Maui GMO protest

[Cheerio]

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW

The anti-GM crowd should label their food if they like labelling so much. Don't inflict costs on the rest of us just because you're afraid of scientific progress.

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So, is the whole of Europe afraid of scientific progress? Mandatory labeling in the EU since 1997 (right around the time when GM crops made a huge jump in the USA - 1996 and on).

I know I occasionally eat GM foods (c'mon, it's nearly impossible not to), yet I choose to mostly buy unprocessed organic. Why? I consider the timeline for mainstream GMO foods being in the marketplace to be WAY too short (appx. 20 years) to provide any kind of long-term credible evidence either way. Yes, there have been thousands of studies globally that demonstrate GM foods are safe. However, long-term effects on the human body and the shift it may or may not bring about in the general population have yet to be seen. This sounds like I am sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop (we all succumb to confirmation bias) but I honestly think it remains to be seen what shifts we will continue to see in our health, and why these shifts are occurring at such a rapid pace.

FWIW, I actually have a background in science (environmental toxicology), and my dear friend with a PhD in Biochem is equally cautious. We're not all fruitcakes.

[Cheerio]

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW

If it was, it wouldn't even be sold.

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There are a lot of products in the marketplace that are not exactly a boon to human health. If you don't practice due diligence and just blindly trust the companies that sell them, you aren't exactly practicing critical thought yourself.

Aluminum in baking soda and soda cans.
BPA (an estrogen receptor) in plastics of all kinds, and the lining in cans.
Heavy metals in large fish, cans of albacore tuna.
Aspartame, a fake sugar that has been linked to cancer.
Transfats, which are deadly.
Sodium benzoate, found in Coca-Cola, which is a carcinogen when combined with Vitamin C (it forms benzene).
THBQ - Mickey D's fries - a silicone anti-foaming agent also found in caulking and sealants. Yum!

Many of the food additives in American products are banned in other countries. Why is that?
Because the food companies are the ones dictating the conversation in this country. Their lobbyists are some of the most powerful in the nation. You really think they have your best interests at heart? SMH.

[PaulW]

There's no aluminum in baking soda.
Aspartame does not cause cancer.

So much for a scientific background! Youtube isn't always reliable.

[4antares]

Can't see the harm in labeling GMO products here in Hawaii. That way those who care can avoid them, those who don't can just ignore the sticker.
As far as the science goes, any scientist will admit that "scientifically proven" really only means "as far as we know today" and that could change at any time. We simply don't know enough yet. GMO's haven't been around long enough. And we've only begun playing with genes. Just because what is done today appears safe doesn' mean it will always be so. I can't help but be reminded of the huge number of pharmaceutical drugs that have been scientifically proven safe after testing and retesting that turned out to be any thing but once they were out of the lab for a while. And if Monsanto et al are so absolutely certain their products are safe why are they busily spending millions lobbying for laws that will exempt them from liability if their products are found to be unsafe at a later date? They aren't certain either. Or they wouldn't be fighting so hard against something as simple as labeling. They would proudly support the GMO label.

life is short. enjoy it

[David M]

quote:

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Originally posted by Oneself

... My grandfather used to splice lemon and lime trees together. I was amazed as a kid. This is a natural way to modify food. (Think seedless watermelons, grapes etc)
Than there is the other story, like adding DNA from a fish into a tomato or something of the like. Or adding the BT Toxin into the DNA of the corn so that when bugs eat it it kills them. I mean, can we honestly sit here and think that will not have any affect on YOU ? You cant compare the two. One is natural, one is not....

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Natural??? Sounds like a form of human engineering to me. Natural would be you plant a lemon tree, a lime tree and then on it's own some combined product develops.

I'd support labeling if everything is labeled equally. Sure seems like the natural/organic movement has given the E. coli business a real boost in recent years.

As for the European approach... If it pleases someone so much, why don't they just move there and enjoy the total experience?

Wouldn't the easiest way to determine fault with a particular source (GMO soy) be to replace its use with the alternative (non GMO soy) without any other changes to prove the point?

Oh well, let the non science crew vent and spew, they fully intend to intimidate without reason. Seems to be the way lately.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[Wao nahele kane]

"Natural??? Sounds like a form of human engineering to me. Natural would be you plant a lemon tree, a lime tree and then on it's own some combined product develops."
Natural simply means occurring in nature. Trees do naturally graft to one another under rare circumstances, it occurs more frequently amongst the branches of a single specimen but also occurs between dissimilar specimens. It sometimes occurs through abrasions (but not limited to) induced by winds amongst branches that fuse to one another at the abrasion points remaining in contact after the winds cease.
Grafting is a natural process of the combined specimens, the cuts/abrasions/compression maybe induced naturally or by human intervention.


If you've never observed natural grafts in nature, there are many photos available on-line. http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Oceani...142562.htm

[Wao nahele kane]

Tainting gold particles with a given material and shooting it into a clump of cellular material with compressed air in a shotgun like mannerism does not occur in nature. Then nurturing the cellular clumps to grow (of those that still can) and then later selecting the most healthy of the resulting mutations and then testing those to see which contain the greatest intended tag changes and not knowing what else has occurred within the selected candidates does not occur in nature.
In nature, when a genetic mutation occurs through cosmic radiation, it's modification is limited to the slight scattering of it's own interior genetic material by a cosmic particle. This internal scattering is also limited to the portion of plant exposed to the event where within the plant it has evolved to self heal/reject or absorb such minor interior abnormalities. The cosmic radiation modification is extremely limited to self propagation within the specimen plant and very unlikely to cause a mutation outside the species amongst the many other like type non effected specimens. Such single isolated mutations have little to no impact on the species populace overall.

GMO on the other hand has an incredible impact on the host cellular mass and eventually the host species due to laboratory control circumstances that do not occur in nature of the propagation in the designated mutation. When introduced as a crop in a field the mutations chances of effect upon all other surrounding like type species of neighboring unaffected crops is un paralleled and nothing that would occur in nature.

[dmbwest]

NON-GMO has it's own negative cause and effect.

Proof here ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR-Ke6Y5ziY

Happy Easter,
pog

[Wao nahele kane]

What's sad is the fact that a company that intends to build a hotel or a shopping mall, etc. will spend more money on environmental impact studies than Monsanto will spend on a self derived study handed off to the FDA to be rubber stamp for approval. All the while, the new Hotel or what ever it is will not have anywhere near the potential to effect the global environment as the GMO product will have after release upon the planet. Just one single unintended not noticed trait of these mutagen crops has the potential to cause profound undesirable effects upon the entire global eco system not to mention your health. So... you better hope that within the next 20 or so years there's no unintended side effects from these mutagens that induces a catastrophic eco/health issue, because if they do, our kids will be screwed by it. You may have enough faith in science to allow them to globally unleash a self replicating mutagen with less than 30 years at the helm but I for one don't share such faith. In-fact - faith is not part of my life. Be it in religion or science because in the end, it's merely a faith based on what some blow hard tells you is factual from his or her LIMITED perspective of which may or may not be completely thought through and more likely not completely thought through. Blind faith is for fools IMO and I don't give a crap what label you put on the faith.

[David M]

quote:

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Originally posted by Wao nahele kane

"Natural??? Sounds like a form of human engineering to me. Natural would be you plant a lemon tree, a lime tree and then on it's own some combined product develops."
Natural simply means occurring in nature. Trees do naturally graft to one another under rare circumstances, it occurs more frequently amongst the branches of a single specimen but also occurs between dissimilar specimens. It sometimes occurs through abrasions (but not limited to) induced by winds amongst branches that fuse to one another at the abrasion points remaining in contact after the winds cease.
Grafting is a natural process of the combined specimens, the cuts/abrasions/compression maybe induced naturally or by human intervention.


If you've never observed natural grafts in nature, there are many photos available on-line. http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Oceani...142562.htm

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Thanks for making my point - nature, not human caused or assisted, even if a grandfather.
David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com