Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: December 13, 2024, 1:15 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
We Are All Going To Starve
#1
We Are All Going To Starve
Well...us Brits anyway

GM Crops Article

A recent and major study has made the conclusion that Britain will suffer a major food crisis by 2050.

I have never understood the opposition to GM food.

Quote:Previous plans to grow GM crops commercially in the UK had to be scrapped following a concerted campaign by environmental protesters and a backlash by consumers who refuse to eat so-called 'Frankenstein foods'.
Only one GM crop, a type of maize engineered by the American agricultural biotech firm Monsanto, has even been approved for planting in the European Union. It is currently farmed commercially – albeit on a relatively small scale – in Spain. But outside the Europe Union GM crops are grown on as much as 125 million hectares of land, mainly in north and South America and the Indian subcontinent.

I do not understand why people have failed to adopt such innovations in food. They should be used to their full potential, they could help ease starvation in countries where crops are hard to grow or keep fresh.

So my question is 'Do you think GM foods should be utilized and developed further?' and 'why/why not'
"God is dead" - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Faith is what you have in things that DON'T exist. - Homer J. Simpson
Reply
#2
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
Quote:I do not understand why people have failed to adopt such innovations in food.


Because people are fucking stupid.

Oddly, Shiny, you'll find that answer explains a lot of the problems we have here on earth.
Reply
#3
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
(April 26, 2010 at 3:10 pm)Minimalist Wrote:
Quote:I do not understand why people have failed to adopt such innovations in food.


Because people are fucking stupid.

Oddly, Shiny, you'll find that answer explains a lot of the problems we have here on earth.

True, true, true. But don't forget that also people at GM foods are most likely stupid (and greedy). For my part, I am in favor for using such crops but I also think an INDEPENDENT institution should evaluate health risks. Banning them will not be an option.
Reply
#4
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
(April 26, 2010 at 3:44 pm)Atheist_named_Christian Wrote: For my part, I am in favor for using such crops but I also think an INDEPENDENT institution should evaluate health risks. Banning them will not be an option.

Does that mean you're in favor of commercializing GM food before finishing the health risk evaluation ?
Personaly, I'll be pro-GM food when several independent studies will conclude that there's no health risks whatsoever with GM food.
[Image: pPQu8.png]
Reply
#5
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
Most food seems to be modified. I just learned that bananas as we know them have been cultivated to be an infertile shadow of their natural ancestor and can only propagate via cloning/ planting suckers. REAL bananas have seeds!

Cabbages really only have a few leaves like any other plant. Carrots are so damn thin it's be like eating string... the list goes on.

Still, The worlds population by 2050 will be at it's maximum supportable unless we do something far more radical than embrace GM. Water consumption will be maxxed out too. ..but this isn't necessarily bad. It just means there can't be exponential population growth. There is a limit.
Reply
#6
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
(April 26, 2010 at 4:30 pm)AtheistPhil Wrote: Does that mean you're in favor of commercializing GM food before finishing the health risk evaluation ?
Personaly, I'll be pro-GM food when several independent studies will conclude that there's no health risks whatsoever in GM food.

No no, I wasn't clear about that. I also think one should evaluate possible risks beforehand. However, I do not believe that this will be done by any company (the crop business seems to be a very dirty one). I wanted to put emphasis on the "INDEPENDENT".
(April 26, 2010 at 4:32 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: It just means there can't be exponential population growth. There is a limit.

As undeniable as this seems - there are actually a lot of people not considering this. We always want "growth". I think that if we do not stop growing soon enough we will all lead rather unworthy lives from some point.
Reply
#7
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
(April 26, 2010 at 4:32 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: Most food seems to be modified. I just learned that bananas as we know them have been cultivated to be an infertile shadow of their natural ancestor and can only propagate via cloning/ planting suckers. REAL bananas have seeds!

Cabbages really only have a few leaves like any other plant. Carrots are so damn thin it's be like eating string... the list goes on.

Still, The worlds population by 2050 will be at it's maximum supportable unless we do something far more radical than embrace GM. Water consumption will be maxxed out too. ..but this isn't necessarily bad. It just means there can't be exponential population growth. There is a limit.


I hate having to agree with you, Frodo (let's not make a habit of this) but somehow, neo-lithic Central Americans figured out how to bio-engineer this

[Image: Teosinte2.jpeg]

Teosinte grass, into this:

[Image: Maize-Sweet.jpg]

Maize.

The date has been recently pushed back to roughly 6,000 BC.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...212037.htm


No one has a clue how they did it.
Reply
#8
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
(April 26, 2010 at 4:32 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: Most food seems to be modified. I just learned that bananas as we know them have been cultivated to be an infertile shadow of their natural ancestor and can only propagate via cloning/ planting suckers. REAL bananas have seeds!

Cabbages really only have a few leaves like any other plant. Carrots are so damn thin it's be like eating string... the list goes on.

Still, The worlds population by 2050 will be at it's maximum supportable unless we do something far more radical than embrace GM. Water consumption will be maxxed out too. ..but this isn't necessarily bad. It just means there can't be exponential population growth. There is a limit.

Yeah, I agree that we need to do a lot more than embrace GM. For example: we need much better soil management, we need to reduce our CO2 emissions etc etc. All the same, embracing GM would be a very wise move, and not doing so is pretty suicidal.
Reply
#9
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
Quote:A recent and major study has made the conclusion that Britain will suffer a major food crisis by 2050.
Well if we just remove all those blasted immigrants we should be alright. Too many people on our pretty island.

The human population is very high. Which means greater food and water consumption and more living spaces. We need to think of something because this problem won't go away till we do, and it will get worse as time goes by.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan

Mankind's intelligence walks hand in hand with it's stupidity.

Being an atheist says nothing about your overall intelligence, it just means you don't believe in god. Atheists can be as bright as any scientist and as stupid as any creationist.

You never really know just how stupid someone is, until you've argued with them.
Reply
#10
RE: We Are All Going To Starve
Actually, assuming advances in agricultural technology occur at a rate similar to or greater than the population growth: there should be nothing to worry about at all (except maybe the zombie plague Dodgy )...
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  I thought this was going to be about gun violence. brewer 3 882 March 14, 2018 at 12:23 pm
Last Post: RoadRunner79
  Going into Biology marianomanto 9 3648 October 1, 2015 at 6:21 am
Last Post: marianomanto
  This is going to go over big.... Minimalist 13 5299 June 7, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Last Post: Jackalope



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)