Study shows genetically-modified crops harm environment

[thewayne]

I have never been a fan of GM foods (and slipping into Saturday Night Live/Emily Letilla: 'Ford and Chrysler will have to open their own restaurants to stay competitive'....), they had in my unresearched opinion insufficient independent testing before being foisted upon the world. Basically the agrigiants went to the gov't with reams of paper and said 'It's all good.'

Well, it ain't.

Though the concept of growing wheat or whatever that's resistant to Roundup then bulk spraying your fields with Roundup to kill everything but your crop certainly has appeal, there's just too many interlocking levels in our planet's ecosystem. This study, done in the UK, collected millions of bugs and weeds, and showed that "...Flowers of such weeds are important as food for insects, while the seeds are a major source of sustenance for farmland birds." Screw up birds and insects and there will be pollination problems which will flow into other areas.

I particularly like the huge agribusinesses suing farmers for stealing seed when they find traces of GM crops in a field that didn't buy the licenses, and thus the seed, to plant said GM crops. Apparently winds don't blow seeds around in the areas where the GM crops were initially tested.

THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU DON'T MONKEY AROUND WITH, AND OUR FOOD CHAIN IS ONE OF THEM! Shmucks. And yes, I know what shmuck means, and I'm using it anyway. :-)

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=306362005

Comments

Sorry, but you used the wrong reference

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

Your little joke should be properly attributed to anyone who's been the anchor for the news on SNL (I could easily see Chevy Chase reading it, but that just shows my age). Emily Litella's schtick was to do a commentary about one subject, confusing one key word for a very different in meaning but similar sounding word. The tranposition of auto manufacturers into food producers would not be something that she'd do.

Hey, it may not seem like a big thing, but if you're gonna make the hip (even if it's thirty year old hip) reference, then make the effort to get it right.