Genetically Modified Plants

SailorSam

When GM foods first came to our notice, what would it have been 10 yrs ago, i thought what a wonderful thing, to be able to grow all our food and plants without the need of insectacides etc, and to be able to produce cheap food, enough to feed the world, no more starvation in the third world. What could possibly be wrong with this, a wonderful idea.
But what will happen to the environment ? WE need these bugs on the plants, they are the bottom of the food change, how many animals will die if their food is missing, and this will carry on up the chain to us. We worry now about eating fruit and veg which has been sprayed with chemicals, but at least that can be washed, what will happen if the chemicals are inside our food ?
The seeds for all these plants will come from the same major company. The plan is not to make big crops, but to make big profits.
Lets not go down this slippery road,

ceridwen

RAS wrote: »

So I would rather teach desparately poor families how to bag garden or key-hole garden and grow greens than rely on external technologies.

Hmmmm....."bag garden" - I'm guessing you mean summat along lines I mentioned recently of those sort of "skip" type bags? "Keyhole garden" - I've never heard of that.....

Wouldnt mind some more info on both these purlease...could be useful..

DKLS

Happy to eat and happy to grow if the positives outweigh the negatives.

cave_2

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

What do you mean by "genetically modified"?

Would this include F1 hybrids?

Or plants that were artificially pollinated?

I mean transgenic plants, which have had their genes/DNA changed in some way by people.

F1 hybrids are offspring which come from two differing parents (e.g. horse and donkey to make a mule).

Artificial pollination is just pollination which is not done in the 'natural' way, the genetics is in no way affected.

Hth

cave_2

RAS wrote: »

Those who are interested in less commercial responses comment that " Vitamin A deficiency is accompanied by deficiencies in iron, iodine and a host of micronutrients, all of which comes from the substitution of a traditionally varied diet with one based on monoculture crops. The real cure is to re-introduce agricultural biodiversity in the many forms of sustainable agriculture already being practiced successfully by tens of millions of farmers all over the world."

So I would rather teach desparately poor families how to bag garden or key-hole garden and grow greens than rely on external technologies.

That's very true, but in places like large parts of India, there is very little option but to grow rice, as it is the only thing which grows efficiently in the quantities needed and the land they have.

cave_2

SailorSam wrote: »

The seeds for all these plants will come from the same major company. The plan is not to make big crops, but to make big profits.
Lets not go down this slippery road,

That's a massive problem at the moment I agree - this is why I love
the golden rice project (I'm not from there, I promise) as it's not-for-profit, and is genuinely trying to use the technology to make a difference.

ceridwen

Actually....I AM wondering why we are having this debate?

It would be interesting to know why you raised this question.....ah...I see...."skint student trying to get through the last year of a genetics degree".......

cave_2

And as such I've grown up with an understanding of the how's and why's. I think in such a touchy topic that anybody working in it needs to understand intimately what the objections are, and what information (true or false) people are working from.

ceridwen

But...ultimately...does it make a scrap of difference what arguments come forth.....as long as people know where any G.M. crop "trials" are planted......;)

RAS

Open pollinated seeds are much safer as far as food security is concerned. They are the only ones that people can grow without involving companies, so there is not monetary cost required. Hybrids and GM may produce bigger and better but they require more inputs AND are much more expensive.

Just think how much more seed from Europe will cost next year, just because of the change in the exchange rate? Nw think of the implications of that in countries where the economy is in absolute chaos (Zim or Congo for example).