OT Soapbox

What an eyeopener! I have enrolled to get the e-newsletter! I knew there was a reason for the insipid genocide the corporate clones was attempting, and accomplishing. I just didn't understand how they were doing it. thanks, NM! amy in CNY (who will start a garden this year!)

One thing that bothers me a lot about sites like the above is that there are NO references to proper scientific studies, just links to other sites which are, in turn, without proper references. This, IMO, reeks of pseudoscience. One can make all kinds of claims, but unless you can back it up with some hard data it's really just smoke and mirrors.

I don't have a lot of experience with GMO food but I am familiar with scams going on in the cancer area. A couple of years back I came across a website site which actually cited researchers at the place where I work as a source for some bogus information. This was passed on to the legal department which was aware of the wrong information being passed around but there was not much they could do - as soon as one site is shut down another pops up. Don't forget, once something gets out on the internet it's there forever, right or wrong. One scary aspect about the whole incident was that the scam site was a sidebar ad at a legitimate site - giving the scam a veneer of respectability.

All this to say - I am not condoning what Monsanto is doing but not all GMO is terrible. In fact, unless some GMO is done for bananas we may soon have one less fruit for our cereal in the morning ... but that is another story (Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel).

Off MY soapbox now, Allison

I have found some similar problems as I muck through trying to feed people healthy. I honestly think that such a huge amount of people just eat like garbage anyway it probably doesn't matter. That is pretty sad.

I don't know about the GMO issues. I am not sure I have the energy to worry over one more thing around food.

Hopefully NM and others can keep pushing until there is real definitive info.

I am rambling. I need my bowl of oatmeal. I really don't enjoy it and feel ripped off every time I waste a meal on it. Trying to be healthy isn't fun sometimes. Taria

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That is one of the problems. Every time anybody attempts independent research Monsanto sues them for patent infringement. They have it in their acceptable use contract, that anyone who buys the seed must agree to, that all research done with their seed has to be vetted by them prior to publication. In a nutshell, they are using patent law and buisness law to suppress any potentially damageing research results.

GMO technology could be used for very good things. Unfortunately at the moment it mostly appears to be being used to sell herbicide and attempt to dominate the agricultural industry. Last year's cotton disaster in India ought to be a wake up call, but it barely got reported in the western world.

The banana problem is going to be duplicated on a positively scary scale throughout commercial agricultural if the stupidity of monocropping (growing just one kind of one thing to near exclusivity) is not addressed across the industry.

Just for fun, if you live in ag zone 7 or higher, or have a big enough indoor space, a greenhouse, or even an enclosed porch, you can probably grow this:

It came to my attention because my favorite seed catalog has them new this year:

NightMist

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It does rather make one wonder what they have to hide...

Oh, they look lovely. But I think too big for my conservatory!

I hate everything about eating. Nothing seems safe or real. And I understand the psuedoscience swirling around the world. But I know a tiny bit about Monsanto and I hate what's going on. GMO is a bad idea in the way it's being applied. But I suspect we have more to worry about that we don't even know. Ok, so it seems sort of funny and cute that some researcher made a puppy that glows in the dark. Or puts human DNA into a mouse. Or has a goat that gives milk that has spider silk in it. But I don't like it. It seems sort of ...... dangerously like 'messing around with Mother Nature' to me. Nothing is without consequences, and the unintended consequences are typically greater and make more impact than the intended/advertised consequences.

Sunny

But I don't like it. It seems sort of ...... dangerously

here,here!! I agree Sunny! Well said.

Bravo!

amy in CNY

OK, looking for any scientific studies I found this one. It wriggled around the patent question because they studied soil ecology rather than the crops:

Scary stuff.

NightMist

Very interesting article - thanks for posting.

But when you look at what they studied it may not be so scary..... They collected worms and nematodes and other small organisms and to see if they could detect the transgene. They did this by grinding up the WHOLE organism and doing PCR(a very sensitive method for detecting DNA). Yes, they did find the transgene, BUT, and this is very important, they are NOT concluding that the transgene has incorporated itself into DNA of the worms, nematodes, etc. It is most likely in the gut of the animal which has been eating the plant material in the field with the transgene crop. If you eat PlantX it's not surprising that you have PlantX material in your gut. If PCR had been done on any 'regular' plant gene my guess is that would have been detected as well (that would actually be a good control experiment to do in parallel).

IMHO, a critical thing to study would the frequency that regular soil bacteria can take up foreign DNA (transgene or a 'regular' plant gene) under non-lab conditions. In any event, this paper is a good start.

In any critique of GMO I think it's also important to look at WHAT gene is being transferred and how the modified food is being distributed. It seems to me that a good example of GMO is when the gene for carotene was transferred from carrots into rice. "Golden rice" could serve as a source of vitamin A in poorer countries where blindness in kids is a big problem. This humanitarian project is not advancing well though......

Allison

NightMist wrote:

Exactly my thoughts. Well said. "Nothing seems safe or real" makes me think of how creeped out I get by storebought produce. It lasts too long. Come on. Fruit is supposed to turn bad if you don't eat it relatively soon. Not anymore. It still looks nice well past the time it shouldn't. They're doing something to it. DH is a beekeeper. It's becoming frustrating and near impossible to keep from losing entire hives. I swear it's all the pesticides the farmers around here are using on their fields. We take very good care of the bees, but even so we've lost half in the past five years. Sorry for the OT rant; my mind just rambled after reading the article. And thank you to Nightmist for posting it. It was a real eye-opener for me.