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GMO alarmism is nonsense. However, it's very easy to find non GMO food in the USA since there's this huge grocery chain called Whole Foods in any city over 200K that specializes in that sort of thing.
There are two reasons euros don't like GMOs. The first is that science education in the 3 largest european countries (France, UK, Germany) is even worse than in the USA. As an Amercan who lived through our horrible public school system, this is hard to even fathom and I was stunned to see that ranking. The bulk of Western Europeans are basically scientifically illiterate. It's sort of like the antivax phenomena you see in Marin County in California, but on a nationwide scale.
The second reason is due mainly to racism. GMO crops were invented and promoted in the 1970s by midwestern american guys trying to figure out a way to feed poor countries, like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, etc. At the time, western europe was under the spell of "Population Bomb" Paul Erlich type ideas. They didn't want brown people coming into Europe and didn't even want brown people in other countries to have food - they wanted them to starve and die off. Thus, there was a massive scramble to not only pass laws against GMO foods in Europe but try to block their use in developing countries.
The original reason why GMOs were "bad" had nothing to do with their safety, it was just racial fearmongering. It evolved into the current "safety" position due to the scientific dumbing down of France, UK and Germany.
They are a crank organization, dedicated to spreading anti-science misinformation.
"They didn't want brown people coming into Europe and didn't even want brown people in other countries to have food - they wanted them to starve and die off".
Who wrote that RationalWiki entry? It seems like R-wiki is the "crank organization". Here's an example of their idea of persuasive writing:
And they oppose wi-fi and all other radiation in general, just in case, because it's invisible and therefore scary, pending some indefinable and unachieveable quantity of proof of safety, for the sake of the children:
They've gotta do better than that, if they want to be taken seriously.
Mercury is universally recognized as a poison. It shouldn't be in vaccinations. The medical community has been developing mercury-free vaccines. It's just common sense.
A number of studies has concluded that radiation from cell phones causes malignant changes to the brain. This is science, not anti-science. Anti-science is when scientists refuse to test a theory, due to their own bias. Testing hypotheses is what science is all about.
The way I understand it, the GMO crops are designed to have toxins in them that repel agricultural pests. How can eating those crops with their toxins be good for humans? Or the animals that ingest them as feed? Isn't that just basic common sense? Am I missing something here?
Meanwhile, back on the topic..... Does anyone remember the topic? That thing in the OP. We're supposed to be discussing it.
The way I understand it, the GMO crops are designed to have toxins in them that repel agricultural pests. How can eating those crops with their toxins be good for humans? Or the animals that ingest them as feed? Isn't that just basic common sense? Am I missing something here?
Meanwhile, back on the topic..... Does anyone remember the topic? That thing in the OP. We're supposed to be discussing it.
Oh well.
GMO crops are modified to grow in areas with poor growing conditions, and so that certain herbicides and pesticides don't affect them, but do affect the pests and the weeds around them. It would be interesting if one could engineer a plant to produce toxins, but that is not possible. Most genetic engineering is just a slightly more sophisticated version of selective plant breeding that has gone on for centuries.
This post right here is why terrorists hate America.
I hope no one is ignorant enough to assume that the beliefs expressed by one person on the internet are indicative of the beliefs of Americans in general.
Personally, I've lived in the US for about 40 years and I've never even heard anyone say anything like that particular post. And I've read and heard a lot of crazy things.
GMO crops are modified to grow in areas with poor growing conditions, and so that certain herbicides and pesticides don't affect them, but do affect the pests and the weeds around them. It would be interesting if one could engineer a plant to produce toxins, but that is not possible. Most genetic engineering is just a slightly more sophisticated version of selective plant breeding that has gone on for centuries.
When U.S. regulators approved Monsanto's genetically modified "Bt" corn, they knew it would add a deadly poison into our food supply. That's what it was designed to do. The corn's DNA is equipped with a gene from soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that produces the Bt-toxin. It's a pesticide; it breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.
But Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore up and down that it was only insects that would be hurt. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and not have any impact on all of us trusting corn-eating consumers.
Oops. A study just proved them wrong.
Doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found the corn's Bt-toxin in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in non-pregnant women.i (Specifically, the toxin was identified in 93% of 30 pregnant women, 80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of 39 non-pregnant women.) The study has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology.
According to the UK Daily Mail, this study, which "appears to blow a hole in" safety claims, "has triggered calls for a ban on imports and a total overhaul of the safety regime for genetically modified (GM) crops and food." Organizations from England to New Zealand are now calling for investigations and for GM crops to be halted due to the serious implications of this finding.
Who wrote that RationalWiki entry? It seems like R-wiki is the "crank organization". Here's an example of their idea of persuasive writing:
And they oppose wi-fi and all other radiation in general, just in case, because it's invisible and therefore scary, pending some indefinable and unachieveable quantity of proof of safety, for the sake of the children:
They've gotta do better than that, if they want to be taken seriously.
Mercury is universally recognized as a poison. It shouldn't be in vaccinations. The medical community has been developing mercury-free vaccines. It's just common sense.
A number of studies has concluded that radiation from cell phones causes malignant changes to the brain. This is science, not anti-science. Anti-science is when scientists refuse to test a theory, due to their own bias. Testing hypotheses is what science is all about.
There is no mercury in any routine childhood vaccine. This despite the fact that Thimerosal has been found safe.
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