04-28-2014, 02:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Derrick Barnicoat
For instance, if humans are eating gm food and doing fine but we aren't noticing the bees are getting sick then we could risk losing many of our staple foods.
Agreed, but it doesn't appear the bees are getting sick because of GMOs. What has been seen is that nicotinoid pesticides affect them, and that hive collapse is caused by two competing viruses hitting them at the same time.
Derrick Barnicoat - The other issue is that genetically modified crops are grown on the Hawaiian islands because they are islands, the most isolated islands available. ... That is why Hawaii has become a place to develop these seeds.[/quote]
This is a good example of what I call a plausible fairy tale, the kind the anti-GMO activists seize on and spread around and then people pick up and circulate without anyone ever fact checking them.
From industry reports, I conclude that for the most part the development of GMO varieties is done in other regions, then when a variety is OKd for marketing, the seeds from research are sent to Hawai'i to be grown out into salable quantities. And chief among the reasons for doing that is that the tropical climate in Hawai'i allows for three or more harvests of seed stock per year.