Damnit. I TOLD boorite I shouldn't get involved in this one cause I'll just get pissed off. I shouldn't even have read it. At least I'll be in the proper mood to see Rollins tonight.
And the label of "organic" food never ceases to piss me off. Of course it's organic you dumbasses! What would it be? in-organic? I didn't realize my apples were made of metal!
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Genes aren't organic?
Plants and animals have been genetically modified for centuries.
Amen.
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It's attitudes like yours which get the long-haired smelly hippies in the UK to destroy fields of perfectly good corn because "they have reason to believe it might have been genetically modified". When will the bleeding hearts realise that GM food is not an issue for the West - it's about being able to produce high yield crops in the Third World to help alleviate starvation. It's got nothing to do with "Frakenstein Foods" and "contamination" - that article you cited is nothing more than scaremongering nonsense.
As for so-called "Organic" food, it's just an excuse to get middle-class housewives to spend more on their groceries so they can brag to everybody they know that "my family eats only organic food, it's soooo much healthier". If it's a vegetable, it's organic. End of story.
Chi, if I wasn't such a prickly plant, I'd hug you. Man, I used to identify with the left. Now I just pick my side depending on the issue cause I don't agree with half of what the left says or half of what the right says. I belong to the Common Sense party. The few, the proud, the outnumbered.
Just the ones that choked or had an allergic reaction.
And it won't destroy the Earth either. The planet survived didn'tnine (possibly more) major extinction events that crossed all the kingdoms to be wiped out by our puny asses. We wipe ourselves out? Oh well. We'll go down in history as an incredibly unfit species for survival. If anyone even notices we're gone.
Exactly. And that can apply to everything else as well. In England they decided to replant the forests but didn't bother with diversity. Now entire forests are dying from rapidly spread diseases that would have been much less destructive if more than a couple types of trees had been planted.
Godzilla, schmodzilla. It was those damned tribbles who ate all our wheat.
And a damned good thing they did too. Otherwise we'd all be dead from poison.
If those damned crusaders hadn't burned the library of Alexandria and tilted the balance, we'd probably be a thousand years advanced of ourselves now. And not having to worry about this topic.
And it's never gonna happen if people don't stop spreading themselves too thin. How the hell does anyone expect to make radical change when they have to stop one fight to go to another's rally and another's protest? You think it's a rich conspiracy problem? Then fine, go take care of it and forget about the GM foods. When the rich are taken care of, THEN go back and deal with GM foods.
That would be so freaking cool! I'd go into farming just to watch it catch things. Though harvest would be a bitch. Until that happens, I'm gonna stay out of the family business (farming) cause I sure as hell can make twice as much money being a desk clerk. I can't afford to be a farmer. Even with a free house.
Because GM foods that get up and slaughter people makes a scarier movie than than a vaccine on a rampage.
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"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?
It's just the extremist idiots it's attached to. I know too many self-proclaimed lefts that are filled with oodles of common sense and aren't perpetuating a trendy panic.
Well yeah, but that helped us leave the dark ages.
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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).
Sadly all too true. When I take over the world, people will be required to take classes at a university before they pick a side in a certain cause. Of course the extremists will just claim some sort of conspiracy in the universities.
This is what kills me about the GM thing. People who freak out about certain genes being injected into certain plants. Cite me a source. Seriously.
"GM food crops currently grown contain new genes from another plant, a bacterium, or a virus. No commercially grown GM crops currently contain animal or human genes." - Independant Biotechnology Advisory Council
I highly recommend www.junkscience.com. It's a good place to start with a process called "research." There's another place called the "library" and "university," especially if one contains an "agriculture department."
Gasp! Reason! I'm blinded!
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You're ignoring the obvious serious benefits to mankind. Peanut butter and jellyfish could be a reality in our lifetime!
I know I enjoy that burning sensation in my mouth that comes from ingesting jellyfish. And my esophagus, stomach...
I think you mean "cross-pollinating."
Do you have any idea how many species of plants have vanished over the course of time? Without human intervention? Besides, that's highly improbable (nothing is impossible, only improbable). The number of genes out there that makes each crop plant unique is insanely huge. Why has the Human Genome Project gone on so long? Because it's taken that long to look at our freaking DNA. We don't have the technology to turn all our current crops into a corn-peas-okra-tomato-yellow-apple-pear-mango-pineapple-soy-green-bean-red-bean-white-bean-navy-bean-yellow-bean-wheat-barley-rye-oat-sorghum-cabbage-lettuce-orange-banana-red-grape-green-grape-white-grape-black-grape-pomegranate-sugar-cane-agave-lemon-lime-grapefruit-kiwi-strawberry-raspberry-blackberry-blueberry-boysenberry-loganberry-coconut-tangerine-clementine-red-apple-gala-apple-braeburn-apple-fuji-apple-jonagold-apple-granny-smith-apple-potato-white-rice-brown-rice-long-grain-rice-jasmine-rise-basmati-rice and it's stupid to say so, much less try to. Crops aren't just wheat and corn. And even within wheat there's dozens of different varieties. Not because they naturally appeared on the planet, but because we've been playing with them for years.
Another thing. Cross-pollination between species of plants usually yield a sterile plant. The mule rule holds up in the plant kingdom as well. Therefore, crop plants cannot be taken over by some evil Frankenplant. Yes, Frankenplant could have dominant genes over others, but the only way other crops will vanish is if people don't bother to keep planting them.
And very few mutations survive. Most are detrimental to the health of the species and are weeded out in the early stages without affecting the rest. There are very few exceptions. VERY FEW. Astronomically few.
Very very slowly.
The nature of a mutation is sudden change.
I didn't realize those little misters in the grocery store really sprayed Raid. I just thought it was water. I have seen the light! (/sarcasm)
At one time I decided to eat "organic" food because I was convinced it was healthier and wouldn't give me cancer. This was before I did that pesky "research." I stopped a month after I started. Because I couldn't afford it. I still can't afford it. Same when I tried to be a vegetarian for health reasons. I just couldn't afford the cost of the food or the time it took to read labels. And then I did "research" and realized what an idiot I was for blindly stepping into something I knew nothing about.
As I said, farming is the family business. I grew up that way and I love growing my own food. But if I had to make an ultimate choice, I would go to the grocery store based on one food alone: apples. I orgasm whenever I eat one of those beautiful, large, tangy, GM apples. The apples my family grew on our "organic" farm were hard and bland and gave no pleasure to the user. Yes, it's a gluttonous way to pick a side, but I value my apples highly.
Anyone see 28 Days Later? I loved the part inthe grocery store when the old guy sniffed a bunch of apples and said "mmmm. irradiated." To me, that's a good point for irradiated and GM foods. In the event of the apocalypse, I will be most pleased if our store carries irradiated and GM oranges so I don't get scurvy.
And in the big picture, it doesn't matter if wetland habitats get destroyed because something else will just replace it, and us. The egos of humans never ceases to amaze me. "Civilization exists by geologic consent; subject to change without notice." - Will Durant.
See my above ravings.
You can't blame that entirely on GM foods and agriculture. There's also climate change and the physical spreading of deserts to account for. Saying agriculture destroyed Mesopotamia is like saying humans caused global warming. Newsflash: We've been on a global warming trend for the past 10,000 years. There have been a couple mini-ice ages here and there, but the general trend is an increase in temperature. Temp fluctuations happen all through out the history of the planet. The real debate is whether or not we're helping it along. And if we are, then so what? Does anyone really care if Florida becomes submerged in the next 1,000 years rather than the next 5,000? Does anyone care if Florida becomes submerged at all?
(/global warming rant)
And people seem to think it's an inherently bad thing. Yes, the ecosystem is a series of checks and balances and removing one can possibly collapse the entire sysem. It's happened all throughout history by all sorts of other species. We just happen to have an ego that makes us think we're oh so powerful.
Besides, the extinctions we cause today is nothing compared to the K-T extinction and can't even come close without massive instant destruction. A slower pace will just help other species adapt to the changes. Despite being mammals, humans suck at accepting change. The world is gonna change and we really can't do a damned thing about it so the best thing to do is try to make our puny lives better than worry if we'll still be around 65 million years later.
Personally, I'm all for Jurassic Park. If they hadn't hired a computer nerd and then underpay him (bad move, underpay the man who writes the entire park's systems) it would have gotten past that initial weekend.
So what does that make the childless of the world? Cause I think we're pretty cool.
And we wouldn't have to worry about the little bastards so much if we didn't slather our lives in antibacterial everything. I actually got chided by a woman who was horrified that I, get this, WASH MY HANDS WITH PLAIN SOAP AND WATER.
Gasp! I am soooo dirty!
Probably because you suggested learning takes more than a download. People don't like hearing that.
Exactly. If I had kids by accident (i.e. BC failure) with a guy I find a common interest with (i.e. someone who doesn't want kids either) then our kids might not want kids of their own if they have a shred of us in them. Or grow up to be murderous sociopaths because of all the comments of not wanting kids they heard while growing up.
Okay, I'm done. I can't believe I agreed so much with maKK. Oh well.
Goddamn you people! I spent all my time on this and now I don't have time to make my hormone-injected meatloaf! Damnit. I guess I'll just have to have some Stove Top. I hope it's packed with preservatives. It's been on my shelf so long it might be scary otherwise. Mmmm...preservative-laced Stove Top. And yogurt. By a FRENCH company. No boycotts here.
ivy
P.S. For dessert I have a GM fruit plate and fetus pot pie.
