27th of May protest of GM research

[Ziploc Surprise]

This showed up on my FB page today. It's something about a protest against genetically modified wheat research that will take place on the 27th of May. http://richarddawkins.net/videos/645814-...m-research

Here's the video:

My question is, what the hell is this? I've heard people spouting off about genetically modified food before but I've not heard of any physical violence associated with these protests. Why such stupidity? Haven't people been genetically modifying plants and animals for thousands of years? Yes I know that genetic engineering speeds up the process by quite a lot but isn't this is essentially the same thing as what has been going on for thousands of years?

And about the environment, aren't the scientists trying to protect this through genetic engineering?

[Tiberius]

Anyone else think we should show up on mass at the protest on 27th May and protect the plants?

[Welsh cake]

I'm divided about this because it depends upon what the genetic modification is.

Then again, the food industry has been fucking with our health for decades so why should we start complaining now?

Go buy tinned coconut milk for example, its almost bound to have cow's milk in it. WTF do I want cow's milk in my coconut milk for? Talk about defeating the objective.

[NoMoreFaith]

I was more motivated to see what "Take the Flour Back" organisation listed as its main objections to the project.

I .. well.. couldn't really find any, they cited a similar experiment that contaminated fields in Canada by wind pollination.. the issue was that nobody wanted to buy GM Wheat rather than any intrinsic flaw in the wheat itself.

Citing economical viability as a source of why GM wheat is bad, does not seem to be a coherent argument for vandalism. You'd think they'd have some farmers to quote at least saying "OMG Dis wheat is gonna ruin us..".

[Ziploc Surprise]

Even before they had genetically engineered food products (engineered in a lab, not through selective breeding) I have heard protests about food handling and manipulation. Does anyone remember radiation treatment of Pork? As I recall they wanted to extend this to other products and people complained about this. Those same people didn't realize that they had been doing this to pork for quite some time without incident. Fertilizers, insecticides and hormone treatments are used every day. Some of this may indeed be dangerous to human health and to the environment but you don't hear much about it. Perhaps I've had my head under a rock or something but I don't recall any destructive protests based on beliefs founded on poor research. I could be wrong about this latter bit though.

[Moros Synackaon]

(5th May 2012 17:54)Tiberius Wrote:  Anyone else think we should show up on mass at the protest on 27th May and protect the plants?

As long as young, stupid dumbasses continue to fall for moronic, idiotic appeals to being a modern day Luddite, those of us who remain mentally sound have to step up and keep these jerks restrained.

Why can't they fucking unite to end the corporate welfare that enables predatory actions, reform patent law to prevent dubious claims (like that on pre-existing life), lobby for additional restrictions placed on copyright claims?

Oh wait, that'd answer other things too. Like really deciding as a society to quit wasting money on "crimes" that aren't even really crimes.

But then again, this is coming from a citizen of a society that insisted on penalizing Jammie Thomas for having a couple of stupid songs on her computer.

[kılıç_mehmet]

(5th May 2012 17:37)Ziploc Surprise Wrote:  This showed up on my FB page today. It's something about a protest against genetically modified wheat research that will take place on the 27th of May. http://richarddawkins.net/videos/645814-...m-research

Here's the video:

My question is, what the hell is this? I've heard people spouting off about genetically modified food before but I've not heard of any physical violence associated with these protests. Why such stupidity? Haven't people been genetically modifying plants and animals for thousands of years? Yes I know that genetic engineering speeds up the process by quite a lot but isn't this is essentially the same thing as what has been going on for thousands of years?

And about the environment, aren't the scientists trying to protect this through genetic engineering?

Genetically modifying plants by natural means is another thing, like animal husbandry and etc. But GM food is to me, nothing but the monopolisation of food resources into the hands of a few producers, while destroying local sorts and crops.
The EU is against such crops for a reason.

[Rhythm]

The "local crops" are inferior in every way (that's why nobody grows them). Vae victis. Large ag conglos momonpolize the "local" seed supply as well. They don't care if it's gm or not, it's all green. If there were money in sand-spurs there would be company trying to gain/maintain exclusivity in that market.

[kılıç_mehmet]

(6th May 2012 13:09)Rhythm Wrote:  The "local crops" are inferior in every way (that's why nobody grows them). Vae victis. Large ag conglos momonpolize the "local" seed supply as well. They don't care if it's gm or not, it's all green. If there were money in sand-spurs there would be company trying to gain/maintain exclusivity in that market.

Inferior in every way?
I guess you never tasted our local crops. This is why they are more famous in Turkey than any imported (non-GM of course) crop.
The imported crops have longer life-shelves, true, but they really cannot cope with the taste of our local, organic crops.

[Rhythm]

LOL, okay Mehm, whatever you say. I'm sure turkish veggies are superior to others, just like everything else in Turkey.