We Are All Going To Starve

[Shinylight]

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.

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'

[Minimalist]

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.

[Atheist_named_Christian]

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.

[AtheistPhil]

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.

[fr0d0]

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.

[Atheist_named_Christian]

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".

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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.

[Minimalist]

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



Teosinte grass, into this:



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.

[Caecilian]

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.

[Ace Otana]

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.

[Violet]

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 )...