Why GMOs Matter

[longknife]

By Keith Kloor | January 24, 2014 @ Why GMOs Matter - Collide-a-Scape | DiscoverMagazine.com

This, to me, doesn't appear to be political in nature. It's a interesting discourse about GMOs and their impact. Here's a bit of the article:

So why does cotton engineered with the pest-resistant Bt trait matter in the developing world? After all, people don’t eat cotton! And as smart GMO skeptics like to point out, most biotech crops, like soybean, corn, and cotton, are commodity cash crops. They don’t feed people.

Here’s Naam:

There are 7 million cotton farmers in India. Several peer reviewed studies have found that, because Bt cotton increases the amount of crop they have to sell, it raises their farm profits by as much as 50 percent, helps lift them out of poverty and reduces their risk of falling into hunger. By reducing the amount of insecticide used (which, in India, is mostly sprayed by hand) Bt cotton has also massively reduced insecticide poisoning to farm workers there — to the tune of 2.4 million cases per year.

And, if GMO products help farmers raise more food to feed more people, what on earth is wrong with that? I'm certainly no biologist, but using GMOs seems to make a lot of sense to me.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Oh good grief. I was about to compliment you for having the good sense to be against GMOs.

I suggest you read just a bit more. And, if it were me, I would read the other side of this issue as well.

Meanwhile, there's an excellent app to help you avoid GMO products. Called "Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide". And, of course, read the labels.

 

[longknife]

Oh good grief. I was about to compliment you for having the good sense to be against GMOs.

I suggest you read just a bit more. And, if it were me, I would read the other side of this issue as well.

Meanwhile, there's an excellent app to help you avoid GMO products. Called "Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide". And, of course, read the labels.

Please explain to me - in scientific or biological terms - what is exactly wrong with genetically modified products.

Why is it wrong to produce corn that grows faster with less water and still provides the same nutritional value?

Or cotton that produces greater yield.

Or animals better adapted to difficult environments?