GMed Organisms - Page 2

That's amazing...I can't believe that they can do this, I know alot of people that would use this...hmmm.

Interesting bit about the non-nicotine tobacco plant.

Ah yes, the evils done in the name of profit... if I had a dime for every case I hear about. Oh well.

I have some beef w/ the whole "intellectual property" thing, too.

Aura
What is "intellectual property"?

" Since when do we put a patent on a plant?"
When it took years of research to make that plant. If I worked my ass off for a 5 years to make a faster-growing tomato, I'd sure be annoyed if some farmers started growing it without my permission!

"Actually gmed food would or could be more nutritious than regular farmed foods, but not more nutritious than organic gardening. However, not all of us will have the luxury of eating just organic grown foods as it is more expensive, or a lot of work if you have the land."
What do you mean by "organic foods"? I feel a bit ignorant :-S

" I opt to not take the chance, it is no real benefit except profit. "
Profit is what makes the world go around. It is a GOOD thing, profit sounds evil sure, but what it means is more efficient, cheaper foods and more money to spend on develloping other things.

Anyway, I don't know why you hate the fact they need a chemical fertilizer. It doesnt damage the enviro, it doesnt make it less safe and the only thing it does is protect someone's hard work.

I agree with the patent thing DT, but I think his point might just be the extreme that we have come to. Patenting a plant...a plant is supposed to be a natural thing, something no one should hold the rights to, but on the other hand, there are patented hybrid plants (somebody has to pay for the scientist that came up with that).

Intellectual property includes patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.

While I do see the logic and necessity of it in a lot of cases, I'm not very enthusiastic about cases where ideas and scientific information that can be significanlty beneficial to humanity as a whole are kept from the public due to profit-mongering, and protected by ownership laws.

True, profit does provide incentive to produce high quality goods and give incentive for product innovation/research/development. However, when kids in Third World countries are exploited in order to save on labour costs and thereby increase profit, or when powerful industries buy out newly developed technologies that threaten their product... all in the name of increasing or maintaining profit, then it is going too far.

Think of competition in general. Competition is good in that it encourages better performance between competitors. However there are certainly cases in life there where cooperation, rather than competition, becomes the more appropriate/beneficial choice of action for both parties.

Like I said - if they didn't create it so you had to use a chemical to grow it I would support it. This has been done for pure profit.


Plants and animals have been domesticated, breed and cross breed for centuries. Lots of people have worked hard.


Dumbteen - I don't know where your coming from. Maybe its because you are young and just have not seen enough to know better. The profiteers are the profiteers, not our friends. In Vietnam, hundreds of gallons of blood was shed so that someone made a profit.

"Plants and animals have been domesticated, breed and cross breed for centuries. Lots of people have worked hard. "
And what about specific plants? One who has been given a X gene in recent years? Should everyone be alowed to use that specific variety of plant? Of course not, people may continue to use traditional varieties or if they want buy the new breeds.
The choice is the farmers'.

"I don't know where your coming from. Maybe its because you are young and just have not seen enough to know better. The profiteers are the profiteers, not our friends. In Vietnam, hundreds of gallons of blood was shed so that someone made a profit."
Not sure about that. Vietnam was caused ( as far as I know) from irrational (though understandable) fear of communism. It was caused because of the dreaded spread of communism and the idea that all the chinese states would fall like dominoes to communism.

There is no "profiteering" bogeyman. Or if there is, they cannot exploit anyone. We live in free liberal democratic countries with freedom of speech.

"While I do see the logic and necessity of it in a lot of cases, I'm not very enthusiastic about cases where ideas and scientific information that can be significanlty beneficial to humanity as a whole are kept from the public due to profit-mongering, and protected by ownership laws."
If there were no such "profit-mongering" laws then no one would make the beneficial plants in the first place. It is the job of the government to insure that we are charitable and give to the third world, not individual companies.
What is better a world with powerful GM-ed plants where a gov might be elected that gives to the 3rd World? Or a world where companies know their work will be stolen from them and don't even bother with making the plants in the first place?

" Patenting a plant...a plant is supposed to be a natural thing,"
They aren't natural plants. They were modified through lots of money, time and hard work.

" or when powerful industries buy out newly developed technologies that threaten their product..."
I'll agree to that. Though the issue at hand is Greens stopping the development of new and potentially great technologies.

Oh and why is "organic food" more nutritious then GMed food?

"The choice is the farmers'."

Wrong - need to study that further

The small farmer has been put out of business. Farmers all over the world are being forced out of business.

The choices are being taken away from both the consumer and the farmer.

The protesters are protesting for a reason. We will all loose - you will win - but you will be wrong. I'll have my garden and my vitamins and I'll live longer than you. Watch and see.

"The small farmer has been put out of business. Farmers all over the world are being forced out of business. "
That is free market capitalism, and its nasty side-effects. However, free market capitalism is the reason you have running water and electricity (not to mention cheap cars) instead of starving under X or Y communist/socialist regime.

"Oh and why is "organic food" more nutritious then GMed food?"
You have yet to answer this, yet I have asked it twice. You keep saying that organic is healthier etc.. However the only difference I can discern between a GMed product and a supposedly "organic" product (whatever that means) is that an organic product will have used traditional methods while a GMed product is the fruits of new methods.
Besides that, GMed foods are unique because man for the time has a much deeper control over the nature of what he is eating.

"The protesters are protesting for a reason."
Of course they do, but no good reason I can see. Mostly, I think its a combination of wanting to protect the traditional farmers of the 3rd world; as well as a not completely unfounded fear of the health issues (mad cow scared people) and especially people want to go "back to nature". They want to live more like our ancestors who supposedly were more in touch and in harmony with nature.
The 1st reason is simply the way capitalism works, unless you want to start subsidizing (sin) people of the 3rd World as well as 1st World then there is no getting around this problem.
The 2nd reason is quite understandable, however, people so easily forget the advantages of GMed foods. We potentially now have the ability to conserve foods more easily as well as produce much more, both of these would make stopping world hunger much much easier.
The 3rd reason is gibberish in my opinion.

Ya I've heard horrible things about the patent, job, economical issue as well as serious health risks.

........Who Cares we are all going to die on average you don't really see people having happy 200th birthdays do you

Let them kill the planet or solve world hunger do you think any of us will still be here.....

And what makes you think they aren't already feeding us this junk anyway?

Also they can engineer the grain to contain say natural tranquilizers and then force it down war stricken countries throats with a dash of propaganda, why do you think they give food drops to the same people they are trying to bomb.

Here have some food, your own government can't provide for you but we can we care o look our awak is broadcasting anti political messages for you to absorb while you're open to subliminal messages.

.......at least I know that my corpse is going to stay perky for a long time thanks to my dear friend MSG.....mmm mmm good

"........Who Cares we are all going to die on average you don't really see people having happy 200th birthdays do you"

Instincts provide enough drive to care alone, but if you should become a parent know the fear of the safety of a loved one you might not be so cavalier in your attitude.

Not a judgement, just something from my own experience.