My anti/pro GMO non-rant

[GilpinGuy]

FYI: This is not meant to be a pro/anti GMO ballot question thread. It’s not meant to be a pro/anti Monsanto thread either, though I understand that both might creep in. Let’s try not to focus on the sterile seed issue and focus on the health issue. And yes, I did a search and read a bunch of the other stuff posted about this. Still confused here.

I have heard and read anti-GMO and pro-GMO propaganda for years and I never really thought too much about it. I figured the anti stuff is mostly pot-hazed hippie BS that I got away from decades ago and wasn’t really interested. I figured a green bell pepper is just that. WTF is the problem? These days I’m more interested in self reliance and GMO stuff comes up quite a bit so I’m interested now.

I’ve read that GMO veggies will shrink your nuts, give you cancer, cause birth defects, blind you, etc., etc. The sky is falling and we’re all doomed. I’ve also read that without GMO, we’d have a hard time actually feeding ourselves with ever-expanding population – never mind what we export – and that they are harmless. After all, the Gov’t lets us eat it, so it can’t be that bad.

Like most topics, I suspect that the truth is in the middle somewhere. Here’s what I think. But I’m no super-g that’s for sure.

Now, there is selective breeding, cross breeding, etc. IMHO, this is not GMO. Crossing a German Shepherd with a Black Lab doesn’t produce a GMO dog, right? Neither does crossing a XX corn with YY corn to make bigger corn. Shit, we’ve been doing that for thousands of years. So this is a non-issue for me. Hell, the Shepherd might have hit the bitch Lab all on his own without human intervention. Good for him.

But taking a gene from an amoeba and splicing it into a corn gene so it’s resistant to this or that is different – to me, that’s “Genetically Modifying” something in a laboratory. This is what I consider GMO.

So, there are a few things to consider:

If the amoeba’s gene causes a resistance to some pesticide and its gene is combined with the corn so that farmers can saturate the corn with pesticides to deter pests, that can be bad. The pesticides could be bad to us humans who eat the corn. Or it could not be bad. It depends on the pesticide, I suppose.

But what if that amoeba’s gene causes a resistance to a naturally occurring pest (worm, mite, etc.) that attacks the corn? Is that so bad? As long as it doesn’t have any harmful effects on humans, why wouldn’t we embrace this kind of GMO? With this I’ve read “totally bad” because of the gene being passed to other organisms like bees, etc., but I’ve also read the “totally harmless” argument.

To be honest, most of the “the sky is falling” folks sound like the hippie freaks I disassociated with years ago. But there may be something to some of this. I guess I’m confused. GMO bad or good? Yeah, I think it depends, just like most things.

I’ve made it 44 years with my nuts intact, my baby is as healthy as can be, I have my eyesight, and there’s tons of veggies in the store right now, so I’m not freaking out about a damn thing regarding GMO food. But it is interesting to hear both sides. But when I can grow my own non-GMO veggies, you’re damn right I’m going to, just to be safe.