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[SalmonGod]

Same here.  My only issue is messing about in it with nothing but short-term profits in mind results in a lot of horrible things.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Indeed. As long as one does not make a plant Von Neumann machine, GMOs have good odds of being an improvement.

[XXSockXX]

I'm not a biologist, I'm just sceptical. We have a saying: "What the farmer does not know, he does not eat." I just stick with that and the government does too. Agriculture (and the food industry) is pretty heavily regulated here anyways.

In the case of Monsanto abandoning business in the EU it was mostly about patent issues and the "seed police" that led to that IIRC, don't know about environmental issues.

[Sheb]

Yeah, I hate how environmentalists use the "We're not sure there is no long-term effects". Of course we're not. You can never prove something is safe, you can just make a test and look. But even then, you've only proven it's safe in your experimental set-up. Maybe it's unsafe on a longer-term. Maybe it's unsafe in conjunction with *random stuff*.

The worse things is that this fear of potential dangers hide the real, proven risks, like the risks of dying of an nasty bacteria in your organic food.

[SalmonGod]

In the case of Monsanto abandoning business in the EU it was mostly about patent issues and the "seed police" that led to that IIRC, don't know about environmental issues.

Monsanto is an environmental issue... they're the people who invented Agent Orange and many of the most harmful pesticides, including the one that's heavily accused by scientists lately as being the primary reason for drastic falls in honeybee population.  Their main application of genetic modification in crops is to make them resistant to their own pesticides, and they've become problematic invasive species in some places.  There's also an ongoing information war as to whether or not their GMO crops cause health problems.

[XXSockXX]

The worse things is that this fear of potential dangers hide the real, proven risks, like the risks of dying of an nasty bacteria in your organic food.

Yeah, shit happens. 

I'm neither much of an environmentalist nor do I care much about organic food. I'm just a stubborn consumer and it seems I'm not the only one. I really don't see GMOs getting popular support anytime soon here.

[Luke_Prowler]

In the case of Monsanto abandoning business in the EU it was mostly about patent issues and the "seed police" that led to that IIRC, don't know about environmental issues.

Monsanto is an environmental issue... they're the people who invented Agent Orange and many of the most harmful pesticides, including the one that's heavily accused by scientists lately as being the primary reason for drastic falls in honeybee population.  Their main application of genetic modification in crops is to make them resistant to their own pesticides, and they've become problematic invasive species in some places.  There's also an ongoing information war as to whether or not their GMO crops cause health problems.

Off topic: Agent Orange is a pesticide? I thought it was a chemical weapon

[Graknorke]

In the case of Monsanto abandoning business in the EU it was mostly about patent issues and the "seed police" that led to that IIRC, don't know about environmental issues.

Monsanto is an environmental issue... they're the people who invented Agent Orange and many of the most harmful pesticides, including the one that's heavily accused by scientists lately as being the primary reason for drastic falls in honeybee population.  Their main application of genetic modification in crops is to make them resistant to their own pesticides, and they've become problematic invasive species in some places.  There's also an ongoing information war as to whether or not their GMO crops cause health problems.

Off topic: Agent Orange is a pesticide? I thought it was a chemical weapon

I'm sure the two are interchangeable. If it kills bugs there's a decent chance some more of it would kill humans.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's a defoliant, not a pesticide.

[Frumple]

It was a herbicide/defoliant mix that just happened to kill a shitton of people.

[Owlbread]

It is a defoliant used to destroy the foliage hiding the Viet Cong, not a pesticide or chemical weapon.

[scriver]

I'd call that a chemical weapon, Owlei.

[10ebbor10]

It's a defoliant, not a pesticide.

Could qualify for herbicide, I suppose.

Point is, there's no reason to assume that GMO's will have significant health effects. Natural mutation happens all the time, and humans are pretty good at manipulating plants. Genetic engineering is just an way to speed that up. Besides, it's been proven that the current way of farming is pretty bad for the environment (100% organic would be worse). GMO's could be part of the solution.

It is a defoliant used to destroy the foliage hiding the Viet Cong, not a pesticide or chemical weapon.

Not only the jungles. They also sprayed many farms, in order to hunger the people out, and force them to move to the (American controlled) cities. But that's USA policy, not Monsanto.

I'd call that a chemical weapon, Owlei.

Then there are quite a few chemical weapons in everyday use.

[scriver]

I meant when used like that, ebbor, in a kind of way.

[Nadaka]

It's a defoliant, not a pesticide.

Could qualify for herbicide, I suppose.

Point is, there's no reason to assume that GMO's will have significant health effects. Natural mutation happens all the time, and humans are pretty good at manipulating plants. Genetic engineering is just an way to speed that up. Besides, it's been proven that the current way of farming is pretty bad for the environment (100% organic would be worse). GMO's could be part of the solution.

There is a reason to assume that GMO's may have significant health effects when they are splicing pesticides into our food supply. There is reason to assume that GMO's may have significant health effects when they add human hormone analogs to staple food supplies (this also goes towards natural organisms, like the overuse of soy). It is dangerous in the extreme because the long term effects can take years or decades for the negative effects to manifest after the entire human population has been exposed. There is nothing more dangerous that screwing with our food supply without appropriate caution. Such products must be labeled for informed consent. Such products can not be allowed to infect natural stocks. Such products can not be weaponized for intellectual property extortion.

I'm not suggesting banning GMO food, but it needs to be as stringently regulated as medicine, perhaps more so because the potential number of people being exposed to risk is the entire human population instead of a select group suffering from an already harmful condition.