Gm foodn tell me?

Question

wat is gm food is it good

Answer 1

Instead of breeding generations of plants to result in a plant that withstands pests, doesn't require as much water, has prettier flowers, etc.... - which people have been doing for centuries - they've figured out the genetic makeup of the plants and they're now able to just go in and take out the bad gene and put in a good gene to more quickly produce a plant that withstands this or that locust, survives droughts, etc....

This improves crop yields.

This in turn takes more of the risk out of farming and ensures that in areas of the world where droughts and pests are frequent - like Africa - it is less likely that there will be massive crop failure and famine.

Another result is that farmers don't have to plant as many acres to ensure a certain threshold crop yield - opening up land to be used for other purposes, such as other crops or even housing.   We've shown over the last 200 years, even without GM foods, a remarkable ability to produce more food on less and less farmland, and this latest development is just the most recent step in that process, which is a big reason why Malthus and Erlich were dead wrong.

Most of the opposition to GM foods is nonsense - made-up (and most of which affirmatively disproven) stories about harming butterflies, silly nicknames like "frankenfoods" and the like.   Contrary to popular myth, this stuff IS tested for years before it hits the market.

There are two legitimate complaints - -

1) Monsanto developed a wheat product specifically to withstand Monsanto's pest control spray - - as opposed to developing a wheat product that on its own withstood the pests.    That way Monsanto could still sell the spray.    

2) GM foods often don't reproduce naturally - you have to buy the seeds from the producer.    Say you're a farmer that wants to use organic seed - great but if the field next door uses GM seeds and the wind takes them into your field, half of your plants can't reproduce.   This is true with most GM plants not just Monsanto.

3) Monsanto has tried to get the government to outlaw labeling on non-GM food products that the products do not contain GM foods.

1 and 3 are not cool on Monsanto's part - but on the other hand they probably feel the need to go on the offensive in response to Greepeace and other idiots dressing up as half-monster/half-ear-of-corn at anti-globalization protests and really committing libel and slander by spreading urban legends about butterflies.

Me, I'd just use my own marketing resources to point out the falsehoods and hope that makes Greenpeace go away, and I wouldn't try to prevent producers of non-GM food from advertising that it's not GM food.

Answer 2

Its great, you've got to love those clone carrots. Mmmm Mutation free mmmmmm

Answer 3

It`s been going on for years by gardeners, and allotment holders chatting to each other about cross propogating; and yes it is good. The "buzz" now is that the scientists have just found out about it. Then the "knowalls" latched on to it.

Good on yer for asking mate.