- This topic has 10 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 14 years, 11 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
:hi: We found a disturbing video that should interest everyone.It concerns genetically enhanced food and seeds.This is an important topic going on and I think we could all use a heads up.Please go to “HULU” and check out,”The Future of Food”if you are interested. There is a
web-site,The future of food.com. 😮Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.To help you all out a little better here is the direct link to the video bodine wants you to watch. http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food
It is very educational. I think that if you eat food you need to watch this video. It does take about an hour and a half but, it is worth it. I am outraged that people were allowed to do such things to our food supply. Here is another link I think you should check out to.
http://www.TheFutureOfFood.comI can’t see the video – what’s it about?
Pretty much everything we eat is a GMO (genetically modified organism). Heck the insulin I inject comes from GMO’s – E.coli bacteria modified to produce human insulin which is then harvested and sold.
And pretty much all of it is harmless. Makes tomatoes bigger (if a bit unflavorful, yick), makes apples last a month in your fridge. Makes plants pest resistant so that less pesticides have to be used.
Or is this something different? I’d rather eat an apple that’s naturally (term used loosely) resistant to disease then ones that are covered with a crapload of pesticides – which washing doesn’t fully remove.
I haven’t seen the video so correct me if it’s not what it’s about – I just don’t see the problem in genetic modification. :shrug:
i saw this video last year and it DEFINATELY is interesting.
it is VERY different and more complicated than simply “enhancing foods”.
The way they have ended up controlling the food market, pushing out smaller farmers that still used the old seeds, and eve corrupting some of the rarer foods with out compensating the farmers!(like the Maze farmers in Mexico)..
and the patenting of genetics! did you know that what the food industry has started with that is now affecting the medical field!!????? I was listening to the news the other day as they interviewed a lady who found out she had cancer, but wanted to do some other tests to double check the cancer type……only to find there were no other tests! the company that made the test that found her cancer PATENTED the gene used in the test to identify the cancer, so not other company can make a test for that cancer!
Another good video is by Couscous- Ocean adventurers: Call of the Killer Whale
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/episodes/killerwhale/I know i watched it online but can’t find the link. it touches on Salmon farming and how that is affecting local food chains as well as the salmon themselve. My family and I can’t stand to buy farmed salmon anymore.
Yes,that is correct and sadly,there is so much more right under our noses :nea:
Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.I will correct the idea that “genes” are patented. Nothing natural is patentable. Only man-made things are patentable. You can patent a man-made nucleic acid with a certain sequence, or an isolated or purified nucleic acid sample having a specific sequence, but there is no such thing as a patented “gene,” as genes are a product of nature. You can also patent certain methods of detecting, identifying, and testing for a certain nucleic acid or protein sequence. These are all legitimate patents. The purpose of patenting in this country (and others) is to make it profitable for people to invent, research, and use ingenuity to make useful things. Without the patent system, such things would not be profitable, and the tests would probably never have been invented in the first place.
Patents also force people to be creative to get around them. Creativity makes for better technology. And patents only protect the intellectual property for so long. After 17 or 20 years (depending on when the patent application was originally filed), the patent expires, and if there are no other related patents, people are free to use the technology in whatever way they wish. That’s how generic drugs appear. Generic drug companies don’t spend the money and risk bankruptcy by doing the original research and testing of new drugs or tests…that’s a VERY expensive thing to do and only a few drugs and tests are ever found to be useful or get approved by the FDA. Instead, they wait until a patent expires and make generics. Then “big pharma” goes ahead and uses the money they made while the patent was enforcable to research and make the next new drug.
Unfortunately the media uses the confusion about patents and profits to try to incite people. It’s very unfortunate. Patent law is one of the few things for which a basis is set forth in the Constitution. It’s meant to protect intellectual property for a period of time, force further research and ingenuity, and provide for profit for those that do make the effort to invent and improve. Without the intellectual property laws, including patents, it would be impossible to make money as an artist or a scientist, because the things that they have to provide to society are ideas. If the use of these ideas was freely available to everyone, everyone would be able to, for example, copy Windstone sculptures and sell them and there wouldn’t be anything anyone could do about it. Same for drugs. A company could spend millions (not an exaggeration) of dollars making that test for a certain cancer, and in the end without a patent to protect it, all they end up doing is going bankrupt, and the scientists that worked hard to make that test will lose their jobs because the company has no way to profit. And if it’s easy for everyone to use the same test…well, why make a new one or a better one??
As for GMO developers putting small farmers out of business, well that’s part of the free market. A free market that is swinging back toward heirloom-type foods, believe it or not. I’m not talking purely “organic” (a misnomer if ever there was one…and a dangerous one at that), but home-grown and original stock. People that have taken up the banner of “remember how the tomatoes USED to taste” and growing them are doing quite well right now. (Keep in mind, it’s nearly impossible to ship such produce across the country. Heirloom-type foods tend to spoil very quickly without expensive refrigeration.)
The idea that GMO foods are “contaminating” wild stocks is silly, really. Most of those “wild stocks” are genetically modified from true wild foods. Maize grown in Mexico is maize…not wild teosinte. It was heavily genetically modified over generations. Just by a different process. You will also find that in countries that banned GMO crops (MANY in Europe), it was purely for political reasons, not health reasons. Those countries felt the need to be able to control the world’s food supply. Or at least keep the USA from doing so. It has recently been found that if you compare USA-grown GMOs sold in Europe with their “organic” counterparts, the GMO foods are FAR safer, having a much lower mycotoxin load than “organic”. Whether this is an issue of standards not being enforced on the more favored seller (European-based) or if it’s truly related to GMO food safety, isn’t yet clear.
In the end, we have known for some time that “genes” and traits migrate within a species and sometimes between species, naturally. (Some bacteria species can transfer drug-resistance genes to other species, for example.) As long as GMO food research is done responsibly, which it is for the most part, it has the potential for increasing the amount and safety of the world’s food supply, and using less space to do so, providing for better husbandry of our environment. While it is good to be aware of the issues affecting us, especially our health and food supply, it is very important to find all sides of the story and considering them all carefully before forming an opinion.
Awareness+Knowledge=Power 🙂
Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.Indeed. In the end, decisions should be informed, no matter which way you lean. 🙂
There is no black and white in this situation, that should be emphasized.
I will say though, that Monsanto is a pretty ugly company. Here is some further watching if anyone wants it.
http://pseudomanitou.livejournal.com/546460.htmlVolunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comCuriosity killed the cat. You think these links are bad 😮 I got curious and started searching deeper 😮 I wish I didn’t do that 😮 I went on Youtube and typed in the company’s name and all kinds of stuff popped up. If you are interested in it. They are not as long as the one on HULU. 🙂
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Recent Comments