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Organic GMOs Could Be the Future of Food – If We Let Them

5 points by dtawfik1 11y ago

rmason 11y ago
I was working in the fertilizer business when GMO seed was first introduced. I thought then and still do now that it was an incredible scientific achievement. I knew then we would use fewer chemicals and safer chemicals in food production. It is beyond debate that this is true but the opponents do not seem to be deterred.
- rndmind 11y ago
  I don't debate that genetic modification and the resulting plants are an achievement. However, the idea of patenting a genetic sequence is absurd and unnatural.
rndmind 11y ago
We should follow russia's example.
nikolay 11y ago
Although, in general, I support GMOs, it's too early for us to predict all things that can go wrong with them. I'm tired of articles generalizing that if 10 GMOs are okay, then all GMOs should be okay, too. Also, it's against the humane science to feed massive populations without adequate testing. And, last, but not least - if a farmer wants to use GMOs and his neighbor farmer does not, how can the former guarantee that he won't infect the crops of the latter? How can anyone guarantee that GMO crops won't spread beyond the boundaries of the farm and thus violate the IP of the GMO inventor? Also, pairing a GMO with targeted pesticide is also highly debatable!
- rmason 11y ago
  In the US all the GMO's go through years of testing by the government. It can take up to ten years to get approved, to me that is a fair compromise as to potential future problems. From the earliest testing in the early eighties we're going on 25+ years of data right now. Neighbors and GMO's are a trickier problem. For seed fields there's a set distance to prevent cross pollination. In practice for a row crop farmer if I have say an organic farmer neighbor I use something different on the 12 rows next to his fence. There is no law saying that I have to do it but in my experience there are few problems. The company I worked for had a custom spraying business and it was law that we had to give notice to any registered organic farmer if our sprayers were anywhere near them. If they asked us to change our schedule we'd do it.

5 points by dtawfik1 11y ago

I was working in the fertilizer business when GMO seed was first introduced. I thought then and still do now that it was an incredible scientific achievement. I knew then we would use fewer chemicals and safer chemicals in food production. It is beyond debate that this is true but the opponents do not seem to be deterred.

rndmind 11y ago
I don't debate that genetic modification and the resulting plants are an achievement. However, the idea of patenting a genetic sequence is absurd and unnatural.

rndmind 11y ago

We should follow russia's example.

nikolay 11y ago

Although, in general, I support GMOs, it's too early for us to predict all things that can go wrong with them. I'm tired of articles generalizing that if 10 GMOs are okay, then all GMOs should be okay, too. Also, it's against the humane science to feed massive populations without adequate testing. And, last, but not least - if a farmer wants to use GMOs and his neighbor farmer does not, how can the former guarantee that he won't infect the crops of the latter? How can anyone guarantee that GMO crops won't spread beyond the boundaries of the farm and thus violate the IP of the GMO inventor? Also, pairing a GMO with targeted pesticide is also highly debatable!

rmason 11y ago
In the US all the GMO's go through years of testing by the government. It can take up to ten years to get approved, to me that is a fair compromise as to potential future problems. From the earliest testing in the early eighties we're going on 25+ years of data right now. Neighbors and GMO's are a trickier problem. For seed fields there's a set distance to prevent cross pollination. In practice for a row crop farmer if I have say an organic farmer neighbor I use something different on the 12 rows next to his fence. There is no law saying that I have to do it but in my experience there are few problems. The company I worked for had a custom spraying business and it was law that we had to give notice to any registered organic farmer if our sprayers were anywhere near them. If they asked us to change our schedule we'd do it.