This topic got me off the Ipad to the computer. :grin:
This is something that I personally have researched to death, and I am very pro GMO. There are many reasons for this, but I am also pro organic. I believe it should be an open market for anyone who wants to buy what they want.
Now, here is what all organic people hate to hear, more disease's and pathogens are found in organic food vs conventional grown crops. Also, if you look at the list of "approved" chemicals that organics can use on their crops, you are far from getting an organic vegetable or cut of beef.
First off, organic grass fed beef is highly NON-regulated, meaning I could go buy any calves I wanted, put them on grass for 180 days, and call them organic grass fed beef. Doesn't matter if those calves had been vaccinated before hand, as long as I don't do it. Which leads me to a question, you get sick, your child gets sick, you go to the doctor for medicine to help you become well. Why on God's green earth do you not want your animals healthy that you are going to eat? Pure grass fed organic beef can not have any type of antibiotic, at any point in their life (which I'm sure some have). I'm not saying all grass fed cattle are sick, but through vaccination we keep many of the diseases away, and keep our animals healthy. I want a healthy animal before slaughter, not one that might be carrying bovine tuberculosis but not showing symptoms of it yet.
Now to the organic side of fruits and vegetables. There are many, many studies have shown where organic vegetables are actually carriers of many rodent born disease's, that do not get caught with the testing done by the USDA. Also, there are tons of studies that show that organic foods are no better or healthier for you than conventional grown crops. I will list a few.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/09/04/160395259/why-organic-food-may-not-be-healthier-for-you
http://health.usnews.com/health-new...s-not-healthier-or-more-nutritious-study-says
http://www.agbioforum.org/v9n3/v9n3a05-wachenheim.htm
Purdue University did a great study on the differences between both. I do not have the link, but I do on my work computer, and if I get a chance, I will put it up here.
Now on to the GMO's. One must understand that in todays world, we CAN NOT produce true organic foods on the available land. We live in a world that is full of pest, which we have always had, but now we have the intelligence to protect our crops from them. A GMO in a corn plant is not a pesticide, it is a protein, nothing more, nothing less. Root worm protection for example, is how the proteins are shifted and placed into the plant, which makes the plant resistant to root worms. Corn borers, stalk borers, ear worm protection, is all the same, just how the plant displaces protein to protect itself. That is it. If we were to try and shift all acres to organic, we would automatically be producing 78% less than with conventional crops.
How did the farmers do it back in the day? Glad you asked. Many of the farmers back in the old days used an organophosphate to protect the plants, through insecticide boxes on their planters. They would also us parathyroids foliar to protect from flying and biting insects. We still use both of these chemicals today, but in limited fashions. We only use them in we have a infestation of insects that is going to set back yield in the crop. Personally, I would rather have a GMO corn plant with the round up ready gene, sprayed with round up (which the plant will metabolize quickly) than to have a conventional corn, protected by many of the products on the market today.
Now with the bee's. The finger has been pointed at Monsanto the whole time on bee reduction because of imidacloprid. Funny thing is, imidacloprid is not produced by Monsanto, but by bayer crop science. Monsanto isn't even the biggest distributor of it either. So why point at a company, who doesn't produce a product, but yet it is their fault??
Honey bee's are also loosing much of their habitat, and natural "foods". There are also a list of disease's and pathagens that are attacking the honey bee's. I'm not about to say that we don't kill a substantial amount through use of insecticides every year, but pointing the finger at 1 source is not what is causing the total collapse. Here is a good article on the subject.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572