No GMO's Please! Said No African Child Ever

[Deleted]

Heck, if people arent already scared when they read most ingredient lists, I don't see how adding Gmo to the label will do it. 

[Sum Dum Gai]

The object of labeling is not to inform consumers, it is to scare people. Have you seen the proposed labels? They're a joke.

I haven't seen the proposed labels, but all I want is a "may contain GMO's" below the ingredient list.  People have a right to know what's in their food.  If food companies feel threatened by something like that they aren't thinking it through.  I'd say maybe 10% of the population checks labels, if that.  Most people won't care one way or the other.

[gooddecisions]

By far the majority of people are more like Investor Bob and Paul who aren't concerned at all about eating GMO foods, so the labeling wouldn't be a deterrent. People eat foods with HFCS, transfats, sugary sodas chocked full of acid and tons of other foods that are not healthy despite the increased awareness of not being healthy. The excuses for refusing to label are just that...excuses. I would also like to see labels on booze.

[Deleted]

Wait! What??!? They're using GMO 'taters to make my VODKA?!?!  

[Deleted]

Foods that contain no GMO can be labeled as such. And without that label, it's a pretty safe bet that if it contains corn, soy, or one of the other couple of crops that use GMOs, that it probably contains GMOs. Also, if it's certified organic, then it should not contain GMOs.

I think the labels you're asking for will not do much to prvovide new info. If there isn't even a known chemical difference between food made with and without GMOs, the argument to require labels is a weak one. If there is a difference, then maybe the argument has legs. So is there a difference?

[workpublic]

i think this is a bigger problem

qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought/

www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/whats-killing-bees-time-magazine-examines-crisis.html

[Deleted]

It could be you are right about the difference bob. At least to me, I already don't buy anything with corn or soy in it anymore, or any of their derivatives. 

One issue, from watching King Corn, might be that they don't separate GMO from reg corn at the lot... It is all mixed together, which would require labeling it all.. Or coming up its a new method. 

[Deleted]

Have you watched Vanishing of the Bees workpublic? Good doc.

[Deleted]

Yes, that's what I meant. It's considered fungible, so there is no segregation unless it's organic.

[Deleted]

So why did CCD start so suddenly? I don't think the chemical use is new, so what triggered the sudden onset?

[Deleted]

Never mind. I see one of them is new. I think those are the so called "systemic" pesticides?

[Deleted]

I actually think some of the chemicals/ chemical combos are new? Manner of use? It's been awhile nice I read up on it...

[weltschmerz]

Me, too. Would be crazy to consider them the same. My only point is that almost nothing we put into our bellies is what mother nature intended. But we adapt and evolve. As do cows. Although I don't know if they evolve to eat

Yes. Even the bananas we eat are all clones. The banana we are all familiar with, the Cavendish, is incapable of reproduction.

www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana/

[gooddecisions]

Aug 16, 2013 6:40:01 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

Foods that contain no GMO can be labeled as such. And without that label, it's a pretty safe bet that if it contains corn, soy, or one of the other couple of crops that use GMOs, that it probably contains GMOs. Also, if it's certified organic, then it should not contain GMOs.

I think the labels you're asking for will not do much to prvovide new info. If there isn't even a known chemical difference between food made with and without GMOs, the argument to require labels is a weak one. If there is a difference, then maybe the argument has legs. So is there a difference?

If an insect can bite into a GMO corn, stomach explode and die versus bite into original corn and not die...I'd say there is a big difference.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Aug 12, 2013 19:25:24 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

Can you share them? This could be good for a laugh. I'm sure they're meant to be objective. Not....

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

CCD is not a myth, but it's a myth that bees are vanishing and we may all soon be beeless. Honey bee populations are on the rise- there's no threat.

May 8, 2009 — The notion that a decline in pollinators may threaten the human food supply – producing a situation that has been referred to as a "pollination crisis" – can be considered a myth, at least where honey bees are concerned, say researchers reporting online on May 7th in Current Biology.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507121949.htm

First of all, most agricultural crop production does not depend on pollinators. On top of that, while honey bees may be dwindling in some parts of the world, the number of domesticated bees world-wide is actually on the rise, their new report shows.

"The honey bee decline observed in the USA and in other European countries including Great Britain, which has been attributed in part to parasitic mites and more recently to colony collapse disorder, could be misguiding us to think that this is a global phenomenon," said Marcelo Aizen of Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Argentina. "We found here that is not the case."

By analyzing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for temporal trends in the number of commercial bee hives, they found that the global stock of domesticated honey bees has increased by about 45 percent over the last five decades. That increase has primarily been driven by an increased demand for honey from a growing human population, rather than an increased need for pollinators, he added.

But the news isn't all good: The data also show that the demand for crops that rely on insects for pollination has more than tripled over the last half century, suggesting that the global capacity for pollination may still be under considerable stress. These crops include "luxury" agriculture items, now common in any supermarket, like plums, raspberries, and cherries, as well as mangos, guavas, Brazil nuts, and cashew nuts.

All that will happen in the case of these luxury crops is the supply will fall relative to demand, and the price will go up. Macadamia nuts and Blue Mountain / Kona coffees aren't cheap, either. We used to feed lobster to prisoners. It was considered a garbage eater- cockroach of the ocean. Things change, but we aren't going to die off.

[mmhmm]

Paul, article is from 2009.  More recent articles aren't saying the same thing.

[Deleted]

Aug 17, 2013 16:50:41 GMT -5 gooddecisions said:

Aug 16, 2013 6:40:01 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

Foods that contain no GMO can be labeled as such. And without that label, it's a pretty safe bet that if it contains corn, soy, or one of the other couple of crops that use GMOs, that it probably contains GMOs. Also, if it's certified organic, then it should not contain GMOs.

I think the labels you're asking for will not do much to prvovide new info. If there isn't even a known chemical difference between food made with and without GMOs, the argument to require labels is a weak one. If there is a difference, then maybe the argument has legs. So is there a difference?

If an insect can bite into a GMO corn, stomach explode and die versus bite into original corn and not die...I'd say there is a big difference.

Good then it should be easy to show that difference in a lab. Do you have a problem with the pesticide that kills those worms?

[gooddecisions]

Aug 17, 2013 20:13:11 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

Aug 17, 2013 16:50:41 GMT -5 gooddecisions said:

If an insect can bite into a GMO corn, stomach explode and die versus bite into original corn and not die...I'd say there is a big difference.

Good then it should be easy to show that difference in a lab. Do you have a problem with the pesticide that kills those worms?

That would be great, they should get to work on that proof to ease the minds of the skeptics. I don't have a problem with "that pesticide that kills those worms" because I can scrub the outside and wash off the insecticide and even round-up and make sure 99%-100% of it never reaches my stomach. I can buy organic for the dirty dozen. I cannot scrub the outside when the vegetable is the insecticide and I certainly cannot scrub the outside when it's been processed and added to all boxed foods and bottled drinks. And it's not just worms, it's every insect that bites into that modified vegetable since it contains a gene that kills pests. I don't have any proof that this may cause some smaller scale (smaller than my stomach exploding and dying) reactions in the human stomach, but it's not a big leap to think it might.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Aug 17, 2013 20:13:11 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

Aug 17, 2013 16:50:41 GMT -5 gooddecisions said:

If an insect can bite into a GMO corn, stomach explode and die versus bite into original corn and not die...I'd say there is a big difference.

Good then it should be easy to show that difference in a lab. Do you have a problem with the pesticide that kills those worms?

Well, not only that- then what you really must want to do is go back to spraying DDT.  Something I wouldn't have a problem with in the least.  It's ridiculous that we eradicated virtually every mosquito borne illness in the United States using DDT, but it wasn't good enough for African nations and the rest of the world.  So, now- basically because of the absolute and utter hoax that was Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", even the US is seeing a resurgence in mosquito-borne illnesses.  And in Africa?  Estimates are we could save 2.5 million people- most of them children- from malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis, West Nile virus, and others.  

The only time I am alarmed is when the alarm is being sounded.  This is why I never really caught the anti-GMO virus going around.  It's why I don't hate Monsanto.  And why my real concern is that all the superstition will take root, we'll burn the witches like we did with DDT, and it will be worse than all for nothing- it will be all for a far less healthy world, and a lower standard of living.

It seems some people only love science when a Time Magazine photo of a polar bear floating around on an ice flow is called 'evidence' of man-made global warming, but when they face REAL science, they get squeamish.  

[Deleted]

Aug 17, 2013 21:46:23 GMT -5 gooddecisions said:

Aug 17, 2013 20:13:11 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

Good then it should be easy to show that difference in a lab. Do you have a problem with the pesticide that kills those worms?

That would be great, they should get to work on that proof to ease the minds of the skeptics. I don't have a problem with "that pesticide that kills those worms" because I can scrub the outside and wash off the insecticide and even round-up and make sure 99%-100% of it never reaches my stomach. I can buy organic for the dirty dozen. I cannot scrub the outside when the vegetable is the insecticide and I certainly cannot scrub the outside when it's been processed and added to all boxed foods and bottled drinks. And it's not just worms, it's every insect that bites into that modified vegetable since it contains a gene that kills pests. I don't have any proof that this may cause some smaller scale (smaller than my stomach exploding and dying) reactions in the human stomach, but it's not a big leap to think it might.

Actually, it requires a huge leap considering the pesticide is harmless to humans and sprayed all over your organic food. The pesticide it produces is the same as BT, an "organic" pesticide. And do you even know if it is produced by the corn seeds or not?

You are proving my point. Fear of what you don't understand.

[Deleted]

And contrary to what you believe, it IS just worms. BT kills only worms. Only certain worms, actually.

[Deleted]

Turns out your claim that worms die when their stomachs explode is also not true. Most likely imagery made up by someone who wants to hate GMOs regardless what the facts say. In actuality, BT toxin does something to allow the contents of the stomach to come into contact with the worm's blood resulting in death by sepsis.

Even Europe allows "BT corn". That should tell you something.