Okay... I've tried humor... silly movies... goofy puns... but you people don't get it. I don't mind people advancing now and then. I'm rather fond of not having polio.

But the reason people go hungry is not because the food we already grow can't feed them. It is because rich bastards are hogging it all - the profit motive is out of control. Let's fix what the problem is instead of fucking up plant life by destroying diversity.

---
"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

You're allowed to start a farm or garden if you want. It's actually a bad thing for the economy if too many people produce food for market sale though (please refer to the Great Depression).

---
Vote Jeb Bush 2008

The Great Depression wasn't all that great.

There were many negatives.

I've been eating genetically modified food for years! Eyeballs are good for you. They'll put hair on your chest. Albeit purple hair...and that extra forearm sticking out of my forehead isn't too pleasant...but hey! I feel great! ::) Those carrots have given me perfect 20/20/20/20 vision!

---
I will rate you hard, and unendingly.

Made of TOBORRRR!! TOBORRRRR!!!!!

---
Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

On paper at least, GM technology has the potential to greatly increase food production in parts of the world that are lacking. Drought and insect resistant resistant crops should be a boon to such areas. Of course, whether that will actually happen is another matter. There are parts of the world that could benefit from western medicines and vaccines too, yet people are still crippled and killed by stupid stuff like polio and bubonic plague.

---
I was gonna send a robot back in time, but I got high.

Well, a company like GE actually doing something to purely benefit mankind is something we have yet to see.

There will possibly be drought-resistant crops one day, but there will never be insect resistant crops. The more we tinker with nature, the more nature will evolve to adapt. Why do you think there have been so many different formulas for insect repellants over the last 50 years? The insects adapt and become immune. Unless we can create a Venus Fly Cornstalk or something like that, we've got to deal with it.

This is true. Don't send money to these Christian organizations that have some fat old dude or Sally Struthers claiming the children need it. Donate to the missionary arm of the Red Cross or the Peace Corps. That's a good way to help Western medicine and vaccinations to get to these people.

---
The giant three-phallused phallus of Uzbekistan will one day squirt the cosmic jizz of revenge all over Canada.

Yeah, so let's not build houses. Let's not harness electricity. Let's not develop medicines. Why is GM "fucking with nature" and other technologies aren't?

"GM" isn't even neccessarily technology. Sometimes it's as simple as cross-breeding plants. I've always been perplexed as to why this issue was attached to the liberal movement. Aren't you people supposed to be for the advancement of mankind through science? Ever hear of the Dark Ages?

---
Vote Jeb Bush 2008

They still cross-bred plants in the dark ages. ::)

---
I will rate you hard, and unendingly.

My understanding is that people didn't have a general concept of genetics and its role in cross-breeding until the 1800's (with the work of Mendel).

You could say people unintentionally "genetically engineered" plants and animals before that. Most species of domestic dogs and cats as well as European royalty are the result of this first-degree mucking with "nature".

Hey aren't people natural, and so too the scientific spirit?

---
Vote Jeb Bush 2008

::) Hence why there are those rats with curly hair that people call "poodles".

---
I will rate you hard, and unendingly.

::) Hence why there are those rats with curly hair that people call "poodles".

Don't forget: Dogs that can't bark, cats that can't hear, people who can't read, and presidents who have trouble distinguishing Osama Bin Laden from Sadam Hussein.

---
Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

I'm going to be interviewing Green Party parliamentarian Robin Harper about GM on Tuesday.
Anyone get any ideas for questions?

Seriously.

Cross pollination and stuffing jellyfish genetics into soy beans are two different things. All this new-age crap about GM making the world a better place is a pipe dream. Its just another way for a few people to get rich while the world starves. Only while they do, the jellybean soyfish will cross-pollinate with everything on the planet so that no one can get a decent, god-fearing jelly fish to eat anymore. Is that the kind of world you want to leave to your children!?!

When we are all dead from this I am SOOOOO gonna say I told you so!

---
"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

"New-age crap"? Aren't the new-age lot against GM?

This la-la idea that GM is gonna cure world hunger sounds pretty far out there to me.

---
"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

Many people in third world nations, where food is not GM, are starving.

The United States, which has almost zero starvation, has a 66% rate of crops "forever tainted with GM genes".

So how the hell does GM equal famine?

---
AFROMANS MOVE

quote:

---

I'm going to be interviewing Green Party parliamentarian Robin Harper about GM on Tuesday.
Anyone get any ideas for questions?

---

How about asking "Who are you and basically what is your deal?"

Then after a long awkward pause, which he may enter into by trying to laugh off your question:

"Seriously."

Then stare blankly at him.

Put it in your will that your tombstone should read "Told ya so."

How the hell does GM mean the poor getting poorer?

And if GM species are going to "cross-polinate" everything, isn't that a form of survival of the fitest?

And if it happens, doesn't it mean the genetically modified species are then available to everyone (and if so again, how does that mean the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because of GM?)

Basically are you RACIST AGAINST JELLYFISH???

---
Vote Jeb Bush 2008

Well yes, most things turn out that way in practice. It's not inherent in the technology though, just basic human opportunism. Like I said, people die everyday from easily preventable diseases while the world's wealthy live long enough to cut thier great-grandkids in on the estate.

There probably is a case to be made that genetic technologies (like ten million other things) have been handled irresponsibly in the quest for pure profit. My problem with the anti-GM crowd is that they've turned it into some simplistic totem of evil ("frankenfoods") instead of presenting realistic ways of using an obviously powerful tool more wisely. This makes them seem marginal and reactionary in my view. But that's not a dig at you -- just my take on the debate as I've seen it played out in the news.

You're ignoring the obvious serious benefits to mankind. Peanut butter and jellyfish could be a reality in our lifetime!

---
I was gonna send a robot back in time, but I got high.

quote:

---

Many people in third world nations, where food is not GM, are starving.

The United States, which has almost zero starvation, has a 66% rate of crops "forever tainted with GM genes".

So how the hell does GM equal famine?

---

You're not answering the very obvious question you yourself bring up: how does it hurt?

---
Vote Jeb Bush 2008