shickingbrits wrote:There are quite a few proven negative effects from eating GMOs.
GMOs result in extensive monocultures which provide a feeding ground for certain creatures during brief periods of time and destroys the habitats of bees and other wildlife.
Monoculture agriculture started in the 1800s when the idea of "cash crops" as opposed to subsistence living became the norm for farmers. Completely unrelated concept.
GMOs lead to fewer but larger farms. In Canada every size of farm is in decline except for the very largest which are on the increase. This decreases food security, increases transport requirements, decreases the number of people getting their livelihood from farming, increases the use of heavy equipment.
The same could be said about any of the agricultural techniques introduced since the 1800s. From government subsidies to tractors. Once again, completely unrelated concept.
Some GMOs are herbicide specific. Their entire intent is to be grown on land that has otherwise been poisoned out of production. The poison leaches into the water, is consumed by the food chain. While the jury is out- and by jury I mean me and by out I mean batshit crazy- on the consumption of the GMO itself, the life cycle of round-up in the ecosystem is clearly destructive.
Round-up isn't that terrible. In small doses it blocks synthesis of phenylalanine and tryptophan, both of which are essential amino acids anyway (i.e. we are incapable of synthesizing them). It also blocks synthesis of Tyrosine which might be a problem for malnourished people. In North America, malnourishment is such a rare problem (when's the last time you had scurvy?). The potential problem for round-up is in the large doses. A large enough dose of any chemical can kill you. That isn't specific to GMOs though. Pesticides are dumped in disgusting amounts even on non-GMO crops.
GMOs provide a corporate bottleneck on food production. Food production should be in the hands of the people, as soon as a corporation with such close governmental ties is allowed to patent seeds, then it's downhill from there. Monsanto has been found to bribe governments. In the US, this is not necessary as Monsanto runs its regulating body, but in Canada, China and elsewhere, Monsanto has been seen to bribe professors, politicians, researchers.
Capitalism is wealth generation. You take a useless protein and incorporate it into a plant and voila - wealth creation. Is your problem with wealth? Are you a communist? If so, our discussion can shift gears completely, and I will just stop wasting my time and let BBS take over from here.
Food production used to be in the hands of the people. That all stopped after the Great Depression, caused by fiat currency and cash crop agriculture (a deadly combo). This problem existed long before we were GMOing. Tons of companies have bribed politicians. How is that caused by GMOs?
You have listed a bunch of points, none of which are false. You haven't showed causality on any of your points though.
