Among the long list of ‘settle science’ subjects is that of GMO food safety. A quick search will lead to numerous sources from vaulted Universities and researchers stating there is no difference in the safety of a GMO food vs it’s non GMO version.
And yet many educated, science brained people in my area will gladly give you a personal lecture on why they stay away from this ‘poison’.
I’m curious as to the position of the CC population on this subject…GMO’s do you eat them or do they make you run for the hills to graze on wildflowers?
Like @sushiritto , I aim to maximize organic and minimize processed foods. Non-GMO probably goes along with those, but I don’t specifically search for non-GMO. Seems like a marketing gimmick: cheaper than making organic, but sounds almost as good as organic.
I’m not an expert, and haven’t done any research, but I’ve heard a little of both sides of the argument…and forgotten them both.
We tryand stay away from processed meats, prepackaged veggies (you kmow, bags of lettuce, cello precut carrots) and out of season produce. I don’t accept plastic bags nor do we buy/use plastics if at all avoidable. But gmos? Not a problem, imho.
My S is really concerned about toxins, and he has educated himself on all things related. He works as a chemist and is very, very careful about exposure to toxins in his everyday life (including hand soap, toothpaste, etc). He hasn’t hopped on the non-GMO wagon, because he doesn’t think genetically modifying food is necessarily a problem.
This issue with GMOs for some people isn’t the the food itself, but the business practices surrounding their current popular usage (ex, Monsanto suing farmers for saving patented seeds etc).
So GMOs aren’t bad for your health (or at least there is not proof of that), but may not be good for you as a consumer if you don’t want to support certain business practices.
The farmers deserved it. That thieving Bowman was not a great plaintiff for the cause.
The only problem with GMO plants like soybeans is that if they have been made resistant to a pesticide, they have been sprayed with said pesticide - for sure. So it is not the gene/protein that makes the plant bad for you… it is the residue of what it got sprayed with - if it was sprayed with it.
I pay no attention to GMO vs not. We’re definitely switching to eating more organic in general - esp for leafy greens - but I don’t worry at all about GMO. Everything we personally grow is organic once planted. Some of the seeds have been treated and we transplant some seedlings. I don’t worry about their past.
I avoid GMOs because of the business model that wants to turn turn the world’s food sources into private intellectual property.
GMO could solve a lot of the world’s food problems but it could also hurt it if not approached thoughtfully. Unfortunately, I have no faith that the people “in charge” of such things are interested in (or capable of) approaching anything thoughtfully.
Agree with BunsenBurner. The spliced genes and their subsequent proteins in GMO foods are almost certainly harmless in and of themselves. I do not know of a single human or animal injury caused by eating any GMO food. However, if the gene modification means that the food can be drenched in some kind of pesticide, well, I may not want to consume all that pesticide residue.
My only mild concern is that Monsanto owns a tremendous amount (can’t remember specifically) of the worlds food supply. In the wrong hands it could be very problematic.
@sushiritto My point is that what we think of a strawberry is a product of genetic modification – they were bred to be their size from wild strawberries, which are pea-sized. Many kinds of fruit was genetically engineered before there was such a concept as genetic engineering
There are genetically modified plants and then there are transgenic ones. The latter means that a DNA sequence from an unrelated organism has been inserted into its DNA, like the houseplant recently developed by our local U that can capture certain pollutants from air (the plant has been modified with mammalian genes producing an enzyme that oxidizes certain pollutants):
We aren’t going to feed the rapidly growing billions in population of the world without GMOs, along with other steps. I just see it as speeding up the good old Gregor Mendel pea experiments. Now I do worry about genetic diversity dwindling, and I also find it eye rolling that McDonalds requires a specific GMO potato because it makes a nice long french fry. But I have no scientific concerns about eating the foods. I worry that unfounded protests will slow down progress in improving crop yield, drought tolerance, etc that will help feed the growing world population.
