Posted on 07/19/2014 6:58:29 AM PDT by Renfield
Why are they restrictions seeds in Europe and trying to regulate back yard gardens here in the us.
First of all, they never accept (because they're so high on the emotionalism of GMO cookery) that wheat is not GMO--at least no wheat that is made into flour in the US. Flour may not be the best thing for you as a big part of your diet, but not because it's GMO.
“I grow a garden, I eat local, I am a foodie who loves to cook and eat. I try to limit processed food”
So in other words you avoid GMO like the plague. :-)
I’ll eat untested food, as *you* categorize it, if I’m starving to death. It is part of the idiocy of the GMO kooks that they cannot distinguish between the food snobbery of the West and the starvation that used to be much more prevalent in the Third World.
Golden Rice is better than no Golden Rice, GMO or not. People will not go blind who would otherwise have gone blind. People will live who will otherwise have died. Maybe they'll be subject to a wheat belly or a cancer risk when they hit their sixties---but they'll have lived to their sixties. Next problem--Gates Foundation promotes abortion while pretending that they are not promoting abortion…
Interestingly, most of the GMO kooks I know can't cook, or won't learn. Too much work. I've tried to explain that if they prepare their own food instead of whining and wailing when they insist on eating all the time in restaurants, they'd avoid this "poison" they're so afraid of. I won't eat salads at restaurants very often because I know that salads are raw, and vulnerable to poor hygiene. But my GMO nut acquaintances won't eat anything but salads.
I also cannot persuade them that sweet corn is not GMO.
It's my personal theory that our present obesity, particularly among young people, has to do with the widespread use of birth control pills, and the consequent exposure of people to estrogens not present in the environment fifty years ago. It's as good a theory as any.
Look up recent research into something called mRNAi.
I personally no longer trust GMO foods. Yes, the population may be fed today, who knows what sort of epigenetic changes are being induced that might well affect the fertility of subsequent generations.
My distrust of GMO stems directly from those who are promoting it so rabidly. And that they are pretty much all equally rabidly promoting population control by any means possible.
I used to be of that opinion. After doing a lot of research, I'm not anymore. I avoid GMO foods. I also don't like the fact that because companies like Monsanto now OWN their GMO seed as a new kind of seed, they can charge farmers for it every year. Farmers no longer own the seeds they plant, and they can't harvest seed from their own crops. Don't let the fact that some nutty leftist groups oppose GMO food sway you, as it did me at first.
The big seed tech companies don't control anything except their own patents. They develop new varieties using a variety of methods, including but not limited to gene splicing. They then commercialize and sell what farmers want to buy. Farmers, in turn, want to plant what their customers wish to buy. Most corn and soybeans are destined for animal feed, and feed manufacturers and animal feeders want high quality inputs at the lowest possible cost. GMO's boost productivity and lower costs. This is what drives GMO's.
At what point in this straightforward process does the evil conspiracy come in?
I have nothing against organic producers as long as they don't make false claims. Unfortunately, there is a radical fringe that poisons the discussion. Organics are generally significantly more expensive than their conventional counterparts. This is why "organic" still only commands 1-2% of the U.S. market, despite endless hype. This frustrates the activists, who respond by trying to demonize conventional agriculture. This is a form of consumer fraud; it is intended to gull people into paying much higher prices for a product that is no better, and is in some respects inferior, based on dishonest scare stories about the competition. I hope some future administration unleashes the FTC consumer fraud unit against the professional liars.
As for myself, I vote with my wallet, as should you. When I see "organic" on the label, I immediately check the unit price, and then compare. I prefer not to be fleeced by hucksters. YMMV.
I am glad to hear of genuine, authentic philanthropy coming from the Gates Foundation. Unfortunately, they are up to a lot of pernicious behavior as well, and still need to be observed. They are tied very closely to Warren Buffett, who has been exposed as a pro-abortion extremist with his “charities.”
Sheesh. This is Free Republic. Why does this require explanation?
It’s the broken clock effect. Even left-wingers can do good and we should applaud them for that - while continuing to vigorously criticize them for all the bad that they do.
I said not a word about the green revolution.
From your article...
“He spent countless hours hunched over in the blazing Mexican sun as he manipulated tiny wheat blossoms to cross different strains.”
Oh how things have changed.
“I’ll eat untested food, as *you* categorize it, if I’m starving to death.”
Have at it.
“The big seed tech companies don’t control anything except their own patents”
I’ve watched these companies systematically buy up all the independent seed house and remove the varieties of seed from availability, substituting only their expensive patented varieties.
Actually, patents on seeds, as currently constituted, are different from software patents and from music copyright. Neither software patents nor copyrights claim monopoly rights over the results of natural processes — the generation of seeds by plants grown from patented seed — simply on the basis that the natural process might have produced a copy of the patented product. (Not being in agriculture, but having a flower garden with some reseeding annuals, I find it improbable that the patented gene-insertions will breed true.)
bfl
"All" is an overstatement. There has been consolidation in this as in most other industries. But there are still many small independent seed companies, and farmers have choices. And if someone wants to sell heirloom seeds, the door is wide open. Those aren't on patent.
Of course, one would have to find a farmer willing to settle for much lower yields. Outside of the organic cult, that's hard to do.
Those comfortable, well fed people at the UN are pushing implementation of Agenda 21, which includes a reduction of world population by 85%. They're just working on it when they lie about GMO foods.
Yes, Agenda 21, as above.
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