Washington Post: Can we please cut it out with all of this anti-GMO asininity?

Hotair ^ | 06/03/2014 | Erika Johnsen

[Banjoguy]

Anybody discounting the danger of GMO is either just plain ignorant or a shill.

I agree with you about this. I have ceased using my microwave to cook food as I have this fear of the food dna being modified by the radiation from the magnetron. No one knows what modified foods will do to the human animal.

[Mase]

Someone who isn’t should have the freedom to choose to eat something else.

Is someone preventing you from purchasing organic food? Who are these evil people denying you your right to eat organically grown food? Are they also employed by Monsanto?

[sphinx]

I don’t care that it’s made by Monsanto, I care about accurate labeling.

See #29.

If you care about accurate labeling, you should oppose attempts to spread disinformation on labels in order to further scientifically unfounded scare campaigns.

[Ray76]

Interesting...

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx800218n

[sphinx]

You have my proxy. Soccer practice calls.

[Ray76]

I am not advocating for a “warning” label, just a label.

[ConservingFreedom]

[Mase]

Anybody discounting the danger of GMO is either just plain ignorant or a shill.

And don't ever discount the dangers of hormones in milk.

Multiply that by tens of thousands of new compounds that they haven't even identified yet.

Do you drink coffee? There are hundreds of compounds that come from roasting coffee beans that haven't been identified. Yeah, scary.

[alloysteel]

The biggest objection to GMO farm crops is that unlike naturally-pollinated crops, the seed of these mutant hybrids ends up having very low fertility. That means, that should the supply of new seed from the producers of the hybrid seed be unable to distribute their product, or the product gets priced prohibitively high, there is little chance that the stores of grain in the bins could be utilized to produce an alternate source of seed.

Hybrid corn has been around since the middle 1930’s. There have been some notable failures due to the intensely inbred stock used, some of which involved the sterility gene of the male reproductive parent of the corn plant, which normally has both male and female gamete production. One of these ended up with the Southern Corn Leaf Blight, a condition of genetic weakness in which the growing corn plant could not resist the attack of a certain fungus, destroying the grain formation process.

There is still a lot of fumbling going on in the study of the genetics of these field crops, and the resulting disappearance of disease and insect resistance.

[sphinx]

I am not advocating for a “warning” label, just a label.

Much of the public will (mistakenly) assume that it IS a warning label, because that is what mandatory labels usually are. And in this case, consumers are being invited to draw that conclusion from a steady barrage of disinformation spread by unprincipled folks in the "activist" community.

If all you want is a label, you already have it. Buy organic. It will usually cost you more, for no nutritional or health benefit (in fact, it's probably less safe), but that's your choice.

[Mase]

Maybe it isn't the gluten. There are a lot of people convinced that vaccines cause autism and that saturated fat causes heart disease.

Gluten sensitivity may not exist

I'll send you a bill.

[varyouga]

“If you want a good example, consider “pink slime,” a perfectly good food product whose name alone brought it down.”

Ah yes, a “perfectly good” food product that harbors so much bacteria it must be sterilized with ammonia before being pressed into frozen bricks. Are you sure that industrial ammonia is pure with no non-organic byproducts?

I'll stick with whole beef from a local farmer.

[slowhandluke]

I used to be on the fence. But one main reason for GMO is to produce things like Roundup Ready soybeans -- so the beans can be drenched in Roundup without killing the soybean plant, just the weeds. The bean might be safe to eat plain, but not so much when the Roundup is included.

The thing about the old slow method of modifying crops is that there was a lot of time between idea and full production so trouble could be noted early. Even so, that method wasn't always producing winners -- notably the taste-free strip-mined tomatoes we get most of the year.

[CrappieLuck]

I’ll be sure to pass this info on to her and her “former” Dr.

All those medical tests were unnecessary and any discomfort she experiences after eating product with Gluten may just be autism... . All we really needed was a link of a web forum.

This is better than Obamacare!!!!

Thanks!!!

[Junk Silver]

“Do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands of children die and go blind every year from vitamin A deficiency? Seems appealing?”

Yes, “seems appealing”, because it doesn’t exist yet.

Do you have any idea how many millions of dollars have been sunk into the development of this alleged Vitamin A rice with no viable seeds yet produced? Many are beginning to suspect that the “Vitamin A rice that will save hundreds of thousands of children” is nothing more than a PR gimmick that the corporations pushing GMO can trot out to gain public sympathy whenever needed.

Good grief indeed.

[Mase]

LOL. Yeah, the food is conspiring to bring untested products to market that make their customers sick, but the medical industry wouldn't do anything to reinforce your fixed beliefs thereby ensuring they get to run all kinds of tests and treatments that guarantee a steady stream of income. It's good to know your cynicism has limits.

You didn't even bother to read the article, did you?

[Mase]

Yes, “seems appealing”, because it doesn’t exist yet.

Ok, now I understand. I didn't realize you had absolutely no idea what in the hell you were talking about. I've been told so many times to leave crazy alone, but do I listen? No......

[CrappieLuck]

Yes, I did.

But I can do a blind study right here at home and have.

Cooking gluten free is a pain in the ass. But I know without question if I’ve not done it right or if I’ve missed something. I don’t need a blind study of anonymous participants any more than I need an anonymous poster on a web forum to tell me my wife does not have a gluten intolerance.

You’re opinion as well as your web link, though valuable to someone, are irrelevant here.

I’ll print it out and slide it under the bathroom door the next time my wife feels the effects of this non-exsitsnat condition. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the insight.

I’m not sure about the rest of your post. A Celiac test didn’t break the bank, nor get anyone rich. It came back negative. Which is little consolation when the effect of gluten are so damn obvious.

But if the article makes you feel better, read it again :)

[Mase]

Thanks. Glad you were here. It's hard to believe that any conservative could look at the life work of a guy like Norman Borlaug, and the stellar results of his efforts, and see it as bad.

Borlaug often decried the lack of science training in our education system, and his fears are born out on threads like these. When the people, companies, and industries that we rely on to feed a rapidly expanding population are demonized by conservatives, we have reason to fear.

[Mase]

Whatever. You're the one who's convinced there is a link between GMO wheat and the fact that a rising number of people can no longer eat it, when there is no commercialized GMO wheat available to even consume.

If you could be wrong about something as obvious as this, you could also be wrong about gluten sensitivity. Doctors are not infallible. You will find people who are convinced that their migraines are caused by msg or artificial sweeteners. There is zero scientific evidence to support their beliefs, but nothing will convince them otherwise. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Your wife may well have gluten intolerance, but with so many people convincing themselves of things that didn't exist years ago (yeah, must be caused by all that gmo food, right?) it is clear that in many of these cases the cause is something other than what it's believed to be.