How are genetically modified/biotech crops good for us and the environment?

Question

I'm asking because many people in this section say that they are.

Answer 1

I think its a scandle and some years back now I wrote to the Prime Minister about this on behalf of Green Peace.

In England the rule of thumb was that any Laboratory can market GMO's with £1000 regardless of restrictions and without labelling.

We pulled them up on it and apparently restrictions were later  put in place but some get in on a small percentage like 0.01 % without labelling I know pot noodles have them (labelled) but I don't eat those anyhow.

But how would we know? I think we are decieved in most cases.

Answer 2

GM crops allow for greater production and more control over plant reproduction, allowing for higher supply and lower prices, with less work on the farmer's part. In addition, less pesticides are necessary as crops can now be genetically altered to repel bugs on their own.

However, there are some drawbacks - GM-genes can occasionally break out from the farm and recombine with the local species through pollination. This causes most GM-crop manufacturers to make their crops sterile - but this means that farmers can't produce their own seeds, and have to depend on/pay companies to supply their seed corn. GM crops are more of an agricultural economics problem than an environmental problem - despite the many environmentalists/organic-food enthusiasts who claim that they're going to kill us all.

Answer 3

Most GM crops are designed to make big agriculture easier, allowing farmers to use better pesticides without harming the crops, keeping the food fresh longer at the market, making them harder to bruise during shipping, helping to fertilize the ground, etc.

GM crops tend to be designed using existing bits of DNA, so that the chemicals they produce are still "natural."  In this, they tend to be better for the environment.  For example, plants that have been altered to fix nitrogen in the soil may help to cut down on our use of artificial fertilizers.  Plants that have their own "pesticides" generally are really producing insect pheremones, so the bugs try to breed with the plant instead of eating it.  This cuts down on the use of more potent pesticides.

Other crops are designed to produce a more balanced nutrition.  For example, "Golden Rice" was designed to produce beta carotene, usually found in carrots, which grow poorly with typical asian farming methods.  The idea was to provide a more nutritious food product, so that vitamin deficiencies were not so common.

Others are trying to remove the allergins from foods, so that people that need gluten free diets could eat gluten free grains, so that peanuts don't kill people with peanut allergies, etc.

Some people are working on cotton, to design plants with natural colors.  The Incas had quite a few, and we want more, because most dyes contain heavy metals, and other chemicals that are hard to get in environmentally friendly ways.  Plus, if the color is in the fiber itself, the clothing won't fade.

And a few oddball ideas to add new flavors to old foods also exist.

As with everything, there are risks.  When you mix plant DNA, it's harder for people with allergies to know whether or not they will be affected.  You may also make plants that are no longer edible for animals that normally eat them, or allow unwanted animals a more nutritious diet that lets them spread.

Some of the more extreme GM products may also cause unforseen problems.  Plastic corn, for example, may be impossible to break down, and plants that contain real pesticides may have serious unforseen consequences.

Answer 4

If peeps knew the truth then only Monsanto stock holders would see them as good.

IF you care not for your health or the ecology, you might be OK with it. IF U think its OK if only a few giant corps control the world's seed (hence food supply), then U might be OK with it. If you care not that GMO crops pollute the few remaining hybrid crops U might be OK with it.

They should be banned but…too late Monsanto & gang already bought the FDA & media.These 2 pages should give U a picture of how it works

Bribes  http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Monsant...

Media Censorship  http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/20...

Great quote from that media page about FOX and Monsanto

"We paid $3 billion for these television stations. We'll tell you what the news is. The news is what we say it is."

- Fox Vice President and WTVT General Manager, David Boylan

TV told us GMO crops were good, so the sheeple believe it. Fox news isnt the only guilty news org.

The UK govt is at least questiong it. Whats wrong with our politicians? Did Monsanto purchase them too?

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment...

Answer 5

ITs the unknown that makes GMO's potentially dangerous.. Since the beginning of time humans have been surviving and living off of nature and its foods.  So, if you alter or upset that who knows what the outcome could be and I'm not just talking short term.  In other words, what happens to humans after we have been eating them for 100's of years..

Answer 6

GM plants are actually really bad for you, even though it may seem good, it is harming you and people around you.... also, it just makes the bugs more immune, and so anyone trying to grow similar crops organically, it makes it much more difficult...

read Hope's Edge : The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances and Anne Lappé

it has alot of info on that sort of thing

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