Should Ireland welcome gentically modified food?

D wrote: »

The major concern is that GM crops can be designed to not propagate a seed. This means that unlike now where a farm keeps some seed to replant next year, the farmer will have to buy more seed of the company every year.

GM crops can also be designed to aggressively cross-pollinate so that non-GM crops can be affected, resulting in the farmer having to buy seeds every year.

GM crops can also be designed to respond only to certain fertilisers so that the farmer needs to buy from the company every year too.

The main point is that GM crops create a dependency on that company. So instead of now where someone gets seed and is able to continue farming, with GM crops you have to pay an outlay to the company every year.

This is fine if you are a big factory farm but for smaller farmers, especially poorer farmers you are creating an unnecessary burden.

GM crops can have loads of benefits but companies will attach conditions to those benefits to shackle farmers to them. It will also mean that the bio-diversity will be threatened.

Exactly. That, for me, is the biggest threat.
Also, Monsanto produces the weedkiller Roundup, Gm crops are engineered to be resistant to Roundup, so the idea is to spray the poison liberally and crops will be fine, everything else will die. Wonderful... So much for Ireland's green image and unpolluted topsoil.
And they have the cheek to tell us that we'll benefit. No we won't. The likes of Monsanto will benefit greatly.
This is all about money, it's not for the good of the world's population. Public disapproval of genetically modified foods isn't just about the science, it's also about the principle. It will make a lot of money for a few people, create a monopoly, and bio-diversity will suffer.

constitutionus wrote: »

voted no on this one.

mainly for branding reasons.

any gobshyte can grow foods so potential developments in other up and coming countries around the world threaten our market share as we aint a cheap country to farm in.

but marketing ourselves as a non GM country ?

thats quids in for the speciality market and those idiots will spend a fortune on it and its a growing futures market.

that all goes out the window if weve got widescale GM farming potentially "infecting" stuff

even the rumour of it threatens sales.

whether thats rational or not is irrelevent.

just look at the number of countries we cant sell beef in because of the british BSE cases.

Actually Ireland also had outbreaks of BSE so that is not a valid point in this argument, although we have not had any outbreaks for the last few years.

You use the word infecting? whats infecting things? if its the transgenic crops the genes they use already exist in the natural environment.

The consumers are the very people who are calling for less chemical inputs to there food, and like everything in life you cant have it every way there is a choice which needs to be made
1) No Gm and more chemical inputs( because this is just the way it goes for a number of resaons)
2)Gm in a rational way with proper laws and the use of gm to benefit everyone with relevant gene transfer

Fact of life on this planet we are using up our resources and the population is expanding rapidly so unless there is a major slowdown in population growth something needs to be done quick.

The last green revolution helped to multiply yields significantly, example Wheat yields in western europe( highest average yield's in the world are obtained here) increased by 2% per year 20 years ago now it lucky to be 1% while maize in the states etc is increasing by 8% per anumn in some cases.

Johro wrote: »

Exactly. That, for me, is the biggest threat.
Also, Monsanto produces the weedkiller Roundup, Gm crops are engineered to be resistant to Roundup, so the idea is to spray the poison liberally and crops will be fine, everything else will die. Wonderful... So much for Ireland's green image and unpolluted topsoil.
And they have the cheek to tell us that we'll benefit. No we won't. The likes of Monsanto will benefit greatly.
This is all about money, it's not for the good of the world's population. Public disapproval of genetically modified foods isn't just about the science, it's also about the principle. It will make a lot of money for a few people, create a monopoly, and bio-diversity will suffer.

Yes that is this form of gm which may affect biodiversity, on the subject of roundup it is now a generic product which you can buy off anyone you like, it was one major reason behind Monsanto producing these RR crops. Also Roundup is one of the safer herbicides vs the ones which have been banned due the fact they are extremely toxic, plus the fact it has been shown to break down in the soil and not accumulate.

That in my opinion is where government regulation can stop this only allow crops which have a relevance to irish agriculture such as Fungal disease resitance and increase N use efficiency.

Biodiversity in Ireland is not under threat due to a major factor the 80% use of agricultural land for grass based enterprises and the 10% for arable and the rest for forestry and rough grazing. The arable sector stands to benefit directly from this technology at a time when we have to fight our corner in world markets against the big countries like ukraine, russia and argentina we have to maximise tonnes per ha.

Also Irish tillage farming does not have the vast monocultures that exist in other countries which also reduces the potential impact it may have on biodiversity

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/11/us-scientists-warn-epa-on-monsanto-corn-rootworm.html

Rootworm adapting to 'rootworm' proof GM crops.

Monsanto now telling farmers to use insecticides, the same insecticides they were told they wouldn't need if they used GM crops...

http://strawberryblu.com/2011/08/21/so-whats-with-the-blue-strawberry/

Blue Strawberries anyone??

bleg wrote: »

Like it or not GMO will be at the forefront of food technology for at least the next 30 years. Ireland should be riding on the cusp of the wave and not wallowing in the backwater.

Thankfully, most people here don't have a problem with GM but rather with the company and patent law that surrounds it at the moment.


If you don't like the idea of GMO you can always go off and join the Amish.

That's a pretty ignorant remark, there are lots of valid arguments against GMO coming from the same scientific background as the people who are for it.
As for Ireland 'riding on the cusp of the wave', it's a bit late for that. GM is all over Europe already. Much better for Ireland to be true to it's green image and stick with the ban on GM crops and the GM free zone, since that stance is actually applauded by many in the EU.
It's a mistake to regard any new technology or scientific breakthrough as a triumph, many such mistakes have been made in the past.

lcrcboy wrote: »

http://strawberryblu.com/2011/08/21/so-whats-with-the-blue-strawberry/

Blue Strawberries anyone??

Yes, please. As long as they taste like strawberries :pac: Nom nom.
But according to that link "the gene that regulates the production of the antifreeze trait was taken from the Arctic Flounder fish and was genetically introduced into the strawberry plant"

I'd say those strawberries may taste of Arctic Ocean or fish or both No, thanks!

Mickey Dazzler wrote: »

Yes Yes fcuking yes.

I can't fcuking stand those fcuking tree hugging fcuking cnuts who harp on about it being a bad fcuking thing when they have no fcuking idea what the fcuk whole fcuking thing is about. Fcuking tree hugging fcuking cnuts.

Great way to add to the conversation dude, do you have anything constructive to add or are you just gonna mouth off? Do you even have any idea what it is that we are discussing? Ohhh, and i am one of these tree huggers you are talking of and proud to be one.

Roadtrippin wrote: »

Ha, you're one to talk about adding greatly to the conversation... After your little rant dispersed with f**k about 20 times you really lost all credibility in terms of contributing to conversation...

Maybe go hug a tree. Might make you feel better Anger management classes or a valium may be the better option in your case though

I think your confusing me with someone else