Genetic Modification of Plants

[kayevcee]

What do you good folks think about genetic modification of food crops? The BBC is running a couple of articles on it on their website just now, with the sort of headlines we've come to expect when dealing with the subject:

GM food: Monster or Saviour?
Could GM food help feed Africa?

In light of stories like this, does anyone have any ideas on how to dig humanity out of its present hole?

-Nick

[Fortmax2020]

It hasn't killed anyone yet and there's no reason why GMOs should as far as I know. The fuss over it is purely societal and reactionary in my opinion.

If we are cutting off one possible route of help in solving our current food crisis we shouldn't be complaining when prices go up.

[Deleted]

It is my opinion that we shouldn't mess with nature. It has been proven that there are some vegetables that become poisonous when genetically modified due to the kind of things they contain.

[kayevcee]

The thing is, humans have been messing with nature via selective breeding for as long as agriculture has existed. Genetic modification is just a slightly more ambitious and controlled version of that, and surely a seed that produces toxic fruit would not be released onto the market as an industrial-scale food source? The designers have to test for that sort of thing- until Greenpeace come along and tear up the test sites, of course.

One of my big concerns about genetic modification is the way it seems to be portrayed by pretty much every outlet going- "GM" is like a two-state switch- either on or off, with no stages in between "barely domesticated forage crop" and "tomatoes with eyeballs". Whenever a news report or paper article talks about a newly modified crop, they can blather on for several minutes/columns without ever saying what the modification is *for*, leaving people to assume something similar to Zudobug's rather ominous post across the board.

-Nick

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Indeed. Look at any pet dog and you will see a genetically modified animal.

Without being an expert, it seems to me that the dangers of introducing GM crops are along the lines of the dangers of introducing non-native species to a country, which has been done by both man and nature since time began. Introducing non-native species to a country has led to species becoming extinct and ecosystems being disrupted, but hasn't made the world uninhabitable.

Similarly, I would equate the question of whether humans are now clever and responsible enough to introduce GM crops in a way that benefits the world, to the question of whether we are clever and responsible enough to introduce non-native species to countries in a way that ends up benefiting.

I don't know the answer.

Martin

[grahamthomson]

Commerical bananas are also a long-standing example of "messing with nature".

[mewshkin]

Is it worth pointing out that pedigree dogs are generally less healthy than mongrels?

Anyway, here's a fair summation of the case against GM food production: www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/03/09/seeds-of-distraction/

[Fortmax2020]

That's more of an argument against how they would be distributed and/or 'controlled' by organisations around the world rather than their actual production.

Some other thoughts here - www.jubilee-centre.org/document.php?id=239