Senate committee passes GMO bill in 3-0 vote

[kalakoa]

quote:

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Way more people have died eating "Organic" "Natural" foods than have died from consuming GMO foods.

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What about those "safe, name-brand, factory-produced" food which turn out to be contaminated?

[Obie]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/ju...uts-blamed


Bean sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany caused the E coli outbreak that has killed 31 people and infected thousands more, German officials said on Friday.

Health inspectors have identified the source of the infections after linking patients who fell ill with the bug to 26 restaurants and cafes known to have received produce from the farm in Lower Saxony.


Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/0...N720110606

[kalakoa]

Multidrug-resistant salmonella strain from a Foster Farms processing plant:

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/11/38...-outbreak/

Other ("selected") salmonella outbreaks:

http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/outbreaks.html

The famous "cantaloupe with listeria" incident:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United...s_outbreak

I acknowledge that these incidents aren't exactly "apples-to-apples" with the GMO-vs-organic-or-whatever argument; the larger problem is that food safety cannot be guaranteed, even with regulatory oversight. Keep that in mind when Monsanto et al claim "perfectly safe, totally equivalent", or when The Government says "no problem, we have safety regulations".

[rainyjim]

Also keep in mind that people are poisoned by e-coli and salmonella not by organic food. These microorganisms come from unsafe handling/production practices and have no direct relation to organic food. Outbreaks of e-coli, salmonell, et al. can and do occur with regularity in both organic and (so called) conventional food production chains. Demonizing organic foods because of the unsafe handling/production practices by the producer/distributor is akin to demonizing transgenics because of the lies and deceptions of corporations decades ago (not that corporatioms stopped lying).

[Adam-I-Am]

Science. As in a science journal that reports the following: Organic food (the real stuff) kills more people than GMO food.

[Obie]

Not a science journal,but good reading :

If you care about what is in your food, you have no greater sympathetic intellect than me.

But if you are an anti-science activist, you may not understand the distinction between what is in your food and what it simply is - and there we part company. A genetic modification (GMO) is your food, for example, it is no different than any other food from a health perspective. Cataloging the numerous ways agriculture has genetically engineered food for as long as food has been grown is outside the scope of this piece, but GMOs don't bother me and that science shouldn't bother you either. (1)

Pesticides do bother me, and you have a reason to be concerned about those. If you think you don't need to wash organic food before you eat it, I think you need a sanity test. An organic pesticide is not superior to a synthetic one nor is eating animal feces on vegetables any smarter than eating man-made fertilizer.


http://www.science20.com/science_20/food...ood-128429

[Adam-I-Am]

I will stipulate that people have died from organic food. And ALSO, that people have been dying from organic food (that's all pre-1900 food, by the way) for over a 100,000 years. Also, I will stipulate that there are dishonest organic food sellers and growers (somewhere someplace there must be some). My last stipulation is that with all the herbicides and pesticides and chemicals in the air in the ground and in the water that it may be next to impossible to have 100% organic, though I have no knowledge either way.

"We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune." Theodore Roosevelt

[geochem]

Now please stipulate that no one - ever - has died from consuming GM products and my life will be complete...

[Bullwinkle]

Unintended consequences - Monarch Butterfly die off

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and...kweed.html

this why conclusive studies on the GMO / Roundup issue is so difficult

[geochem]

Could you explain to me again what this has to do with growing GMO crops on the Big Island? or the use of roundup on the Big Island? Or how you feel entitled to deprive farmers of their ability to earn a decent living using the best - legally permitted nationwide - technology available to them?