Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

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Glenn
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Glenn »

Jason Rees wrote: Not buying it, Glenn. I'he seen too many instances of 'global warming' being corrected after the fact to climate change, especially and most explicitly during the winter. Summer comes along and people lose air conditioning and suddenly, as if by pre-arranged signal, 'global warming' is trotted out again. Winter. Cold. Climate Change. Summer. Hot. Global Warming. Rinse. Repeat.

Enough with the spin and manure, already.
I have no clue what you are watching when you see this. Maybe you are getting confused by Fox News' spin and manure, I mean talking points, on the subject. :wink:
Glenn
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Jason Rees
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Jason Rees »

If I had the time and inclination, I'd dredge up the headlines from the NYT, the World-Heralds, the Tribunes, the Guardian, the BBC, and other outlets. But asI'm operating from a kindle in an undisclosed location in SW Asia, you're just going to have to take my word that I haven't watched Fox in a year or so. I'm just flabberghasted that a man of your keen observational abilities has somehow let this chicanery go unnoticed all these years. Unless you get your news soley from MSNBC. That would explain everything.
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Valkenar
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Valkenar »

For what it's worth, I have never in my life heard or read anyone expressing genuine fear of global cooling.
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Valkenar wrote:For what it's worth, I have never in my life heard or read anyone expressing genuine fear of global cooling.
..... Global Warming or a New Ice Age: Documentary Film

Took me less than 60 seconds to find it.

- Bill
Valkenar
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Valkenar »

Oh there's all sorts of crazy ideas seriously suggested that you can find if you go looking. My point was that at the very least it wasn't a popular enough idea that I had run into people seriously suggesting it without actively seeking it out.

Interestingly, here's the first paragraph of the description of that video:
Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation. This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community, but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the scientific understanding of ice age cycles. In contrast to the global cooling conjecture, the current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled, but undergone global warming throughout the twentieth century.
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Valkenar wrote: Oh there's all sorts of crazy ideas...
Like anthropogenic global warming?
Valkenar wrote: My point was that at the very least it wasn't a popular enough idea that I had run into people seriously suggesting it without actively seeking it out.
You're such a young lad... ;-) You were probably having a good time in college when "the next ice age" was the idea du jour. Before it was global warming. Before it was climate change, which pretty much CYA no matter what happens. I mean... change is bad, no? <jk>
Valkenar wrote: Interestingly, here's the first paragraph of the description of that video:
Indeed.

And then the idea of global warming is refuted and an imminent ice age in the near future (allegedly can happen in as little as 20 years) is proposed.

- Bill
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Jason Rees
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Jason Rees »

http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/arc ... ty/277222/

Somebody didn't get the memo. He's talking about Global Warming still.

Every time I see someone blame the latest natural disaster on Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Chane, I get the same gut reaction as I do when Pat Robertson blames it on'God Hates Fags.'
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Valkenar
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Valkenar »

http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/j ... to_gmo.php

Now even if GMO food supplies don't bother you, what about the cross contamination issue? Should farmers be allowed to plant crops which are guaranteed to cause financial harm to neighboring farms?
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Valkenar wrote: Should farmers be allowed to plant crops which are guaranteed to cause financial harm to neighboring farms?
It seems to me the sugar beet growers worked it out amongst themselves so that nobody was contaminating anyone else's plants with the pollen from other varieties.

By the way... the damage goes both ways. That's the way the law works. Here is a case where everyone in The Willamette Valley got together and unanimously agreed on the seed variety that would be grown in that region so that nobody was stepping on anyone else's toes. That got the organic and non-GMO people's panties twisted, but what business is it of their's? If they want another variety of sugar beet or chard seed, they can find their own area of the country to go grow it. But I'm betting that they can't compete.

If you dig deep on this, you begin to realize that there's an industry of less-hardy plants wanting protection from more hardy plant. The genetic manipulation allows folks to use Roundup to clean out all the weeds in an area without killing the plant. That's a relatively safe chemical that practically every homeowner uses unless they're into pulling weeds by hand. (I rarely do that, and don't have time to do it.) It begins to get a little crazy after a while.

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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Valkenar »

Bill Glasheen wrote: It seems to me the sugar beet growers worked it out amongst themselves so that nobody was contaminating anyone else's plants with the pollen from other varieties.
It's not just the beet growers who have a stake though:
Cross pollination between GM sugar beets and related plants, such as chard and table beets, is a major threat in the valley where sugar beets are the predominant crop. Morton says there are many areas where chard and sugar beet fields are “rubbing up against one another.” The two plants cross pollinate because they are the same species.
Yes the pollination goes both ways, but the organic chard folks aren't doing anything to harm the beets, so the harm only goes one way.

The other issue, which maybe you're more likely to agree with me is legal:
Sugar beet seed producers wanted to establish a six-mile isolation distance between GM sugar beets and non-GM crops in the valley, based on research showing such a distance was necessary to keep GMO contamination down to .01%. They wanted the distance to protect themselves from potential lawsuits in case of contamination problems."
This pattern where some farmer uses GMO stuff and then it pollinates the neighbors fields then Monsanto sues because of a patent violation (their genes in your stuff) is a travesty, it seems to me.
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Genetically Modified Foods - Please watch this video!

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Valkenar wrote: This pattern where some farmer uses GMO stuff and then it pollinates the neighbors fields then Monsanto sues because of a patent violation (their genes in your stuff) is a travesty, it seems to me.
I can't argue much with you here. It's a little crazy.

Reminds me of the patent wars going on with cell phones and computers.

Bill
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