GMO discussion with teacher

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
well you asked how anyone could think that GMO's were a good thing and i think hungry people think it's a good thing

Here's someone, from California, cheering on GMO, because people are going hungry....How do you feel about farmers not being able to even grow a crop, to FEED THE HUNGRY, because some backward thinking environmentalists, love a little fish, more than they care about hungry people?

well i don't know what being from California has to do with any of this. But i don't think anyone is always right, but the fed's have cut water to some farmers here. But most things that the government gets in to gets screwed up

 

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
All water is reclaimed...They aren't making anymore.....Maybe scientists could get on that project and figure out how to do it, in the Sahara Desert, and they could grow their own GMO corn.

don't fuel cells make water ? see you can make water

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

So what you are saying is the farmer pays extra to buy GMO seeds then has to spend more on weed killer and then gets a smaller crop that is worth less. So you are saying the farmers are stupid ?

No, what she is saying is that Monsanto is trying to control the seed and the law about the seed so that the farmer loses any say or choice in the matter and HAS to buy from them whether he wants to or not EVEN THOUGH GMO IS LESS ECONOMICAL FOR HIM. If they hold all the patents, what choice will he have? They seem to be angling for a future where the farmer will have to buy seed from them or give up farming--in which case someone will buy his land and Monsanto's seed and keep the cycle going. Monsanto's goal seem to be to control all the production of food in the country and maybe even on the planet. Now THAT'S a scary thought!​

 

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
No, what she is saying is that Monsanto is trying to control the seed and the law about the seed so that the farmer loses any say or choice in the matter and HAS to buy from them whether he wants to or not EVEN THOUGH GMO IS LESS ECONOMICAL FOR HIM. If they hold all the patents, what choice will he have? They seem to be angling for a future where the farmer will have to buy seed from them or give up farming--in which case someone will buy his land and Monsanto's seed and keep the cycle going. Monsanto's goal seem to be to control all the production of food in the country and maybe even on the planet. Now THAT'S a scary thought!

So why is the farmer buying the seed there is other seed ?

 

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
Well, thats good - sort of... But what about the biggest problem of them all? Too darn many of us! And each year there is more, thats unsustainable. You can use GMOs to try to compensate, but for how long, and what will be left if this goes on unchecked?

Here's a solution to that problem. Everyone who says that there are too many of us, must be the first to volunteer to remove themselves from the equation.......Oh, that puts a different spin on things, doesn't it? It's all those other people, who are crowding everything up.

who was it that said all those that are for abortion have already been born ?
hint an ex president

 

[Royd]

Quote:
Here's someone, from California, cheering on GMO, because people are going hungry....How do you feel about farmers not being able to even grow a crop, to FEED THE HUNGRY, because some backward thinking environmentalists, love a little fish, more than they care about hungry people?

well i don't know what being from California has to do with any of this. But i don't think anyone is always right, but the fed's have cut water to some farmers here. But most things that the government gets in to gets screwed up

The point being, that your state's economy has been severly hampered, by environmentalists, and thus, a large portion of the nation's food supply. Dealing with problems, which are immediately in front of us, with solutions as simple as lifting onerous, arbitrary regulations, and turning the water back on, would eliminate a huge portion of any food shortage, and reboot the economy in one fell swoop. Instead, we'll play around with plant genetics, hoping to get a few more kernels on an ear of corn, which can take years, and in the end, due to hybridization, create the possibilty of a major disaster, if other factors are involved....Like having environmentalists shut off the water supply to your crop.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Quote:
No, what she is saying is that Monsanto is trying to control the seed and the law about the seed so that the farmer loses any say or choice in the matter and HAS to buy from them whether he wants to or not EVEN THOUGH GMO IS LESS ECONOMICAL FOR HIM. If they hold all the patents, what choice will he have? They seem to be angling for a future where the farmer will have to buy seed from them or give up farming--in which case someone will buy his land and Monsanto's seed and keep the cycle going. Monsanto's goal seem to be to control all the production of food in the country and maybe even on the planet. Now THAT'S a scary thought!

So why is the farmer buying the seed there is other seed ?

Because Monsanto has been lobbying for years for laws that protect their interests. While it hasn't totally happened yet, we have all seen some goofy rules coming out of the FDA and other agencies that bolster Monsanto and make it harder and harder for farmers to plant what they want. Rules about what can be planted, where it can be planted, and how if GMO seeds get blown into neighboring fields, suddenly that farmer cannot save his own seed because it now contains Monsanto's patented plant material. Or he can save it but has to pay their fees in some cases. It gets to be all about legalities instead of farming. Monsanto's got plenty of lawyers. Family farmers do not. Eventually their GMO technology will have been spread by the wind to infect all the seed and they will control production on those farms whether the farmer agrees or not.

I would not want to be a farmer dependent on his farm for sole support of his family in, say, about 15-20 years. By then it is gonna be really hard to find seed that has not been affected in some way by Monsanto's plant patents.

JMO, of course.


Rusty

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
No, what she is saying is that Monsanto is trying to control the seed and the law about the seed so that the farmer loses any say or choice in the matter and HAS to buy from them whether he wants to or not EVEN THOUGH GMO IS LESS ECONOMICAL FOR HIM. If they hold all the patents, what choice will he have? They seem to be angling for a future where the farmer will have to buy seed from them or give up farming--in which case someone will buy his land and Monsanto's seed and keep the cycle going. Monsanto's goal seem to be to control all the production of food in the country and maybe even on the planet. Now THAT'S a scary thought!

So why is the farmer buying the seed there is other seed ?

Exactly. It is a choice. If a farmer buys RoundUp Ready corn it is because he wishes to use roundup. If a farmer wishes to plant non-Round Ready Corn and not spray Round Up he certainly can. Is Monsanto out to make as large a profit as they can ? Sure. It's their duty to their stock holders and the purpose of their business. No one is forced to follow the Monsanto program. I don't.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Just as the consumer has a choice.

Non GMO food is available. Head right out to the natural/organic food grocer of your choice. It isn't like organic products are banned.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I'm going to be kind, because I think most of this discussion is coming from young adults.

This has been discussed many times on BYC, and almost always gets shut down.

Very little of the corn grown in this country is NOT GMO, now. And yes, many of the major seed/chemical companies are only offering GMO corn.

Corn is a wonderful example of an wind pollenated crop. This means that Farmer Joe's organic farm can be contaminated by Monsanto's GMO corn from down the street. Farmer Joe can no longer can no longer market his crop as organic, and to add further insult to injury, Monsanto gets to sue him for using their intellectual property. The courts have sided with Monsanto on this, with very little understanding of the biology behind corn pollenation. GMO crops are reducing genetic diversity, not expanding it.

Most of the GMO products on the market were not developed for increased production or nutrition. They were developed for resistance to herbicides. This allows farmers to chemically weed plants that previously would have been killed by the herbicides. There is mounting evidence that production is actually going down with GMO crops.

The chemical lobby has also effectively crippled any potential labeling laws in this country. You cannot choose to avoid GMO plants because they are not labeled. All the lovely high fructose corn syrup in just about everything is from genetically modified corn, and almost all the soy grown in this country is the same. So if it is not in the processed food you eat, then it is in the meat from the cows fed the GMO product. No choice, no labeling but of course, no conspiracy.

Quite frankly, there has been no long term studies on the implications of GMO crops, because they simply haven't been around long enough for long term studies.

If you really want to know more about both sides of this issue, search the previous discussion on this site, and then take it to the wider world of the web. There is a lot of information out there, and you can make up your own mind.

I would not be convinced that a biology teacher would actually know that much about what is being done with GMO crops, unless it is an interest of the teacher. The mechanics of GMO the teacher should understand, but that isn't the whole story. The whole story involves politics, corporate control of agriculture, the history of the green revolution, agricultural economics, agricultural practices, and a host of other issues.