GMOs

[Max*]

Strangely the food tastes much much better than food shipped from thousands of miles away. Why?

Do you have proof that the reason the food tastes better is because they don't use chemicals? I would presume this is speculation. But I'd be glad to be wrong.


This brings me to another question that I've had in mind for a while. The family and I recently took a trip to the carribean. The fruits that we bought at the local farmers market tasted and smelled sooooooo much better than just about anything I can buy locally in the states.

My wife and I kept thinking why? Different strains/seeds? Different climate? Pesticide? GMOs? etc.

 

[Brando]

Do you have proof that the reason the food tastes better is because they don't use chemicals? I would presume this is speculation. But I'd be glad to be wrong.


This brings me to another question that I've had in mind for a while. The family and I recently took a trip to the carribean. The fruits that we bought at the local farmers market tasted and smelled sooooooo much better than just about anything I can buy locally in the states.

My wife and I kept thinking why? Different strains/seeds? Different climate? Pesticide? GMOs? etc.

Fresh best (even roasted coffee)
Shipping means picked green (not ripe)
You can surely answer on your own, do chemicals make them better? make them worse? improve appearance (probably?).
Once you realize looks not really that important - simply trim off that which offends. Concentrate on quality/taste.
Do we need test to show good tasting food is better for you? Think bland food better for your health?
No one factor explains all. water, air, soil, ripeness, freshness, seeds, pollution, chemicals.
Life is complex to engineer. Wonderous how life left alone thrives on its own. A good sign?
Avoid packaged foods, look for fresh, variety, experiment. Yes, a lot of common sense.

See if you can find a spot to grow a little something. Squash, tomatos, ask a neighbor (look for one with a garden, offer to help weed for a few minutes on the week end while you take that needed walk to the coffee shop or for the dog or just to relax). Quality of life takes a little work, not that much really, help a neighbor they may return the favor some day. Older people can usually use a helping hand, go offer.

Don't worry about failing, that is how you gain experience. Expect to fail the first time you do most anything, it is called learning.

 

[Brando]

If that's true then the Koch brothers aren't getting their moneys worth. Neither did the tobacco industry. The scientific method does a good job at ensuring the truth floats to the surface.

Perhaps you should watch. May find on YouTube. See how science in corporations is actually used. Scientific Method had nothing to do with the truth floating to the top. Tobacco got away with murder for decades. Adding Ammonia? think about it, ammonia
And you may have noticed their businesses still thrive. Not because of science.
The Insider (film) - Wikipedia

 

[nwdiver]

What's the science on tobacco now? I never claimed that science is perfect... it's proceeds in fits and starts... but it does coalesce around the truth. The dangers of Tobacco were obvious in the 1960s even if it hadn't yet received mainstream attention the consensus in the scientific community was there... the peer reviewed studies where there. There is no such peer reviewed science showing GMOs to be any worse than non-GMO food.

Then go to an organic chemical free farm.

Really? No chemicals? Not even Dihydrogen Monoxide? I find that hard to believe

Maybe one day we'll find an alternative to such a terrible chemical

Being a 'chemical' doesn't mean something is harmful... being harmful makes it harmful... the world isn't black and white.

Sure, it's 'possible' to grow crops without herbicides or pesticides... you can pull weeds and pluck pests... but that won't work if you're growing 10,000 acres of corn. We simply can't grow enough food for >7B people without modern agriculture. BT Corn means we don't need to use insecticides that actually are toxic to other insects like bees. Glyphosate tolerant corn means we use less herbicides that can contaminate ground water and are more expensive to produce.

We don't randomly assemble cars and use the ones the work. Why should we keep randomly assembling DNA and waiting for one that works? Repeat this sentence; 'It's more effective to allow things to happen randomly by chance than to purposely engineer them' Does that really make any sense? How far to you think Space X or Tesla would have gotten if that was their raison d'être? Genetics isn't magic. It's SCIENCE!

 

[Brando]

What's the science on tobacco now? I never claimed that science is perfect... it's proceeds in fits and starts... but it does coalesce around the truth. The dangers of Tobacco were obvious in the 1960s even if it hadn't yet received mainstream attention the consensus in the scientific community was there... the peer reviewed studies where there. There is no such peer reviewed science showing GMOs to be any worse than non-GMO food.



Really? No chemicals? Not even Dihydrogen Monoxide? I find that hard to believe

Maybe one day we'll find an alternative to such a terrible chemical

Being a 'chemical' doesn't mean something is harmful... being harmful makes it harmful... the world isn't black and white.

Sure, it's 'possible' to grow crops without herbicides or pesticides... you can pull weeds and pluck pests... but that won't work if you're growing 10,000 acres of corn. We simply can't grow enough food for >7B people without modern agriculture. BT Corn means we don't need to use insecticides that actually are toxic to other insects like bees. Glyphosate tolerant corn means we use less herbicides that can contaminate ground water and are more expensive to produce.

We don't randomly assemble cars and use the ones the work. Why should we keep randomly assembling DNA and waiting for one that works? Repeat this sentence; 'It's more effective to allow things to happen randomly by chance than to purposely engineer them' Does that really make any sense? How far to you think Space X or Tesla would have gotten if that was their raison d'être? Genetics isn't magic. It's SCIENCE!

 

[Brando]

Can't grow enough food? Gee, how'd India and China and Africa and South America ever grow enough food.
Not sure why you believe that? Saw it in an ad from DOW or Monsanto? No peer reviewed science to support your claim. Green revolution claims are just that.

 

[nwdiver]

Can't grow enough food? Gee, how'd India and China and Africa and South America ever grow enough food.

.... many of them don't...

Africa is a net importer of food... modern agriculture feeds the world.

Places that use modern agriculture... like China... generally have sufficient food... or they're blessed with ideal conditions for high caloric low maintenance foods like rice. You can't grow rice everywhere it needs a lot of water.

 

[Skotty]

Right... there is absolutely no difference. We've been altering crops for aeons with selective breeding. Suddenly people are jittery when we engineer them intentionally. It's absurd.

Unless it came out of the ocean it's GMO. The only difference is wether it's GMO by accident or GMO by engineering. Non-GMO Almonds are poisonous due to high cyanide content. I don't hear any complaints about Almonds that have been genetically modified with selective breeding to be edible.

Really? How did anyone ever figure that one out. I can't imagine anyone saying "Gee, if these things weren't deadly poisonous, they might be tasty!" Might be an interesting story.

 

[nwdiver]

Really? How did anyone ever figure that one out. I can't imagine anyone saying "Gee, if these things weren't deadly poisonous, they might be tasty!" Might be an interesting story.

I think I first read the almond thing in 'Guns, Germs and Steel'. I doubt anyone ever ate enough to die since natural almonds apparently taste horrible. They likely found some that tasted good due to a genetic fluke then cultivated that tree.... Most people don't realize how much we've changed plants over thousands of years. Broccoli, Cauliflower and Brussel sprouts are all the same plant!

That's what I think is insane about the GMO debate. The only real difference between GMO and selective breeding is that with selective breeding you're waiting for a copying error to occur that's advantageous and replicating that error. How is that better than meticulously investigating what 'error' would produce beneficial results and engineering that change to occur... Even cross-species gene transfer occurs naturally.

There's this notion that you can't 'improve' the natural world artificially or that somehow 'all natural' means 'better'. Even if this were somehow true... we left that bridge burning a LONG time ago... if you drive into the desert and your car breaks down at some point the only way to survive is to fix the car. The car got you there... the car needs to get you out. The same applies to our society. Science and Technology got us into this mess. Science and Technology need to get us out...