Posted on 03/21/2015 9:23:30 AM PDT by opentalk
” So GMOs being the only positive influence in keeping prices low doesn’t match the timeline of my experience.”
GMO corn was first commercialized in 1996. In 95 the price per bushel was 3.44. In 2015 the price was 3.68.
” know, but I was working with the ag industry when GMO seed became widely used. The jump in food prices came before the use of ethanol was mandated.”
In 1947 the price of corn was 2.19 per bushel. In 2000 the price was 1.77. Obviously the jump didn’t occur before 2000 but AFTER 2000 when ethanol began the ramp up!
“World ethanol production for transport fuel tripled between 2000 and 2007 from 17 billion to more than 52 billion liters.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel
...Some GM corn and cotton varieties are also designed to produce poison. Inserted genes from a soil bacterium produce an insect-killing poison called Bt-toxin in every cell of the plant. Bt is associated with allergic and toxic reactions in humans and animals, and may create havoc in our digestive system
Corn is right around nationwide average cost of production. That means the heart of the Corn Belt actually makes some profit while marginal production areas are looking at alternatives.
” I just know that despite buying less food our grocery bill has gone from 12-25% of our income in the past 10 years.”
Don’t put all the blame on the crops or the farmers. Farmers get only about 12% of the money and their share is dropping every year.
“The FDA, USDA, etc are at the bottom of my list.”
Below unsourced blogs funded by anti-capitalists?
Nope-by friends with medical degrees :)
“I once asked an organic dairy farmer why he chose organic”
hmmmm. Where have we heard about Bt lately ....
“Compare those to natural pesticides. The most commonly used naturally occurring insecticide is Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium found in soils.11 Bt is effective at killing boll weevils, cabbage loopers, and corn ear worms — and it’s not toxic to humans.12”
” Bt is associated with allergic and toxic reactions in humans and animals”
UFO’s are associated with the mysterious disappearance of people.
“, and may create havoc in our digestive system “
LOL! MAY!!!!!!!!! and not one word to back up their claim of “MAY”!
“Some GM corn and cotton varieties are also designed to produce poison”
Did you know that that same ‘poison’ is the most common organic pesticide?
“Nope-by friends with medical degrees :)”
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-dumb-celebrities-who-are-way-smarter-than-you-think/
Prior to researching this article, I probably would have guessed that Dr. Oz’s medical credentials were somewhere between Dr. J, Dr. Pepper and whoever Bugs Bunny happens to be talking to when he wants to know what’s up. Dr. Oz is that guy with a doctor TV show who isn’t Dr. Phil. On the Internet, he shows up on lists of the top five idiots of the year for “quackery and peddling ... ‘alternative’ medicine.” The content of his show doesn’t exactly scream medical integrity. His trademark move is to illustrate medical problems by creating gigantic body part obstacle courses for people to walk around inside of, complete with confetti cannons that simulate bodily discharge.
” Bt is associated with allergic and toxic reactions in humans and animals, and may create havoc in our digestive system “
hmmmm.....
4. Allergies to the Bt protein have never been observed. Smith cites papers that show that various types of antibodies can be formed against Bt. He does not bother to tell the reader that when almost any protein is injected under our skin or in our veins, our immune system will develop antibodies to it. This is a normal process. We also have antibodies to many different environmental and food proteins circulating in our bloodstreams where they do absolutely no harm. The antibodies associated with allergy are called IgE antibodies. IgE antibodies to Bt have never been reported. There are scientific articles showing this that Smith fails to cite (Siegel 2001; Betz and others 2000).
5. Bt protein binding sites are not present on mammalian cells. Bt proteins are known to act by binding to specific sites on insect gut cells—these sites are called binding sites. For Bt to kill an insect it must be activated by partial digestion, it must then attach to the binding site, and the protein must be inserted into the insect cell membrane where it forms a pore or hole in the cell membrane that eventually kills the insect (Whalon and Wingerd 2003). Mammalian cells lack these specific binding sites needed for Bt attachment. Proteins like Bt can sometimes stick to cells or other proteins in a non-specific or random way and it is not surprising that various investigators have found Bt binding to other kinds of cells, although high quality studies not mentioned by Smith that found no Bt binding to mammalian cells have been published (Betz and others 2003). Often this binding is weak and is easily reversed. These studies have never shown that mammalian cells binding Bt under these conditions are killed the way cell lining insect guts are killed by the toxin. To date all these studies have been categorized as “gratuitous binding” unrelated to the mode of action of Bt. Smith admits the results he cites are “ambiguous.”
6. Thousands of organic farmers depend on Bt as their most effective pesticide. The most common pesticides used by organic farmers contain Bt preparations. Organic farmers find them effective and innocuous (Zehnder and others 2007). Genetic Roulette seems to be casting doubt on their safety and is indirectly criticizing the regulation of biopesticides by the EPA. We find it hard to imagine organic agriculture without Bt products. We have to wonder if Smith is also opposed to organic agriculture.
http://academicsreview.org/reviewed-content/genetic-roulette/section-3/3-3-bt-crops-and-allergens/
We don’t have cable so I’ve never watched Dr. Oz, I don’t know what he teaches regarding nutrition. I homeschool our six children so my time on the internet is limited. Since I can’t seem to break my FR addiction it’s pretty much the only website I go to other than Ana-White.com.
My information regarding nutrition is from my friend’s husband, an MD and my son’s doctor, an MD who specializes in functional medicine.
I used to think the same thing but read that it was the deaths of kids that brought the “average” lifespan down. Check the numbers again.
...The Bt-toxin produced in GM plants, however, is thousands of times more concentrated than natural Bt spray, is designed to be more toxic, has properties of an allergen, and cannot be washed off the plant.
Moreover, studies confirm that even the less toxic natural spray can be harmful. When dispersed by plane to kill gypsy moths in Washington and Vancouver, about 500 people reported allergy or flu-like symptoms.¹, ¹¹ The same symptoms are now reported by thousands of farm workers from handling Bt cotton throughout India.¹²
Of course the death of children in 1900 brought down the lifespan of children then! That’s exactly the point I was making.
Also, the death of women in childbirth brought down lifespan. The death of people due to infections brought down lifespan. The death of people due to accidents brought down lifespan. My own uncle died at the age of 8 due to appendicitis. Three of my great-grandparents buried children that never would have died of those illnesses today.
That is what took people out in those days, they didn’t live long enough to get cancer. Something else got you first at an early age. These days we have excellent prenatal care (at the age of 56, I don’t know even one woman who has died in childbirth), we have antibiotics, outstanding hospitals and trauma centers, etc. What people died from back then would be handled much more differently these days and would not result in death. These things took them out early before they could ever develop cancer.
Take these reasons for early death in 1900 out of the picture, and what, then, remains to cause death? Heart disease, strokes, cancer, catastrophic injury ....
You just cannot compare cancer deaths in 1900 to today. It’s a totally different world with regards to our medical capabilities.
Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn”
1. Bt corn has been dismissed as a possible cause of death.
Investigators from the Robert Koch Institute concluded that Bt 176 corn was not the cause of death; they suggested a common cause of animal death, chronic botulism, could be to blame.
CHENNAI YOUTH TIMEZ
LOL! You have to be joking, right?
“Pigs Won’t Eat GMO Corn”
LOL! Nothing like what someone said some old unnamed farmer said ...
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