GM crops

[libby lou lou]

Wheat with a gene to deter the aphids, where do the aphids move to?

What food would they choose/Adapt to?

What about the ladybird who lives off aphids.

 

[joe-90]

They are all on my roses.

 

[conny]

Good question LLL
Man interfering with nature will only spell disaster.
Leave the damn thing alone!!
Everything has a purpose in the food chain. Upset the balance and you don't know what the future holds.

 

[joe-90]

We'd starve without insecticides - GM is a more natural way than spraying chemicals over everything we eat.

 

[conny]

We'd starve without insecticides - GM is a more natural way than spraying chemicals over everything we eat.

No GM is altering the molecular structure. Agree we need to use insecticides but why does it have to be chemicals?
Surely there are natural substances which will keep pests at bay?
And chemical fertilizers. Why? Because its the cheapest/fastest alternative?
The land is full of natural fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are a 'product' of WWII when we needed to grow as many crops as fast as possible and farmers were told not to leave fields fallow for a year. Something they had been doing for centuries in hand with rotating their crops. Crop rotation enabled the land to receive nutrients from a different type of crop while fallowing allowed it to recover from the previous year.
If you have a veg plot grow some veg using chemical fertilizers and the same amount and type using 'natural' fertilizers. You will taste the difference.

 

[joe-90]

Fertiliser and pesticides are both from oil and gas - when they have gone then so have we. Without intensive farming the world starves.
GM is simply speeding up evolution - nothing wrong with that.

 

[subman101]

We demand food with certain desirable characterstics which have to be "forced" for want of a better word. We also want a lot of food 365 days. Therefore, until you can reverse this trend by shrinking global population and convincing peoples that it is perfectly desirable to have "in season" foodstuff only, then you have to rely on GM crops.

 

[conny]

Unfortunately Joe I think you are right.

 

[AronSearle]

No GM is altering the molecular structure.

What do you think selective breeding is?

Good question LLL
Man interfering with nature will only spell disaster.
Leave the damn thing alone!!

I agree.

Look at how selective breeding of animals and plants, and manipulating the entire english countryside has allowed millions of people to live without starvation.

Don't people know that hunger and death are perfectly natural!

 

[Space cat]

What do you think selective breeding is?

You beat me to it! Off the top of my head, I can't think of any food that hasn't been genetically modified over the centuries. Maybe fish. Though some of that is farmed now.

The difference of course is that selective breeding is a slow process which gives the rest of Earth's biosphere at least half a chance of keeping up. The industrialization of agriculture is a different matter but, as Joe points out --.

Without intensive farming the world starves.

-- we're stuck with it for now. Even if the will existed - and there's no sign that it does - reducing the human population to sustainable levels would take decades. Meanwhile, we can only feed ourselves with a large energy input which, at some point in the future, will either be solar or nuclear. (Yes, I know solar power is nuclear but you know what I mean. )

Don't people know that hunger and death are perfectly natural!

If we don't get our fingers out and take overpopulation seriously, that'll be plan B. Are you listening Pope Benedict!

Agree we need to use insecticides but why does it have to be chemicals? Surely there are natural substances which will keep pests at bay?

Natural or not, they're still chemicals. But I know what you mean - and some plants have got good at making them. As every gardener ought to know, nicotine is an excellent pesticide. Boil four ounces of old fag ends in a gallon of water then dilute it five parts to one.

WARNING! Just because it's natural, that doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Nicotine is highly toxic.