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The single issue is whether it is safe or not. Articles telling me how great it would be for poor, despserate farmers in third world countries as a last resort

by Meai 11y ago

The single issue is whether it is safe or not. Articles telling me how great it would be for poor, despserate farmers in third world countries as a last resort choice is really a fringe issue that is - I suspect - cloaking the point on purpose.

sampo 11y ago
> it is safe or not Most of the major scientific and medical organizations have issued a statement that GMO food is safe (in the sense of being as safe as non-GMO food). This is just an image, but in most cases you can verify the statements back to the organizations' websites by googling. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9gJwulXnO_o/Ue8hgkh4YkI/AAAAAAABCT8/1o4qQ40IjHQ/s1600/GMAuthoritiesnew1.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9gJwulXnO_o/Ue8hgkh4YkI/AAAAAAABCT... You can of course choose the same road as climate change deniers, and cry for global scientists' conspiracy.
- UweSchmidt 11y ago
  Ah yes, science says it's safe and who wants to be a climate change denier? Case closed! Here in Germany rabbits are dying a gruesome death by overeating genetically modified rape. Supposedy the bitter taste that told them to "stop" was removed and now they eat until the die. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13522441.html http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13522441.html (Article in German) So the food is of course "safe" as in you can eat it without any direct harm; examining complex biological interactions however is far beyond the scope of lobbyists and companies that want to bring products to the market. So now we already have fruits that look "fresh" even if they are already a bit old, tomatoes that are just huge bags of water without any taste (eating someone's homegrown variants are a huge revelation), stuff genererally optimized for size, looks, and a superficial taste. To me that is not progress at all.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    You posted a link to a 30-year-old event, and for which there was an hypothesis that it could be linked to the genetic modifications of a rapeseed. As far as counter-examples go, that doesn't seem particularly strong. EDIT: Actually, the "new" seed they are talking about is 00 rapeseed (AKA Canola), which is not a GMO, since it was bred naturally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola The GMO versions of Canola only appeared years after that event.
    - UweSchmidt 11y ago
      Oops, heard that story last week so I assumed that was more recent. I'll reconsider my concern about any imminent risks. Overbred fruit are still crap though.
      - sampo 11y ago
        > Overbred fruit are still crap though. "The wild banana is filled with seeds and cannot be eaten." http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/bananas-are-clones-from-the-stone-age/ http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/bananas-are-clones-from-the-st...
- tzs 11y ago
  > Most of the major scientific and medical organizations have issued a statement that GMO food is safe (in the sense of being as safe as non-GMO food) Given two samples of some food F, where one sample was produced by GMO techniques, and one was produced by traditional breeding methods, they will be equally safe. In that sense, GMO is safe, and there is almost no serious scientific disagreement over that. The concern of many, including myself, over GMO is that it greatly increases the range and rapidity of modifications that can be done to food compared to traditional methods. If/when someone produces a GMO food that harms people, it is not going to be because GMO is unsafe. It is going to be because they were given sharper and faster tools, and they did not have adequate internal and/or regulator oversight to use them wisely.
frostmatthew 11y ago
> The single issue is whether it is safe or not If that's all you're concerned with and think articles/opinions discussing other aspects are "cloaking the point" you should know the scientific consensus on GMOs is that they're safe. There was a Forbes article[1] last year that linked to quite a number of studies. If you're looking for a less journalistic take and want to poke around with the data/studies yourself check out GENERA[2] (a database of peer reviewed GMO studies). FiveThirtyEight did a piece on the gap between "what the public thinks and what scientists know" and saw the widest margin in the subject of GMO safety[3]. "Politicians in the EU are generally not friendly to GMOs" and spent over 200 million Euros on a decade of research[4] and the "main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."[5] [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/09/17/the-debate-about-gmo-safety-is-over-thanks-to-a-new-trillion-meal-study/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/09/17/the-debate-... [2] http://genera.biofortified.org/ http://genera.biofortified.org/ [3] http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/theres-a-gap-between-what-the-public-thinks-and-what-scientists-know/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/theres-a-gap-between-what... [4] http://www.biofortified.org/2014/02/industry-funded-gmo-studies/ http://www.biofortified.org/2014/02/industry-funded-gmo-stud... [5] http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-f... (pdf)

by Meai 11y ago

sampo 11y ago

> it is safe or not Most of the major scientific and medical organizations have issued a statement that GMO food is safe (in the sense of being as safe as non-GMO food). This is just an image, but in most cases you can verify the statements back to the organizations' websites by googling. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9gJwulXnO_o/Ue8hgkh4YkI/AAAAAAABCT8/1o4qQ40IjHQ/s1600/GMAuthoritiesnew1.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9gJwulXnO_o/Ue8hgkh4YkI/AAAAAAABCT... You can of course choose the same road as climate change deniers, and cry for global scientists' conspiracy.

UweSchmidt 11y ago
Ah yes, science says it's safe and who wants to be a climate change denier? Case closed! Here in Germany rabbits are dying a gruesome death by overeating genetically modified rape. Supposedy the bitter taste that told them to "stop" was removed and now they eat until the die. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13522441.html http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13522441.html (Article in German) So the food is of course "safe" as in you can eat it without any direct harm; examining complex biological interactions however is far beyond the scope of lobbyists and companies that want to bring products to the market. So now we already have fruits that look "fresh" even if they are already a bit old, tomatoes that are just huge bags of water without any taste (eating someone's homegrown variants are a huge revelation), stuff genererally optimized for size, looks, and a superficial taste. To me that is not progress at all.
- icebraining 11y ago
  You posted a link to a 30-year-old event, and for which there was an hypothesis that it could be linked to the genetic modifications of a rapeseed. As far as counter-examples go, that doesn't seem particularly strong. EDIT: Actually, the "new" seed they are talking about is 00 rapeseed (AKA Canola), which is not a GMO, since it was bred naturally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola The GMO versions of Canola only appeared years after that event.
  - UweSchmidt 11y ago
    Oops, heard that story last week so I assumed that was more recent. I'll reconsider my concern about any imminent risks. Overbred fruit are still crap though.
    - sampo 11y ago
      > Overbred fruit are still crap though. "The wild banana is filled with seeds and cannot be eaten." http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/bananas-are-clones-from-the-stone-age/ http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/bananas-are-clones-from-the-st...
tzs 11y ago
> Most of the major scientific and medical organizations have issued a statement that GMO food is safe (in the sense of being as safe as non-GMO food) Given two samples of some food F, where one sample was produced by GMO techniques, and one was produced by traditional breeding methods, they will be equally safe. In that sense, GMO is safe, and there is almost no serious scientific disagreement over that. The concern of many, including myself, over GMO is that it greatly increases the range and rapidity of modifications that can be done to food compared to traditional methods. If/when someone produces a GMO food that harms people, it is not going to be because GMO is unsafe. It is going to be because they were given sharper and faster tools, and they did not have adequate internal and/or regulator oversight to use them wisely.

frostmatthew 11y ago

> The single issue is whether it is safe or not If that's all you're concerned with and think articles/opinions discussing other aspects are "cloaking the point" you should know the scientific consensus on GMOs is that they're safe. There was a Forbes article[1] last year that linked to quite a number of studies. If you're looking for a less journalistic take and want to poke around with the data/studies yourself check out GENERA[2] (a database of peer reviewed GMO studies). FiveThirtyEight did a piece on the gap between "what the public thinks and what scientists know" and saw the widest margin in the subject of GMO safety[3]. "Politicians in the EU are generally not friendly to GMOs" and spent over 200 million Euros on a decade of research[4] and the "main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."[5] [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/09/17/the-debate-about-gmo-safety-is-over-thanks-to-a-new-trillion-meal-study/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/09/17/the-debate-... [2] http://genera.biofortified.org/ http://genera.biofortified.org/ [3] http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/theres-a-gap-between-what-the-public-thinks-and-what-scientists-know/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/theres-a-gap-between-what... [4] http://www.biofortified.org/2014/02/industry-funded-gmo-studies/ http://www.biofortified.org/2014/02/industry-funded-gmo-stud... [5] http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-f... (pdf)