Richard,
We will have to agree to disagree. They DO NOT know what the outcomes of
GMO will do over time... there hasn't been enough time elapsed to do proper
studies, which would take 20 - 30 years. Secondly, if you've ever eaten
organically grown produce you will find that most of it tastes thousands of
times better than GMO foods, tomatoes included. Plants having their genes
altered by producing their own glyphosphate (Roundup) kill indescriminately.
Bugs and animals eating these "Roundup Ready" plants often die (as BT cotton
has shown in India and elsewhere). Often, the bugs who eat these GMO plants
develop resistence to the toxins and require even MORE and more potent
insecticides and this too has shown to be true in studies. It is a fallacy
that less insecticides are used, more are used and more potent and deadly ones
at that. Fooling with nature is sheer stupidity built on greed and has the
potential of killing all life on earth.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Goodwin
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 6:39 AM
Subject: Re: CS>Take a stand now and reject Mon San To's GMO drive
I would agree that it would not be a good idea to genetically modify stuff
blindly without having any idea what the modification will do. But as far as I
know, they DO know what these modifications will do, which is why they do them
in the first place. Tomatoes that have a longer shelf life and taste better,
plants that have a better resistance to parasites, so they don't require
chemical sprays to protect them, etc.
Calling them "frankenfood" brings to mind an image of the superstitious
villagers circling the castle with torches, in a total panic because they don't
have a clue what is going on inside.
Better to find out what is going on, get some real knowledge of the subject,
and then panic. :-)
And I'm certainly not for blindly accepting anything like GMO either. But I
know nothing about it, so need to find out before I take a position either for
or against.
As for evolution, it is caused in a number of ways:
1. Changing environmental conditions can cause organisms to die off that are
unable to adapt, leaving only those that do adapt to reproduce and thereby
replicate their genes.
2. Changing sexual preferences can have the same effect, but many orders of
magnitude faster than 1.
3. Pure chance -- gamma rays, chemicals, or other accidents can cause genetic
modifications that, if they are "successful", will begin a new line of
organisms, perhaps even drastically different from their predecessors, all
depending on the nature of the modification.
As I understand it, random accidental genetic modifications happen to all
living things all the time, but since most result in changes that cause the new
organism to fail, they never see the light of day. There is a lot to
evolution. I highly recommend Richard Dawkins's book The Selfish Gene.
Dick
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bob Banever <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 9:18:39 AM
Subject: Re: CS>Take a stand now and reject Mon San To's GMO drive
Steve,
That statement is shocking. Do you work for Monsanto or some other
agrifood corp? Nature does nothing by accident... genetic changes occur over
thousands of years for survivability and those changes occur within a given
species. Thus, animal genes NEVER enter into a plant cell in nature. The
practice of genetic engineering is not only unhealthful, it is fraught with all
sorts of dangerous outcomes. Allergic reactions in people who eat the GMO food
is just one outcome. The practice of genetically altering plants could
potentially wipe out all life on earth and should be banned. People have
already died from eating GMO corn (Starlink variety). Insects ingesting these
plants have also died en masse. Birds (and bats) may also be dying due to
genetically modified foods (grains and other plants). This practice MUST be
stopped now.
