Headache caused by petermac33 !!

Reduced fertility would be great. 7 billion is too many for comfort, do we need 10 or 20? 500 million would be a lovely number, enough for progress but 14 times more resources (& less pollution etc).

petermac33 said...



Warning,do not read link if you enjoy regular fried takeaway and value your health.

I think that is what is called an oxymoron. Regardless of the oil, or the amount of times it's recycled - anyone that enjoys regular fried takeaway mustn't value their health...or they at least value their tastebuds more.

We are stuck with GM foods wether we want them or not.
They have been around in Australia since the early 80's.
GM cotton was the first that comes to mind being imported as a pest resistant variety. (I realize this is part of the “rag” or clothing trade)
Tobacco is another GM crop, but hopefully not as many of us were exposed to this as non-smokers.
Canola is the favourite at the moment and copping the flak. I think the big hassle with this, is the control one company has over this, with its “Roundup Ready” GM tag.
The use of this seed is a huge benefit to growers as the weeds can be controlled in the crop “post emergent” using “Roundup” a glyphosate knockdown chemical. (Which usually kills everything it comes into contact with when used at the correct rate). This canola was tolerant to Roundup.

Insulin used for the treatment of humans is another that is produced by GM modified bacteria.

If you eat eggs, milk, pork or chicken there is a very good chance that they have been in contact with a GM modified feed source.

Let's concentrate on the things we can control and not the ones that have bolted 30 years ago.

For better or worse they are here to stay.

My two bobs worth is, at this time we are struggling to be able to feed the current world's population, so we must do everything in our power to ensure that our current agricultural practices are not compromised, by ill-informed media drumming up hype that is just not true.

Am I passionate about this???
YES.
My job is to teach young people how to feed our growing population, safely and just as importantly, it must be sustainable.
So at the end of the day, I guess I'm pretty one eyed about something that we already have, use very successfully and is in everyday use.

Yes Mark, I totally agree with you.
I'm the last person on earth, that likes a chemical company.

I was just pointing out that other things have been GM without our general knowledge and put out there without us being aware.

Yeh the future is very worrying, what the shake down will be with these sorts of things, but I guess we can't mark time forever.

Don't get me started on the terminator genes. That is downright unethical, that it can be controlled like that. Although a lot of vegies etc. are already hybrids and their seed cannot germinate.

Plant breeding has been fast tracked for a long time, by firing the desired genes into a healthy seed on a gold carrier. All under a microscope.
So many many years, of developing a particular trait, such as dwarfing stems to prevent wind blowing the crop over when maturing, can be achieved in one single growing season.
There is a huge amount of this done to alter seed, for example to make them rust (fungal) resistant. Not shed their seed when ripe, so they can still be harvested etc.

Not strictly GM, but how close is it???? It's a very fine line.

It worries me about what we don't know and can only dream what the powers to be, or military might be up to.

Just send a clone off to war and we are totally safe eh??? Yeh dream on.

Thanks for your thoughts, Chook

kiteboy dave said...

Reduced fertility would be great. 7 billion is too many for comfort, do we need 10 or 20? 500 million would be a lovely number, enough for progress but 14 times more resources (& less pollution etc).

You've raised the topic that shall not be raised.

You have to hand it to the Chinese. They've actually done it with their one child policy. Not a total winner for all of course, some cons to it all. But they've done it and it has reduced/will further reduce their population dramatically.

...last one.

The Amish are all for GM foods and crops. Yes you Luddites, the Amish.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7742471.stm

FormulaNova said...





I think there is a big difference between creating a variant from breeding techniques, and creating something new by directly adding segments of DNA from something else.

how so? it's the same thing done over a shorter time period. selective breeding results in genetic modification. if it's done over several generations people seem to have no problems with it, but when the same thing is achieved overnight in a lab they're up in arms.
i think the worrying problem with gm foods is that whole crop species become the private trademarked/patented property of companies like monsanto and simplot

stamp said...

FormulaNova said...





I think there is a big difference between creating a variant from breeding techniques, and creating something new by directly adding segments of DNA from something else.

how so? it's the same thing done over a shorter time period. selective breeding results in genetic modification. if it's done over several generations people seem to have no problems with it, but when the same thing is achieved overnight in a lab they're up in arms.
i think the worrying problem with gm foods is that whole crop species become the private trademarked/patented property of companies like monsanto and simplot

I think that by selective breeding, you are looking for mutations that improve the breed, and any mistakes effectively cancel themselves out.

On the other hand if you go ahead inserting genes, without really understanding exactly what they do, I think there is the potential to introduce genes that cause problems further down the line.

Squid Lips said...

What is supposed to be the actual danger of eating GM food? People go on about it like it's poison and will turn you into a tentacled mutant

Who knows? Probably none but hey, don't let that stop people loudly predicting the end of civilisation as we now know it if we bite on a bit of GM corn or canola.

When you see how aerated some people can get over the detrimental effects of chem trails, fluoridated water, indian curries and even mini nukes, you can hardly be surprised at how much noise they can make about the remote possibility of a side effect of GM ingredients in food.
It may be that eventually there will be something produced which is found to have some negative effect, but the effect of eventually running out of food is better known and more imminent. Given the choice of starving or being fed by GM corn cooked in GM canola oil, while considering their options, they will do so while eating the GM corn.

I think this statement copied from the link above says it pretty well;
" With little regulation and safety tests performed by the companies doing the genetic modifications themselves, we have no way of knowing for certain what risks these lab-created foods pose to us outside of what we already know."

If that's the worst they can say about it then I think at this point we can take it that it's still pretty safe.

Those that don't want to eat it don't have to. They can grow their own.

signed,.. Tentacled Mutant.

Mark _australia said...
(I say "major" as glyphosate kills everything with chlorophyll in it, so I don't think plants will ever naturally become totally resistant) is waaay ahead of selective breeding techniques or natural selection.

Interesting that you say that. It's actually become a big issue lately that because glyphosate is in such common usage, that's exactly what is happening.
Some weeds are becoming resistant to glyphosates because in most spray runs there are always some surviving weeds for varying reasons. These plants get to pass on their resistance to the next generations and due to Mr Darwins survival of the fittest rule, after a few dozen generations we have ended up with some very resistant weeds.
The word is that we are getting close to needing something to replace glyphosates in some situations.

pweedas said...

Mark _australia said...
(I say "major" as glyphosate kills everything with chlorophyll in it, so I don't think plants will ever naturally become totally resistant) is waaay ahead of selective breeding techniques or natural selection.

Interesting that you say that. It's actually become a big issue lately that because glyphosate is in such common usage, that's exactly what is happening.
Some weeds are becoming resistant to glyphosates because in most spray runs there are always some surviving weeds for varying reasons. These plants get to pass on their resistance to the next generations and due to Mr Darwins survival of the fittest rule, after a few dozen generations we have ended up with some very resistant weeds.
The word is that we are getting close to needing something to replace glyphosates in some situations.

Are you saying that the weeds survived for varying reasons, or that they survived because they were resistant to glyphosate?

petermac33 said...

Stopped at Indian takeaway,bought 3 vegetarian spring rolls.

Maybe the issue is that you bought spring rolls from an Indian takeaway. You may be safer with samosas or an onion bhaji...

My head hurts now :-(

Panda, just to clarify I was not claiming GM food produces any isomers of existing compounds. Just saying that our bodies are ridiculously complex things and given our track record with major surprises like Thalidomide, having totally same properties but a different effect on our bodies.....I would not trust GM tucker.

Then regardless of safety, I have an issue with a company owning life. Terminator seeds are totally incongruous with one of the 4 essentials of life - food (ie: the water, shelter, warmth thing). Everyone has a right to food, and I can envisage a day where all the natural stuff has died out and the only way anyone can grow plants is to buy seed from a company. That is a scary thought.

Don't the conspiracy theorists have a quote from some pro - New World Order pollie saying he who controls the food controls the world or something? (Just getting back on track as PM33 started the thread )