Have you heard the standard lie about Genetically Modified crops being BETTER for the world? The lie goes like this, GM crops increase the productivity of crops while reducing the need for insecticide use making for more profitable farming. Hmmm. something that sounds good, and I'm sure that it is a great selling point to the farmers that are looking to buy seed to plant because for them, it isn't a matter of whether the crop has less nutrients, or causes damage to internal organs and systems when eaten over time, it's a matter of profit of loss.
(I still have not figured this part out, why would a farmer buy GM crop seeds to plant knowing that any agricultural chemicals he used, ie pesticide, herbicide, insecticide and fertilizer, he would have to expressly purchase from the seed manufacturer in an unbreakable contract stating not only the requirement to purchase chemicals at higher prices but that they would be unable to save seed to replant unless paying fees to the seed producer on the patented genes. It makes no sense, until you realize that Monsanto and other GM makers bought all the seed companies and that is the only kind of seed for sale to them)((What a beautiful money making monopoly that back in the twenties and thirties would have been shot down as illegal))
So a couple weeks ago there was the announcement of the World Food prizes being awarded again, but this year they went to Genetically Modified Food engineers. The reasoning was because of the work of these scientists to manipulate the genes of crops that allow companies like Monsanto, Dow and Syngenta to make billions (well they didn't actually say that, it was just a given) well to actually make GM crops that reduced the usage of insecticides and increased productivity. (Food Awards)
Yikes, seems like I'm not the only one that thought this was a crock of poop. Seems that some real scientists took it upon themselves to check out the statements and did some research using data that is available from the governments of the respective areas in The US, Canada and most of the European Union. Two choices to look at (Brief overview) or (The whole boring thing) or I can just give you the briefest of what it tells us. It seems that output of agricultural crops has steadily grown over time since 1985 to 2010, the timeframe used. They looked at three different crops. It appears that Western Europe yields rose more than American yields. And it is true that insecticide use in American farms has dropped to 85% of levels used in 1985, the use of insecticides in France are at 12%.
The problems are greater than explained in these studies, the use of neonicotinide insecticides is growing astronomically and is believed to be the main cause of bee die offs lately. This class of insecticides is probably the worst thing to happen to the world and I and others believe it to be an ecological disaster that will make the DDT problem look like a kid pouring a quart of oil in the street in comparison. These new chemicals are very nasty. The worst part of it all is that the need to use these horrific chemicals has come about because of the GM crops themselves. The BT toxin placed into the crops to act as a natural insecticide has backfired and is causing BT toxin resistant species of harmful insects to grow at an alarming rate. Similar to the problem with weeds developing resistance to the herbicide Roundup. Thus increasing the use of that deadly chemical, but also leading to farmers using 2,4T, the even more Deadly Agent Orange.
Review if you care to, some other stuff about GM crops (GM, Mark of Excellence) (Frankenfood) (GM Report Card) and one of the best sites (GMO Myths)
Why do we grow and consume these things?
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