02-23-2014, 04:50 PM
Rob,
The hottest topic of pesticide resistant GMO agricultural crops has to do with rounduyp ready crops- most of them cereal and other mechanically harvested crops. These crops have a genetic splicing that makes them resistant to large doses of glyphosate herbicide. The concept behind it is you can drench all the crops with large amounts of pesticide and that the "protected" (and patented) crops will be spared and the "weeds" will be killed by the pesticide. Hand labor is expensive so when managing thousands of acres it is easier and more cost effective for the farmer to just spray more pesticide.
Then there is the problem with pesticide residue on crops. As you are probably aware most government oversight agencies are limited in their use of actual science by the politicians who control the agencies' budgets. The politicians are beholden to the corporate interests who pay for their reelection campaigns, and it is always easy to find conflicting opinions on science expertise, particularly when large amounts of money are involved.
Long story short the agricultural oversight agencies have to compromise on "acceptable levels of pesticide residue" on crops and they tend to allow higher levels of acceptable because their thresholds are determined by toxicologists, not endocrinologists. Toxicologists are only interested in what dose will kill you immediately but not what consequences you might get over time (like cancer). So the crops have residual levels of pesticides that might not visually harm you today but that over time might trigger or cause chronic conditions like cancer, adhd, diabetis, obesity, etc.
There are even a whole batch of insecticides/ herbicides that are approved for Post-Harvest use, to help kill insects while in storage or for instance to help desiccate (dry out) crops that were harvested too soon due to approaching rains or other inclement weather.
Too many intelligent people have become convinced that many politicians, government agencies, and large corporations do not have their best interests in mind and this has led to the widespread acceptance of "organic foods" (otherwise known as pre-WW2 chemical agriculture) because ordinary intelligent people can not trust the corporations, politicians, and oversight agencies that are supposed to be protecting their interests.
The hottest topic of pesticide resistant GMO agricultural crops has to do with rounduyp ready crops- most of them cereal and other mechanically harvested crops. These crops have a genetic splicing that makes them resistant to large doses of glyphosate herbicide. The concept behind it is you can drench all the crops with large amounts of pesticide and that the "protected" (and patented) crops will be spared and the "weeds" will be killed by the pesticide. Hand labor is expensive so when managing thousands of acres it is easier and more cost effective for the farmer to just spray more pesticide.
Then there is the problem with pesticide residue on crops. As you are probably aware most government oversight agencies are limited in their use of actual science by the politicians who control the agencies' budgets. The politicians are beholden to the corporate interests who pay for their reelection campaigns, and it is always easy to find conflicting opinions on science expertise, particularly when large amounts of money are involved.
Long story short the agricultural oversight agencies have to compromise on "acceptable levels of pesticide residue" on crops and they tend to allow higher levels of acceptable because their thresholds are determined by toxicologists, not endocrinologists. Toxicologists are only interested in what dose will kill you immediately but not what consequences you might get over time (like cancer). So the crops have residual levels of pesticides that might not visually harm you today but that over time might trigger or cause chronic conditions like cancer, adhd, diabetis, obesity, etc.
There are even a whole batch of insecticides/ herbicides that are approved for Post-Harvest use, to help kill insects while in storage or for instance to help desiccate (dry out) crops that were harvested too soon due to approaching rains or other inclement weather.
Too many intelligent people have become convinced that many politicians, government agencies, and large corporations do not have their best interests in mind and this has led to the widespread acceptance of "organic foods" (otherwise known as pre-WW2 chemical agriculture) because ordinary intelligent people can not trust the corporations, politicians, and oversight agencies that are supposed to be protecting their interests.