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That's remarkable. Tons more pesticides and herbicides for no actual improvement in crop yields. Annoyingly, the NYT article focuses repeatedly on bullshit "he
by TillE 10y ago
That's remarkable. Tons more pesticides and herbicides for no actual improvement in crop yields.
Annoyingly, the NYT article focuses repeatedly on bullshit "health" controversies, ignoring the actual reasons that GMOs are largely banned in the EU - namely, their environmental risks. It's extremely strange how virtually nobody on any side of the debate in America or in the media seems to be aware of this.
- serg_chernata 10y agoCan you please elaborate what those are?
- akamaka 10y agoEmergence of herbicide-resistant weeds due to increased spraying of herbicide on GMO crops is one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Effects_of_use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Effects_of_use
- dogma1138 10y agoHerbicide-resistant weeds are not unique or new (natural selection is not dependant on GMO's ;)), there is now ones that are also resistant to Glyphosate/Roundup...
- akamaka 10y agoYou're just being pedantic. Technically speaking, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have always existed to.
- Oletros 10y agoSecond time you call another poster pedantic, the funny thing is that both times you were wrong. Resistance has nothing to do with GMO
- akamaka 10y agoResistant weeds are spreading due to massively increased usage of glyphosate, which is due to its use with GMO crops.
- dogma1138 10y agoGlyphosate resistant GMO crops were developed in the mid 90's and early 2000's, Roundup was on the market in the 70's.... Resistance to pesticide and herbicide has been always developing, the fact that we have weeds that are resistant to Glyphosate doesn't have anything to do with GMO's, Glyphosate would still be used.
- akamaka 10y agoGylphosate usage has enormously increased in connection with GMO crops, and with that its side effect on the environment.
- dogma1138 10y agoGlyphosate usage has also increased in normal crops since seed treating technology was introduced which enables seeds to sprout in soil treated with herbicide regardless of GMOs (this actually predates GMOs by about 2 decades). The use of Glyphosate has been steadily increasing even before the introduction of EPSPS crops.
- undersuit 10y agoYou used to do spot sprayings with glyphosate... because it would kill any plant. Now that we have Glyphosate resistant GMO crops we just spray the entire field. Normal conditions in nature don't favor a heavily glyphosate resistant plant, multiple sprays of glyphosate in a season does.
- dogma1138 10y agoThere is no wide ban of GMO's in the EU there is an authorization process (which isn't technically unique for GMO's any type of new crop or livestock has to be approved) and most of them do get authorised, only a few GMO products those which were engineered to produce biotoxins that can act as pesticide are actually banned. http://ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/gm_register/index_en.cfm http://ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/gm_register/index_en.cfm And before you go and post the 19 countries that "opted out", this doesn't mean it's actually banned. For example Germany has "GMO Free Zones" but they are still plenty of farmers growing GMO's. http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/gmo-free-regions/germany.html http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/gmo-free-regions/germany.htm... This isn't a process that would take a year or even two, it is likely to take decades and in all honesty it's more likely to be reversed than expanded. And more importantly since the GMO ban is effectively a ban only on cultivation this is more of a step to protect and subsidise the farmers in the EU rather than an ecological or public health related policy. As long as the US, China and AfriChina (read about it) produces GMO crops and exports them it wouldn't matter.
- akamaka 10y agoYou're just being pedantic. He said "largely banned", which is more or less accurate. Germany is generally moving in the direction of further restricting GMOs: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-grain-germany-gmo-idUSKCN0QT1ID20150824 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-grain-germany-gmo-idUSKCN0...
- hammock 10y agoEnvironmental risk of GMOs is not limited to biotoxins. I imagine parent commenter was mostly referring to the impact of Roundup, a synthetic pesticide used in GMO crops.
- Oletros 10y agoRoundup, an herbicide, not a pesticidew, has been used way before GMO existed. And, in fact, it is way more secure than the herbicides it substituted
- 10y ago
- GunboatDiplomat 10y agoWell they haven't been focusing on yield, really. They've been doing things like making the crops resistant to glyphosate to make weed control easier, or incorporating Bt to decrease the need for insecticide. Nothing specifically targeting yield increases, to my knowledge.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]