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The problem is that companies like Monsanto have done some very bad things and now every single GM crop is deemed awful because of their actions.
The “Green Revolution,” the worldwide transformation of agriculture that led to significant increases in agricultural production from 1940 through the 1960s. This transformation relied on a regime of genetic selection, irrigation, and chemical fertilizers pesticides developed by researchers such as Norman Borlaug and funded by a consortium of donors led by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.
The Green Revolution would later prove to have unwanted ecological impacts, such as aquifer depletion, and groundwater contamination, and excess nutrient runoff, largely because of its reliance on monoculture crops, irrigation, application of pesticides, and use of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers (Tilman et al., 2002). These unwanted environmental consequences now threaten to reverse many of the yield increases attributed to the Green Revolution in much of North America....
[DISEASE]
Currently, only half of all antibiotics are slated for human consumption. The other 50% are used to treat sick animals, as growth promoters in livestock, and to rid cultivated foodstuffs of various destructive organisms. This ongoing and often low-level dosing for growth and prophylaxis inevitably results in the development of resistance in bacteria in or near livestock, and also heightens fears of new resistant strains “jumping” between species…(WHO, 2000)
Despite increased recognition of the problem, the Infectious Disease Society of America (isda) recently declared antibiotic-resistant infections to be an epidemic in the United States (Spellberg et al., 2008). The CDC estimated that 2 million people contract resistant infections annually and, of those, 90,000 die. A decade ago, the Institute of Medicine estimated that antimicrobial resistance costs the United States between $4 and $5 billion annually, and these costs are certainly higher now as the problem of resistance has grown and intensified worldwide (Harrison et al., 1998).
Because bacteria reproduce rapidly, resistance can develop relatively quickly in the presence of antimicrobial agents, and once resistance genes appear in the bacterial gene pool, they can be transferred to related and unrelated bacteria. Therefore, increased exposure to antimicrobials (particularly at low levels) increases the pool of resistant organisms and the risk of antimicrobial-resistant infections......
[ECONOMIC]
According to a recent Tufts University study, the overproduction of agricultural crops such as corn and soybeans due to US agricultural policy since 1996 has, until recently, driven the market price of those commodities well below their cost of production (Starmer and Wise, 2007 ), resulting in a substantial discount to ifap facility operators for their feed. The Tufts researchers also point out that, because of weak environmental enforcement, ifap facilities receive a further subsidy in the form of externalized environmental costs. In total, the researchers estimate that the current hog ifap facility receives a subsidy worth just over $ 10 per hundredweight, or just over $ 24 for the average hog, when compared with the true costs of production (Starmer and Wise, 2007 ; a Starmer and Wise, 2007 )....
The economic disparity between industrial farms and those that retain locally owned and controlled farms may be due in part, to the degree in which money stays in the community. Locally owned and controlled farms tend to buy their supplies and services locally, thus supporting a variety of local businesses. This phenomenon is known as the economic “multiplier” effect, estimated at approximately seven dollars per dollar earned by the locally owned farm. In contrast, ifap facilities under contract to integrators have a much lower multiplier effect....
Quality of life in rural communities has also declined, partly because of the entrenched poverty and lack of economic opportunity, but also because the linkages that once bound locally owned farms with the community have dissolved in many places and the social fabric of many communities has begun to fray. These changes are evident in negative attitudes about trust, neighborliness, community division, networks of acquaintanceship, democratic values, and community involvement, as well as increased crime and teen pregnancy rates, civil suits, and stress.
Although proponents of the industrialization of livestock agriculture point to its increased economic efficiency and hail ifap as the future of livestock agriculture, the Commission is concerned that the benefits may not accrue in the same way to affected rural communities. In fact, industrialization actually draws investment and wealth away from communities with ifap facilities.
The information in this piece is adapted from the writings of Robyn Van En, CSA of North America (CSANA); Liz Manes, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension; and Cathy Roth, University of Massachusetts Extension Agroecology Program.
www.pewtrusts.org...
Finally the European Patent Office (EPO) received applications from Baylor University for the patenting of women who had been genetically altered to produce proteins in their mammary glands. Baylor essentially sought monopoly rights over the use of human mammary glands to manufacture pharmaceuticals.
You have no evidence that GM crops have not helped to deal with famine.
When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared
...Unable to pay back the equivalent of two years' earnings, he was in despair. He could see no way out.
There were still marks in the dust where he had writhed in agony. Other villagers looked on - they knew from experience that any intervention was pointless - as he lay doubled up on the ground, crying out in pain and vomiting.
Moaning, he crawled on to a bench outside his simple home 100 miles from Nagpur in central India. An hour later, he stopped making any noise. Then he stopped breathing. At 5pm on Sunday, the life of Shankara Mandaukar came to an end....
Farmer suicides in India:
Now the full toll—surely among the largest sustained waves of suicides in human history—is becoming apparent. And as Sainath emphasizes, these numbers still underestimate the disaster, since women farmers are excluded from the official statistics...
It is important that the figure of 150,000 farm suicides is a bottom line estimate....
As Professor Nagaraj puts it: "There is likely to be a serious underestimation of suicides...what has driven the huge increase in farm suicides, particularly in the Big Four or ’Suicide SEZ’ States? "Overall," says Professor Nagaraj, "there exists since the mid-90s, an acute agrarian crisis. That’s across the country. In the Big Four and some other states, specific factors compound the problem....
Cultivation costs have shot up in these high input zones, with some inputs seeing cost hikes of several hundred per cent...
Meanwhile, prices have crashed, as in the case of cotton, due to massive U.S.-EU subsidies to their growers. All due to price rigging with the tightening grip of large corporations over the trade in agricultural commodities." alternatives-international.net... www.counterpunch.org...
FAO is supporting harmonization of seed rules and regulations in Africa and Central Asia in order to stimulate the development of a vibrant seed industry...
An effective seed regulation harmonization process involves dialogue amongst all relevant stakeholders from both private and public sectors. Seed quality assurance, variety release, plant variety protection, biosafety, plant quarantine and phytosanitary issues are among the major technical areas of a regional harmonized seed system. The key to a successful seed regulation harmonization is a strong political will of the governments involved www.fao.org...
Is not that the crops are bad, but that case studies on animals (rat labs) shows that GM is bad for human consumption.
By Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception
In a study in the early 1990’s rats were fed genetically modified (GM) tomatoes. Well actually, the rats refused to eat them. They were force-fed. Several of the rats developed stomach lesions and seven out of forty died within two weeks.1 Scientists at the FDA who reviewed the study agreed that it did not provide a “demonstration of reasonable certainty of no harm.†In fact, agency scientists warned that GM foods in general might create unpredicted allergies, toxins, antibiotic resistant diseases, and nutritional problems. Internal FDA memos made public from a lawsuit reveal that the scientists urged their superiors to require long-term safety testing to catch these hard-to-detect side effects.2 But FDA political appointees, including a former attorney for Monsanto in charge of policy, ignored the scientists’ warnings. The FDA does not require safety studies. Instead, if the makers of the GM foods claim that they are safe, the agency has no further questions. The GM tomato was approved in 1994.....
www.healthfreedomusa.org...
Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984
Originally posted by amazed
No, that is called "natural selection", and is something which nature can do. Genetically modifying means going in and adding things which nature, would never do. IE: adding scorpion genes to cabbage. Nature would never do this.
No sorry there are no crops as far as i am aware that currently use animal, reptile or any other genes that end up in our food chain.
I find it odd that people hear genetic engineering and think they will somehow take these genes into their own genome.
But understand that GM food can be perfectly healthy and good, simply an acceleration of selective breeding we already use.
Scientists have recently taken the gene that programs poison in scorpion tails and combined it with cabbage. Why would they want to create venomous cabbage? To limit pesticide use while still preventing caterpillars from damaging cabbage crops. These genetically modified cabbages produce scorpion poison that kills caterpillars when they bite leaves — but the toxin is modified so it isn’t harmful to humans.
People may soon be getting vaccinated for diseases like hepatitis B and cholera by simply taking a bite of banana.
Originally posted by amazed
Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984
Originally posted by amazed
No, that is called "natural selection", and is something which nature can do. Genetically modifying means going in and adding things which nature, would never do. IE: adding scorpion genes to cabbage. Nature would never do this.
\These genetically modified cabbages produce scorpion poison that kills caterpillars when they bite leaves — but the toxin is modified so it isn’t harmful to humans.
\
Yeah it obvious if you dont wante to debate nonsense all day. I also find that a big claim.....not harmful to humans. What do you define as harmful. I'm sure it influences you in another way than had you of eaten something else, a Mcdonalds burger even.
I'm not sure they have completely researched the long term effects, be them physical or psychological, of ingesting scorpion venom
I asked for evidence, not conspiracy theories.
It's not just the State and Defense departments that are reeling this month from leaked documents. The Environmental Protection Agency now has some explaining to do, too. In place of dodgy dealings with foreign leaders, this case involves the German agrichemical giant Bayer; a pesticide with an unpronounceable name, clothianidin; and an insect species crucial to food production (as well as a food producer itself), the honeybee.
It's not just the State and Defense departments that are reeling this month from leaked documents. The Environmental Protection Agency now has some explaining to do, too. In place of dodgy dealings with foreign leaders, this case involves the German agrichemical giant Bayer; a pesticide with an unpronounceable name, clothianidin; and an insect species crucial to food production (as well as a food producer itself), the honeybee.