Elinda wrote:
- Food crop diversity - once the seed is out there, there is no containing it. If the bulk of the seed supply should become genetically modified and then that modification proves to be responsible for a genetic mutation in peeps of some detrimental sort, we're screwed.
I understand this from an "all your eggs in one basket" point of view, but I'm not sure what you're talking about with "genetic mutation of peeps". Are you worried that by eating the food people will somehow become "infected" with the genetic modifications of the wheat/whatever? Genetics doesn't work that way. Your genes don't change based on the genes of what you eat. Otherwise, people would have turned into cows a long time ago.
If you meant something else, please explain.
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- Second has been the labeling debacle. The GMO producers not only dont' want to disclose that their foods are genetically modified, they don't want to allow non-gmo food producers to label their products as such (as it implies GMO = bad).
Because honestly it's an absurd label. As a couple people have pointed out, all food is "genetically modified". Companies resist labeling precisely because the sole purpose of requiring labels is to make people think there's something wrong with the food. There's nothing wrong with the food. If people have issues with the policies of the company(s) developing the strains of wheat/whatever that is being grown, that's a whole different issue.
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-Then as Joph mentioned there are the patent issues. Also the evidence is now pretty solid that the seeds are contaminating other non-gmo crops (nuisance claim).
Which is it though? We're upset because a company has patented their work modifying crops to grow better and be more productive and they can charge farmers an arm and a leg for it? Or we're upset because their better and more productive crops spread to other fields and grow "free" elsewhere? I mean, if I'm a farmer and the guy next door paid for the super duper wheat, and it spread to my farm where I can just grow it without paying for it, isn't that a bonus?