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[Flying Dice]

That's not even as bad as the farmers who were sued because GMO crops cross-pollinated with their own.

[Neonivek]

That's not even as bad as the farmers who were sued because GMO crops cross-pollinated with their own.

Successfully?

[Arcvasti]

That's not even as bad as the farmers who were sued because GMO crops cross-pollinated with their own.

I thought GMO crops were all completely sterile?

[Aseaheru]

Some strands are engineered to not produce seeds, but they still pollinate.

Some farmers where sued for growing GM crops for seed. Under license from the company that sued them.

[Descan]

Of course, the only one I've ever seen that actually has court documents and such was the one about a farmer who used Round-Up on his field, killing all the non-GMO plants, then planted the ones that remained as seed for next years crop. The only reason he had any GMO Round-Up resistant crops was because of wind dispersal, so anti-GMO sentiments spun it into "Monsanto sues farmer for wind-dispersed seeds on his farm!"

[Flying Dice]

It wasn't "spun", save by you. A neighboring farmer was growing from Monsanto seed which had already mingled with the guy's own crops sufficiently that when he spray his crops with Roundup he had enough to pull that off. Monsanto did sue him, and the judge rule that the guy had acted intentionally to grow their strain exclusively, but also that he didn't benefit from it. Yeah, he knew what he was doing, but he was sued and it isn't as if he intentionally seeded his own field with their strain; he took advantage of an existing situation caused by cross-pollination and/or wind-blown seeds.

That's not even as bad as the farmers who were sued because GMO crops cross-pollinated with their own.

I thought GMO crops were all completely sterile?

False, though some are deliberately engineered to be so.

[Descan]

It wasn't "spun", save by you.

w0w rood

[Putnam]

That's not even as bad as the farmers who were sued because GMO crops cross-pollinated with their own.

I thought GMO crops were all completely sterile?

see this is exactly why the GMO furor is usually complete bunk; the people who argue against them tend to be completely ignorant as to how they actually work, with no understanding of genetics, much less anything involving GMOs.

For a much more extreme example: I saw an article recently railing against the possibility of unleashing some mosquitos with terminator genes so as to eradicate malaria in some area or another. It said, and I quote, "what if a mosquito bit you and got its genetically modified DNA into your bloodstream?", which is by far the most idiotic thing I have ever heard in my life, not even remotely a cause for alarm to anyone who knows even the slightest bit about biology, a statement by a complete moron who is utterly ignorant of what they're talking about.

I thought the issue with GMOs are the fact that they tend to mutate and be generally crap after the first generation.

Can you elaborate on this? It seems like nonsense.

[Tack]

The issue I have with GMO is actually more that it gives Corperations an ensured monopoly.

Since one of the things they likely are already doing with GMO crops is giving them single generation lifespans.

Except that that has literally never happened.

Sorry to say but the wiki is behind there. There was a scandal recently (like, Somewhere from June-14 to Jan-15) about companies selling suicide seeds to Brazil.

Also, as a member of a farming family, most crops give successively smaller yields on regrowth.
For some crops it's worth getting the first two, for others it isn't. For orchards you can use them for years.

But for poorer and third-world farming communities, it's much better to be able to regrow the crops, or collect seed from your output to replant.

[Bohandas]

And whether they enforce it with sterile plants or frivilous lawsuits is irrelevant to the fact that they shouldn't be able to enforce it at all. The real problem is the fact that intellectual property is still considered a valid concept; it needs to be comprehensively done away with.

I am opposed to labeling GMO foods, (the last thing we want to do is legitimize natural/organic living whackos with their naturalistic fallacies and vitalist superstitions). HOWEVER, I do believe that any product associated with monsanto in any way should be required to bear a large warning reading "WARNING: MONSANTO!" accompanied by a huge skull-and-crossbones and a stylized drawing of a businessman sacrificing a farmer to Mammon

[Orange Wizard]

The real problem is the fact that intellectual property is still considered a valid concept; it needs to be comprehensively done away with.

That's debatable.

I am opposed to labeling GMO foods, (the last thing we want to do is legitimize natural/organic living whackos with their naturalistic fallacies and vitalist superstitions). HOWEVER, I do believe that any product associated with monsanto in any way should be required to bear a large warning reading "WARNING: MONSANTO!" accompanied by a huge skull-and-crossbones and a stylized drawing of a businessman sacrificing a farmer to Mammon

Hello, Poe's Law. Fancy seeing you here.

[Yoink]

I am opposed to labeling GMO foods, (the last thing we want to do is legitimize natural/organic living whackos with their naturalistic fallacies and vitalist superstitions). HOWEVER, I do believe that any product associated with monsanto in any way should be required to bear a large warning reading "WARNING: MONSANTO!" accompanied by a huge skull-and-crossbones and a stylized drawing of a businessman sacrificing a farmer to Mammon

Hello, Poe's Law. Fancy seeing you here.

Actually I think he prefers to be called Bohandas these days...

[Bohandas]

I am opposed to labeling GMO foods, (the last thing we want to do is legitimize natural/organic living whackos with their naturalistic fallacies and vitalist superstitions). HOWEVER, I do believe that any product associated with monsanto in any way should be required to bear a large warning reading "WARNING: MONSANTO!" accompanied by a huge skull-and-crossbones and a stylized drawing of a businessman sacrificing a farmer to Mammon

Hello, Poe's Law. Fancy seeing you here.

I'm serious. It's funny, but it's funny because it's true. The skull-and-crossbones and stylized drawing aren't essential, but there should be some kind of clear warning that you're buying a Monsanto related product

[Orange Wizard]

... riiiiight. I'll just be over here, then.

[Akura]

Have you seen Jurassic Park? That's what happens when you mess with DNA. Do you want that?

The striking thing about Jurassic Park is that even from an in-universe perspective blaming the park's issues on genetic engineering is a bit of a strawman. The park's main issues were poor design (and insufficient background checks on it's employees as well; but mostly poor design).

To illustrate the point of godawful design, the dinosaurs were genetically engineered to have a natural deficiency of lycopene(sp?), meaning they would require regular injections of lycopene to survive. This way, if the humans had to cut and run, the dinosaurs would just die off. Now, that sounds like a good contigiency plan...

Except they did the cloning on an island that was full of lycopene-rich plants and they cloned enough dinosaurs to establish a sustained food chain. Apparently they never surveyed that island.

I am opposed to labeling GMO foods, (the last thing we want to do is legitimize natural/organic living whackos with their naturalistic fallacies and vitalist superstitions). HOWEVER, I do believe that any product associated with monsanto in any way should be required to bear a large warning reading "WARNING: MONSANTO!" accompanied by a huge skull-and-crossbones and a stylized drawing of a businessman sacrificing a farmer to Mammon

Hello, Poe's Law. Fancy seeing you here.

I'm serious. It's funny, but it's funny because it's true. The skull-and-crossbones and stylized drawing aren't essential, but there should be some kind of clear warning that you're buying a Monsanto related product

Um, wouldn't that be about all the food in America?