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GMO (genetically modified organism) solution to world hunger or end of natural food as we know it

Discussion in 'General political debates' started by IamMe, Feb 1, 2013.

  1. Clarissa

    Clarissa Member Forum Member


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    Apr 17, 2013
     
    Personally, I really wish I could avoid these disgusting crops as easily as I have (to my knowledge) been avoiding aspartame. However, these crops remain unlabeled here in The United States, and will likely remain that way as no one gives a fuck, I suppose. I do believe that they are very very unhealthy to consume (but us poor folk have no other choice eh?) I will admit that I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist before I go on to state that I believe that things like this are a form of population control and may be meant to kill off the poor slowly throughout generations. Now I have no proof of this, it is just how it seems to be to me.
     
  2. Sick Boy 77

    Sick Boy 77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Mar 29, 2010
     
    When in doubt, grow your own food. It's cheap and poor people have been doing it for thousands of years. Hell, rich people even do it but fuck them right now. GMO's aren't the safest thing to consume but they aren't the worse, and as for them being a population control. They said the same thing about Aids and gay people. I think it's about what ever is the cheapest way to mass produce food for the billions of people out there. There needs to be population control, yes, but lets let the people work that out for themselves. It will never happen because people, and mainly guys, feel like they have to fuck every person they see.
     
  3. Clarissa

    Clarissa Member Forum Member


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    Apr 17, 2013
     
    Haha, actually, that was very nicely put. Honestly though, this is slightly off topic, but we do produce enough food to feed everyone, its just that so much is thrown away in dumpsters and trash cans or wasted in some other fashion that it doesn't happen.
     
  4. fubarista

    fubarista Experienced Member Experienced member


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    Nov 13, 2011
     
    The topic of GMOs is heating up again. Unfortunately, the cause has been hijacked by Democrats to get out the vote. Here's an article I wrote & posted on my website the other day:

    Fuck OB People's Co-op http://fubarandgrill.org/node/1529

    I just got the June issue of the Ocean Beach People's Organic Food Co-op News and I'm so angry I can barely type.

    Their front page is devoted to an article urging people to donate money to the collection boxes they now have at every cash register to support a campaign started by a Congressman to urge women in the Senate (it was Congress that passed the Monsanto Protection Act in the first place) to ask President Obama (who appointed former Monsanto Vice-President Michael Taylor to the FDA, and several other Monsanto VIPs, lawyers, and lobbyists http://www.activistpost.com/2013/04/how ... antos.html
    to other high-level positions in his administration) to allow GMO food labeling--and this after three brands which were labeled organic or non-GMO were exposed by a whistleblower as having GMO ingredients anyway. I should check, because I suspect that the co-op might still be carrying those brands.

    Of course they didn't listen to the presentation I made to their board:

    Voting Against Values http://fubarandgrill.org/node/1517

    Nor are they interested in the facts about GMO labels:

    GMO Labels and Lies http://fubarandgrill.org/node/1525

    The manager, Nancy Cassady, and her husband Derek, are long term Democratic Party political operatives, and their primary interest is in getting out the vote, which is the real purpose of the GMO label campaign:

    God, Gays, Guns, Grass & GMOs http://fubarandgrill.org/node/1524

    OB People's Co-op's idea of democracy is to support an organization to ask Congress to ask the President to do something that he isn't likely to do, wouldn't help if he did, and might cause great harm in the end if they were to succeed and Monsanto got Congress, the President, or the Supreme Court to annul it.

    In addition to speaking at the board meeting, I've personally emailed and spoken with both Nancy and Derek extensively--a total waste of breath. They are dedicated statists and they don't care if they poison all their customers with falsely labeled organics, as long as they can get out the vote by using any scam they can grab on to. Oh, they care enough to recall foods after it is found that the labels lied, but a lot of people can become ill or even die before a whistleblower comes forward or an agency gets around to checking on a product that has already been certified.

    My membership in the co-op is still paid up for part of this year and I've got about a hundred dollars on a co-op gift card that can't be redeemed for cash, so I guess I'll still be shopping there for another month or so. I'm considering whether to stand in front of their store and pass out fliers, but it probably wouldn't do any good. I'm obviously not going to renew my membership and I'll do most of my shopping in the future at Sprouts, Boney's, and the farmers' markets.

    Luckily for me, a Boney's will be opening in Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego soon, which is walking distance for me, instead of a 40-minute bus ride to the co-op.

    Funny, last time I was at the co-op, I happened to see Nancy and I introduced her to a neighbor of mine I had encouraged to join the co-op. Nancy's face seemed unusually drawn, and I now realize that she had already seen (if not actually written) the front page article for the newsletter which came out the next day, so she was probably concerned that I had also seen it and would be angry. I hadn't then, but I have now, and I couldn't be much angrier.

    As soon as I post this, I'll send the link to Nancy and Derek. Fuck OB People's Co-op!

    Where is the money going?

    The donations are not tax deductible.

    The co-op is asking people to put $1, $5, or $10 in the collection boxes located at each cash register. That means that the donations are too small to have to be reported and that nobody gets a receipt.

    The money supposedly will go to former Congressman Jim Bates to act as a lobbyist.

    The newsletter story says, "We know that money is no object when corporations spend to get what they want; we also know that the only thing we can counter that money with is millions of Americans organized to fight back."

    In other words, they're spending $30,000 of co-op money (without asking for a vote from co-op members) plus whatever they can get in donations, to emulate Monsanto and lobby Congress. But Monsanto has billions to spend and even if People's can get other co-ops involved, they cannot begin to match the number of lobbyists and money that Monsanto has. And thanks to Obama, Monsanto has its people in policy-making positions in the FDA, USDA, and other agencies, so if the campaign is successful and persuades Women in the Senate to ask Obama to help get GMO food labels, he'll have to consult with the Monsanto officials he has appointed and they will advise him not to. Plus, if Monsanto pulled its funding from candidates, both major parties would probably collapse. The 1% have interlocking boards of directors, and if Monsanto pulls their political funding, the people from Monsanto's board who sit on other corporate boards will recommend that their boards do the same.

    This is just a ploy to put money in the pocket of the Democratic Party. It cannot possibly accomplish anything, but the goal is just to raise money, not to do anything. At most, the money will be used to ask certain Members of Congress to ask the President to do something that would cost the Democratic Party billions of dollars in corporate donations if they did it.

    This is a scam. It will keep a lot of people busy raising money, the same way that Canvas 4 A Cause does, by using a hot-button issue that people care about, to get people to vote for people they hope might support their issue (everyone hoped Obama supported GMO labels, and he even said that he did, but it turned out that he supported Monsanto more), and to donate money to political lobbyists who will pass some of what's left after their own salary, staff salaries, and expenses, along to politicians.

    While they may say that they're raising consciousness about GMOs, there is no need to. Their story contains a graph from a survey by the Mellman Group in March 2012, showing that 90% of motherss and 88% of fathers already favor GMO labels. How much more consciousness do they need to raise? The problem is that when the overwhelming majority of US citizens and voters supported the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, opposed bank bailouts, and opposed the Iraq war, the White House calmly announced that it does not allow public opinion to influence policy decisions, the Democrats took impeachment off the table, and the government not only went ahead with the war and the bailouts, but launched public relations efforts to try to convince the public to support those decisions. At the same time, protesters were being brutalized by the police and whistleblowers were being tortured.

    The US is not a democracy. We do not have a government that is responsive to the people. It doesn't matter how many people are involved--their voices will not be heard by anyone in power. They'll be heard by politicians who'll use their hopes and dreams to tell lies to get elected, but who won't fulfill their campaign promises once in office. And they'll be heard by the cops and the prison guards, whose job is to stifle dissent and silence those voices.

    Nancy, Derek, the Democrats, the Progressive Democrats, the Greens, and others involved with US political parties who believe in the system enough to vote are con artists. They try to focus attention on selfish desires, so that people won't think about the racist genocides they're supporting:

    When Did Today Begin? http://fubarandgrill.org/node/1528

    Derek and Nancy are among the Democratic Party operatives who deliberately hijacked Occupy San Diego away from direct democracy and back into politics as usual--a way to register voters.

    What corporate lobbyists do to get legislators to favor their causes, is to promise that their corporations will donate money to those legislators and/or to their political party. No grassroots organization has the billions of dollars needed to outspend corporations. While the co-op is prohibited by law from raising money for a particular party or candidate, they are allowed to support an organization supposedly targeting women in the Senate, however the fact is that of the twenty women in the Senate, sixteen are Democrats and only four are Republicans. So if the co-ops raise enough money for former Congressman Jim Bates to lobby women Senators, he'll focus on those who might support GMO labels, obviously Democrats, which means that he'll have to promise that his organization will donate to their political campaigns. Even if he gave equal amounts to all women Senators, both those interested in GMO labels and those who are not, which is dubious, the Democrats would still get 75% of the cash. And we have to trust Democratic Party operatives to tell us how much was collected. It's a way to raise money for political campaigns while pretending not to, pretending to be nonpartisan, and remaining completely unaccountable.

    Consumers can't out-bribe corporations and shouldn't try. What consumers need is either a socialist government that puts people before profits, or a direct democracy where people can decide what the government does. Many countries have banned GMOs. If there's a dangerous substance in our food, we need to ban it and get it out of our food, not merely label it. Even labels that happen to be truthful will leave GMOs in our food supply, and many people, particularly children, aren't going to read the labels, while the food people eat at parties, in cafeterias, and in restaurants is already removed from its packaging and prepared, so there are no labels to read.

    The loophole that has to be closed isn't the one about GMO labels, it is the one that allows organizations to raise money for politicians by pretending that they're raising money for causes.

    The US government is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big corporations and banks like Monsanto and Goldman Sachs. The big corporations spend billions funding election campaigns and they own the candidates and political parties they fund. The 99% can't outbid the 1% because the 1% have most of the money and the 99% need what little they have to survive. This is a cruel hoax to take money from suckers and give it to a government that is already bought and paid for by big business.

    Fuck OB People's Co-op!

    Taking money out of the community.

    One of the biggest reasons for shopping at co-ops is that the money stays in the community.

    This is no longer true for OB People's Co-op. They are sending money to the oligarchs in Washington DC to be passed along to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, and Israel, to support wars of aggression, and to build more nuclear power plants.

    If it was just donations, an argument could be made that people have a choice. But the $30,000 that the board voted to give the lobbying organization doesn't allow members to have a choice in whether or not their money stays in San Diego or is sent to Washington, D.C.

    That is a violation of cooperative principles, it is undemocratic, and it is a betrayal of co-op members.

    When Democrats and Republicans introduce legislation in Congress, the first thing they do is count the votes, that is, before the legislation is even introduced, and before anyone has a chance to vote on it, those proposing legislation count up how many definite votes they can count on, and how many potential swing votes they might get in Congress. If the legislation has no chance of passing, it can be introduced anyway, merely for public relations purposes, knowing that it will fail, or its sponsors simply might not bother to introduce it.

    GMO labels don't have the votes in Congress. Most Members of Congress rely on donations from Monsanto and won't vote against Monsanto. So even if all twenty women in the Senate agreed to vote for GMO labels, they still don't have enough votes to get such legislation passed.

    Until now, when I shopped at the co-op, I believed that my money was staying in my community and not going to rich capitalists far away. That is no longer true. Most Senators are millionaires and billionaires. They don't need my money and I don't want to give them any because I know I can't outbid Monsanto to influence their votes. With this campaign, People's Co-op has forfeited any right to claim that money spent there stays in San Diego.

    Fuck OB People's Co-op!

    ------------------------------

    I was so angry when I wrote it that I forgot to mention that Congress is exempt from insider trading laws and that they probably all own Monsanto stock, so I should go back and stick that in somewhere, because stock tips are one of the things that Monsanto lobbyists can give legislators, and they certainly won't do anything that might hurt their investments.
     
  5. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jan 16, 2012
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    That is absolute nonsense, under USDA and CFIA (Canadian) Organic rules there are NO tolerance levels for GMO. In fact both rules strictly state in the matter of GMO's that under no circumstances can product certified as organic contain even questionable material (may contain but probably doesn't. Futhermore as an organic farmer, I am not allowed to use byproducts of GMO's such as manure from livestock fed with GMO's or straw from GMO grains.

    Tolerance levels have been made between the US, Canada and Mexico because many of the GMO crops grown in the respective countries may not be approved for use in the other countries. GMO flax for instance is grown in the US but is not approved in Canada therefore products containing flax exported to Canada may contain up to the 5% threshold.

    As Anarchists the theft of the accumulated work of thousands of years by farmers in developing our food should be as much of a personal outrage as being confronted by overt racism, sexism or violence unfortunately most of the issue is being confronted by farmers who are the most marginalised people in any country. People want cheap food, cheap food is neither good, nor nutricious for the most it is toxic.

    NATURAL on the other hand MEANS nothing. Anyone may claim that their productis natural. Unless it has at least some third party accreditation that requires adherence to a specific set of rules, 'organic', fair trade, SPCA approved (new guidelines for animal raising) it is meaningless. You are not being duped to accept ingredients you would otherwise choose not to consume, you are being misled into believing something means what it does not. However a few recient court cases have been won in Canada to clarify the meaning of 'natural' brought against food processors by the CFIA through truth in labelling regulations.

    The majority of Europe will not allow any GMO tolerance of crops not approved to be grown in Europe and a few countries outside North America and Europe have banned GMO's altogether.
     
  6. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    If anyone has been paying attention, Monsanto field trialed GMO wheat from 1996 to 2004 in 18 counties in the US. Last week the round up ready trait was found in a shipment of soft wheat from Oregon. The trait could only have come from cross pollination. As a result of the contamination Japan, Europe and several south-east Asian countries have stopped ordering from the US though they continue to order spring and fall hard wheat (does not cross with soft wheat).

    This is eerily similar to the situation in 2008 (I believe) with Canadian flax. After field trials of a round up ready style flax developed by the University of Saskatchewan was going ahead with full scale seed production, it was stopped (2004) and the seed stock fields were destroyed due to lobbying efforts of flax farmers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba out of loosing the European market. At the time (2008) Canada supplied 60% of global flax production when the round up ready trait was found in a shipment and the result was a total collapse of the Canadian industry and severe struggles for Canadian farmers.

    Alternately, countries like Hungary who have a total ban on the growing of GMO crops have burned one field of 500 hectares with contaminated GMO corn and 1000 hectares of deliberately planted GMO corn.

    In the case of the soft wheat, the lawsuits are being prepared by Monsanto as one of their tactics against farmers has been to sue farmers whose crops may contained contaminated crop for patent infringement. In the majority of cases this has cause the bankruptcy of the farmer whose land is confiscated then sold to a Monsanto friendly farmer or the farmer capitulates, gives up their farm saved seed then is forced to buy seed from Monsanto. No matter what the result of the lawsuit, bankruptcy or capitulation Monsanto ceases the seed stock of the farmer and destroys the forever removing the genome from farmers hands. This has played out time and time again.

    Regarding the production benefits, the GMO promise of greater yields has failed, the actual production between the 1990's to now saw a period of immediate increase followed by a steady decline to a point in 2007 (I believe) where crop production in the US was actually lower than prior to the introduction of GMO's.

    The second promise of GMO's, the gradual decline of Herbicide use has also failed. In fact with the development of 'super weeds' the use of round up type herbicides has increase four fold, and this year the USDA received a 300% increase in the requests to apply 2-4-D a know carcinogen and one of the three ingredients in Agent Orange as glycophosphates are no longer effective. In addition to super weeds we now have super insects that are resistant to BT (GMO corn).

    All of this for a crop that has NEVER had independent third party scientific study. The USDA only requires evidence from the developer of a crop, so basically, Monsanto introduces a crop, the USDA says "hey, Monsanto is this shit safe" Monsanto says "yep" and the crop is released. Any scientist who tries to study the crop outside of Monsanto is sued for patent infringement.

    Still think it can't be that bad to eat GMO's, remember that Monsanto is a CHEMICAL company and NOT an agricultural one. They fought for 20 years to prevent the publication and dissemination of their favourite chemical DDT even though the evidence of its harm was OVERWHELMING and continued to market it as the greatest household sanitizer.
     
  7. IamMe

    IamMe Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    thanks danarchy a lot of good info. Monsanto need to go fuck there selves and would love to talk with people in charge of the company so i could tell them my mind, but that aint gunna happen any time soon.I cant wait to find a commune to live at so i can grow all my own food and live free from the control of such companies.
     
  8. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    This article was just came out about eh use of RNA targeting to eradicate pests, it's even scarier than GMO's and probably only 5-10 years away. The fact that Monsanto and Syngenta has invested hundreds of millions is cause for great concern for those of use who have to eat.

    http://www.producer.com/2013/05/rna-interference-technology-could-be-farmings-next-big-thing/

    But I also have to step back from my previous comment regarding GMO's in Certified Organic food, I was emailed this article today:



    I have met Dag a few times and respect what he has to say. This concern is similar to an issue that recently came up regarding pesticide residue on organic apples. After some random testing by the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) Given their proximity to conventional crops it is next to impossible to prevent drift. The residue amounted to about 4-500% less than that on conventional apples but it did raise concern. The GMO cross pollination is of greater concern as it shows how insidious GMO's are. Now that they are here we will never be able to get rid of them. I don't grow grains but we started growing our own Flax after the contamination, now I guess we'll be restricted to rye, millet and oats.

    Our new farm in Nova Scotia is not certified as organic but Certified Naturally Grown which is an organisation of grassroots small farmers combining lifestyle as well as growing methods rather than an organisation concerned with agribusiness and international trade agreements.
    http://www.naturallygrown.org/]www.naturallygrown.org/
     
  9. DownwithBigbrother666

    DownwithBigbrother666 Active Member Forum Member


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    Jun 12, 2013
     
    GMOnsters

    Hey,

    Does anyone have a nice complete list of the company's that use GMO's in their products?????


    and also a list of company's that use forced labor, etc. ?????????????

    I'd like to stop using these brands,etc. RIGHT AWAY!!!

    Thanks :anarchism:
     
  10. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Re: GMOnsters

    It would be a lot easier to find a list of companies that do not knowingly use GMO product since the majority of GMO are refined into food additives rather than actual food. My partner was given an I-phone from her sister and apparently there is an app for buycott that allows you to search brands for things like GMO's, child labour, environmental degradation etc. We had some fun shopping and turned all of their filters on, apparently we were right, if you care about the world/ humanity you actually can't buy anything from a grocery store, even the "fresh" produce was "buycott'ed" for things like indigenous rights, immigrant slave labour, etc.

    For this I go back to my typical mantra, by direct from a farmer or grow your own.
     
  11. DownwithBigbrother666

    DownwithBigbrother666 Active Member Forum Member


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    Re: GMOnsters



    Thanks a lot. I'd love to try to get that app. If you can help me.. hahahaha. You're right. I should definitely look into trying to grow my own. (add me as a friend if you like. I could use new friends :D :anarchism: )
     
  12. DownwithBigbrother666

    DownwithBigbrother666 Active Member Forum Member


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    Ok, Just found the app. I downloaded: Label GMO.. Found it on the Play Store.. Not bad.. Woooow there are a lot of bad company's man!! lol :ecouteurs:
     
  13. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    I am a direct witness to the truth of this statement, it was indeed the death of that particular movement which was only expounded upon by the violent police raids that followed...my disgust at these people and their blatant manipulation cannot be overemphasized...
     
  14. DownwithBigbrother666

    DownwithBigbrother666 Active Member Forum Member


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    Wow, This is Terrible!!!!
    Something has got to be done about this!!!
    I wonder if there are any Monsanto or GMO factory's/Distributors near me???
     
  15. IamMe

    IamMe Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    that app sounds good whats it called
     
  16. DownwithBigbrother666

    DownwithBigbrother666 Active Member Forum Member


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    Oh it is. I put it in the message above.. but I'm more then glad to say it again.. It's: Label GMO . I found it on the Play Store..
    Hope that helped. You'll be AMAZED by all the company's that use GMO's

    :anarchism: :ecouteurs:
     
  17. Creepy McSteezerson

    Creepy McSteezerson Member New Member


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    People forgot for a while, but right now there is actually a large insurgence regarding GMOs. I just attended the March Against Monsanto in NYC a while back and although he news coverage was not as we expected, a lot of eyes were opened.
     
  18. Annie

    Annie Experienced Member Experienced member


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    after reading the whole thread I like to say:
    D O N' T P A N I C ! ! !

    eating GMO-stuff is as dangerous as eating everything else including "natural food" - that doesn't mean it's ok or adequate means to solve "world hunger" - the industry just tries to maximise profit and minimize risk, thats market rule and usual business in capitalism.
    even organic food is polluted with antimony, arsen, cadmium, chromium and lots of other pleasantries resulting from mass use of combustion engines, generation of energy via fossil fuels, not to forget the blessings of the chemical industry: each and everyone of us is already marked by a burden of phthalates (byproduct of the paper- and plastic industry) up to a degree, that allows me to locate the place of residence of an unknown person without needing a very sophisticated medical laboratory, the test using just a blood sample is quite simple to do.
    phthalates are assumed to be responsible for the decline of the birth rate in industrial countries, they work like oestrogen and cripple spermatozoons - men become infertile, and this effect destroyed already complete populations of fish species in areas exploited by the paper industry. statistical data relating the rise of plastic-production and rate of male infertility correspond quite well - I guess it's just the sheer dimension of this special issue that keeps it

    I agree, capitalist production makes us eating shit and poison - but it also pollutes the soil we walk upon, the water we drink and the air we breathe - so don't get mesmerized by this sometimes already hysterical consumerhorrorbusiness springing up and sprouting strange blossoms like conspiration-bullshit, or the worries about mutant pigs glowing in the dark - they were never meant to be eaten, thats just commercial science poking around in the still big unknown of the genome.
    starting a garden is just not enough to escape the smog - there is an environmental movement waiting for reinforcements and the political movement to abolish state & private property - so we can eradicate this whole shit and make the world a better place worth to live in.

    everybody who wants to eat me for posting this should keep in mind that I'm as poisonous as the standard GMO...
     
  19. Creepy McSteezerson

    Creepy McSteezerson Member New Member


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    I think the app you are referring to is "Buycott". There may be others too, but that is the free one that I know of.
     
  20. Spike one of many

    Spike one of many Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    The thing is we just don't know about the long-term effects of GMOs on human DNA and as targeted "pests" become immune to current strains of GMOs, they will develop ever new strains with likely unforeseen consequences.
    And isn't it suspicious that these agritech companies block publication of the findings of independent tests on their product?

    Slightly off-topic but related:
    World's first GM babies born
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-43767/Worlds-GM-babies-born.html
     
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