Germany bans Monsanto's GM maize

[dead0man]

Opponents of GM crops say more scientific data is needed, arguing that their long-term genetic impact on humans and wildlife could be harmful.

The biotech industry says the crops are as safe as traditional varieties, and that they would provide plentiful, cheaper food.

Yeah, screw cheap food!  Let the poor starve like they always have.  What, there is no science to back up the dangers of genetically modified food?  Then lets say we need more testing, nobody could have a problem with that!  If they do they can easily be ignored as they are obviously in the pocket of Monsanto and don't care about the bunnies and the children.

[dead0man]

Let the poor starve like they always have.

Actually, several surveys shew that we can make accessible food for starving countries without GM methods, but of course the surveys don't come from Monsanto.

Which is why I said "cheap".  We've always been able to feed the world, lack of food is not why people starve.  Starvation has almost always been caused by sh**tty govts.  Poor people in the west need to eat too though, they should have the option of cheaper food if we can make it cheaper for them.  Nobody is forcing you (or them) to buy GM food.  Feel free to continue looking for the "bad things" too...of course.  Hell, look harder.



(And you are aware that almost all the food we eat has been genetically modified.  Cows didn't look like that before they were domesticated.  We altered their genes.  This is not part of my argument.)

[dead0man]

There aren't any GM projects aimed at making food cheaper, dead0man.

Nor is there any reason (stupid scare stories from years ago aside) to believe it directly dangerous for humans.

Anything done to increase yield per acre (or whatever) makes food cheaper.  If Monsanto makes their corn bigger and less likely to be eaten by bugs, they are going to get a lot more corn per area planted.  Monsanto is going to make more money because they can sell their seed at a higher price, and the farmer will gladly pay that if he knows it's going to result in the farmer getting a lot more corn than he usually does.  If a lot of farmers make the change, there will be TONS of more corn on the market.  That makes corn cheaper.  That makes your Fruit Loops cheaper.  That means more poor people can get more food/have more money to spend on other things.

I agree with you that Monsanto doesn't do this to make corn cheaper, they do it to make money.  The side benifit is cheaper corn though.  Henry Ford didn't use the assembly line to make cars cheaper to sell, he did it because it made the cars cheaper to make.

[dead0man]

Very true.

[dead0man]

I can't wait until we can stop killing millions (billions?) of large mammals every year to feed our protein needs.  Synthetic ham will kick ass.  Will the hippies and Germans be afraid of that too?

[dead0man]

And here I thought Germans liked science and it was the nutty Americans that were afraid of it.  The stereotype that Germans are a logical people fades more and more every year.