hi guys. my hubby posed a question to me this evening and it turned into quite the discussion. if "they" could clone/invent a superfood of some sort be it fruit or vegetable would i support it. his view of earth being unable to support earth`s population being foremost in his brain. also if they could do the same with "meat" would i oppose it

Well it's not a fruit or vegetable, but there is already a gmo fortified food called golden rice that was supposed to be created for developing countries with limited access to nutritionally dense food. We spent a lot of time in my biology class talking about gmo food, but I'm not entirely sold on the idea of gmo food. Of the 10-20% non-raw food that I eat, I try to avoid foods containing corn, wheat, and soy because they are among the most genetically modified foods.



[en.wikipedia.org]

So far, most gmo were developed to sell more roundup or other herbicide, and not to increase production or nutritional content.
Two different studies over three years have shown that gmo soy has a lower yield than the traditional ones, about 10-15% lower. So that doesn't sound like a real good idea to feed the hungry world...
Also, all the farmers who fell in the gmo trend agree that after planting some herbicide ready plants on their field, they have to spray more herbicide each year, because the weeds get more and more resistant to the herbicide. That's because most herbicides like roundup use a active component that deactivates the enzyme for chlorophyll synthesis. Over the year, the weeds modify their metabolism and make more of the enzyme to resist to the herbicide. A war lost from the beginning...
And before anyone can develop a superfood they should first be able to clearly and fully find all the component necessary, and their interactions. Nice dream. It's like Liebig who analyzed ashes from plants, found a NPK (nitrogen, phosphor, potassium) ratio, and stated "it's in the plant, it takes it from the ground, we just have to put it back in", and here were born the chemical fertilizer, with a miracle NPK different for different classes of plants. But after many years, we know it doesn't only work with a NPK ratio, there is more to the soil than just three minerals.
Beside, white rice is known for being a poorly nutritional food. So enriching it may not be so difficult compared to others. But still compared to other richer crops, it's a poor food.
This dream of a lab produced superfood is just like living in Soylent Green. Not for me...

Raw Fruit Festival
[www.raw-fruit-festival.net]
Health, Fitness and Fasting Retreats in Spain
[www.fit-in-nature.net]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2008 08:43AM by sgc.

I'd rather see mandatory sterilization. GMO's, in my opinion, may ruin the ecology of the earth if they are not reined in, and with monster conglomerates like Monsanto around, that would take a huge battle.

They are trying for mandatory sterilization... of seeds! Google something called the "Terminator seed," it's quite scary.

But THE PEOPLE actually stopped THAT nightmare from happening! =D

GMOs are also suspected of playing a role in the MASSIVE bee dieoff.

I need to read more about GMO foods. I know some of the foods I eat are genetically modified, but I don't understand what part of their genetics was altered, and how so. For example, huge papayas - those were genetically modified to be 5 times their usually tiny size, but still, I don't understand how they were tweaked.

GMOs have not lived up to their promise. In countries where GMO grains have been forced on the farmers, with the promise of much higher yields, but the harvests have been disappointing. I don't know how prolific GMO vegetables and fruits are, and I'm not sure how much they've already infiltrated the food supply, but we all know the difference between a juicy organic tomato and a genetically modified one-- it's no contest.

My biggest concern is that because of budget constraints people are likely buying GMO vegetables or fruits from time to time without realizing it.

rawfrancis--
I didn't know the huge papayas were genetically modified, but you know, for some reason I've never been able to bring myself to buy them. Something about them didn't look or 'feel' right and I've avoided them.

Sadly, I think GMO produce is here to stay, due in large part to the complacency of most Americans regarding anything the Congress and USDA pushes on them. We will have to buy local and organic, and/or grow our own, if we want fresh food that's not tampered with.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

Yeah, they claim lower pesticides/herbicides to justify making these very minor changes in the genome to make very big profits. Think about it, if the genome has 40000 genes and they make one change it is still going to be 99.998% the same as previous.

I don't think these things are bad for humans when the GMO crop is eaten.

However--

Diversity in general is protective. The main problem is when these GMOs compete with and overrun the natural flora. That is when it is wrong. The other main problem is that these nasty companies are making profits off them.

So far there aren't so many gmo crops on the market. But there are some big ones, like soy and corn, canola. There is also some gmo potatoes, and one gmo tomato. But the gmo tomato did last long, simply because nobody would buy it, it was so bad, even if it could ship so much better than others (only big corp interest). They tried to introduce the gmo wheat to the market, but the farmers have said no to it so far, so it cultivation is not authorized so far.
For the papaya, there are some big ones that are not gmo. The gmo ones are from hawaii, where they modified a out from the island variety of big papaya that couldn't grow there easily due to fungus. They modified it so that it would resist better to the fungus. But in fact, even if it did better with the fungus, it did much worse than others for other diseases, and so they have to spray them more... The problem in hawaii, is that the local one has been cross pollinated with the gmo, and virtually all papaya from hawaii is contaminated.
The terminator technology like they call it, has not been authorized either so far. But basically, they modify the seeds so that they become sterile, and cannot reproduce themselves, so that farmers have to buy seeds every year. But it's already happening since all gmo seeds are patented, so if you plant gmo, you can't save the seeds for the following without infringing the patent. Or even if you don't plant gmos, but get contaminated like some canola farmers in canada (see the movie The Future of Food).
There is also a big problem, because they never say how they introduce the new genes in the cell. To do so, they need to open the cell wall (either with a gene gun that shots gold bullets in the cell, or with a part of the gene sequence of a virus or a bacteria). Then, they need to check which cells have received the new genes, and for that they use a antibiotic resistance gene, such that by applying the antibiotic to the cells, the only ones left are the ones with the new genes. So they don't only introduce the new genes, they also introduce the sequence of genes from a virus or a bacteria, and an antibiotic resistance gene, altogether.
With all that, some of the gmos are designed to produce their own insecticide like the BT corn, meaning people eating it are eating insecticides at the same time!
The list goes on, but if you want to know more, watch the movie The future of Food, it's very well done.

Raw Fruit Festival
[www.raw-fruit-festival.net]
Health, Fitness and Fasting Retreats in Spain
[www.fit-in-nature.net]

I also highly recommend watching "The Future of Food" for anyone interested in learning more about GMO's. It used to be available on youtube but it was taken off. I did find a link to a site that you can download and watch it for free at [www.jaman.com]. All you have to do is register for free and you get two free movie download tickets.

peace

purenkind Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also highly recommend watching "The Future of
> Food" for anyone interested in learning more about
> GMO's.
> peace
very good film...i watched it last summer. it`ll be a miracle if i can get hubby to devote 1 1/2 hours to it though he`s not as "passionate" as i`d like...oh well, i`ll keep trying LOL