Reply to post: Why all the negativity to GM foods?

GM crops are good for you and the planet, reckon boffins

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Why all the negativity to GM foods?

It puzzles me how so many so called 'greens' can object so much to GM foods.

GM foods have a higher yield, so can help to resolve, possibly solve, food shortage issues, and will certainly help in the future as the population grows.

A higher yield means reduced pressure to turn current un-farmed land (forests, jungle etc) into yet more farmland.

GM crops are more resilient, which reduces the need for pesticides and other nasties, which should help reduce the damage being done to the environment, both directly on the farmland itself, and also reduce the industrial impact, by reducing the amount of pesticides we need to produce.

The added resilience means we can also grow some of these crops in areas that are currently unsuitable, which means land that is effectively worthless (can't grow anything currently) becomes potentially useful, and that we can also grow crops closer to where they are needed, thus reducing the need for transporting the crops around the world.

To me, GM foods are just one step up from splicing and cross breading plants, something we've been doing for a long long time now. It's just being done with more finesse and precision now.

Yes it needs monitoring, yes it needs controls, food labelling etc. but that's something we can manage, and GM foods have far too many positive benefits for us to simply ignore.

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