goes into the ground where your food grows, it goes eventually into you.

As for that strain of GMO grain, you've now created a hardier, stronger, more resistant weed strain. Good luck with that. I can't wait to see what you do now to that GMO strain to make it more resistant to the weeds. It's like a war of deterrent you're going to lose, since nature is the ultimate survivalist.

GMO Herbicides

It certainly sounds like your problem is with pesticides, rather than GMO crops.

 

[Deified Data]

Like most areas it helps to keep an open mind. Most rational people on GAF will tell you that there's nothing inherently wrong with GMOs, and I'd agree with them. Some people happen to oppose Monsanto and other producers for their business practices, which I also agree with. Some people conflate opposition to Monsanto with opposition to GMOs, which I've always found annoying. Seems every Monsanto thread devolves into "fucking luddite" namecalling. I'm always shocked at the size of Monsanto's defense force on GAF. I think it's partially due to those aforementioned people who are frustrated with anti-GMO folk and lunge at anyone who even resembles them.

 

[fakefaker]

I posted a critique of the Benbrook study earlier in this thread. It covers a number of responses from actual scientists who brought up several valid questions about the methodology of the paper. Furthermore, conferring herbicide resistance to plants is not an exclusive technique of GMOs. In a broader sense, the chances that the target of a specific chemical will evolve some kind of immunity is a problem in a variety of fields, including medicine. Michael Specter, writing in The New Yorker about an anti-GMO documentary, draws this obvious analogy:

Seifert even manages to mangle the points worth stressing. He says that weeds have become resistant to glyphosate; that is, to some degree, true. It is also true of every other pesticide or drug ever used. It is explained by a process called evolution. People with H.I.V. or tuberculosis, for example, take cocktails of medications; if they took only a single drug, the bugs would become resistant to it soon enough. That doesn’t mean there is nothing to be done about resistance or pests—or that it isn’t a problem. But better farming practices, like rotating crops and using cover crops, would help. So would lessening the practice of monoculture—planting a single crop, such as ten thousand acres of corn, and nothing else—which poses an equal danger to conventional and engineered products.

I agree that things change in nature, that's evolution in it's most basic form. What I have a problem with is that GMOs bring about a more radical form of change brought on by humans who are not in control of nature. Plus we don't really know the long term effects that we're causing with GMOs. You can quote science all you like, but nothing but time show's the effects.

 

[fakefaker]

It certainly sounds like your problem is with pesticides, rather than GMO crops.

No, sorry but here's my direct quote.

You're sure right that GMOs extend beyond the crops. Like grain that is Round-up ready to kill off the weeds competing with it, and the weeds become resistant, so in the end the farmer has to spray more in order to kill off the weeds your GMO strain can't kill off anymore.

 

[CornBurrito]

No, sorry but here's my direct quote.

You're sure right that GMOs extend beyond the crops. Like grain that is Round-up ready to kill off the weeds competing with it, and the weeds become resistant, so in the end the farmer has to spray more in order to kill off the weeds your GMO strain can't kill off anymore.

Yes and your direct quote still makes it sound like your problem is with pesticides, not GMOs.

You do realize not all GMOs are made to be pesticide resistant, right?

Also not all GMOs are even plants. So pesticides aren't even a factor in a lot of cases.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I don't have a problem with being cautious, but all of the anti-GMO people I know are prone to making statements about GMOs without any factual basis, such as suggesting GMOs give you cancer.

 

[Kinitari]

Like most areas it helps to keep an open mind. Most rational people on GAF will tell you that there's nothing inherently wrong with GMOs, and I'd agree with them. Some people happen to oppose Monsanto and other producers for their business practices, which I also agree with. Some people conflate opposition to Monsanto with opposition to GMOs, which I've always found annoying. Seems every Monsanto thread devolves into "fucking luddite" namecalling. I'm always shocked at the size of Monsanto's defense force on GAF. I think it's partially due to those aforementioned people who are frustrated with anti-GMO folk and lunge at anyone who even resembles them.

A large, large, large amount of people dislike Monsanto for dubious reasons. I think there are a few fair criticisms to level at them - but nothing that makes them significantly different than any other large corporations - if I am wrong, please enlighten me.

Why is Monsanto particularly different than any other large company in it's degree of 'evilness' or whatever?

 

[rudieboy77]

I'm going to use and old right wing idiom about GMO's, "If the GMO manufacturers have nothing to hide, then why fight labeling products"?

 

[MilkBeard]

Those people always seemed really noisy about it. I don't know much about GMO's, it's just one of those things where I think "Oh, those noisy people are complaining about something that's probably pretty bad, but not bad enough for me to care," and then I forget about it.

Am I part of the problem?

Spoiler

ha ha

 

[Lamel]

Most pro-GMO or anti-GMO people haven't the faintest idea of basic biology to even cast an opinion.

One of the biggest pitfalls of this country is the fact that everyone isn't required to take a bio class in college or something.