Reply to post: Re: Gene escape

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

Pompous Git Silver badge

Re: Gene escape

There's no substitute for actually knowing what you're talking about.

Wish I could upvote that statement more!

At the risk of repeating what's already been said further downthread, I make the following points:

1. GMO is largely not about crop yields per unit area. Most GMO crops are standard varieties with the inserted genes providing resistance to herbicides, usually glyphosate (Roundup).

2. The owners of the GMO do not allow farmers to publish crop yields of the GMO versus the standard variety. The contracts with the GMO owners (Monsanto for example) are secret.

3. One authorised trial I saw the results of in the farming press, the researchers admitted that Roundup had not been used on either the GMO, or the control. Both plots were hand weeded!

4. If your market is for organic or conventional but GMO-free, and your crop becomes contaminated by GMO carried in by bees, you've lost your market and possibly your income for the season. This is what happened to Percy Schmeiser in Canada. He was also fined for "stealing" the RR genes. He didn't benefit from them because he didn't use Roundup to control weeds in his crop.

5. If growing conventionally results in spectacular yield increases as often claimed, why for example is Charles H. Wilber of Crane Hill, Alabama in the Guinness Book of Records?

6. Further to the above point, a very great deal of organic wheat is grown in Australia and some of that ends up in Uncle Tobys breakfast cereal: Organic Vita Brits. Organic Vita Brits cost less than 5% more than the ordinary Vita Brits alongside them on the supermarket shelf.

7. Once you grow GMO canola (for example) you are stuck permanently purchasing your seed from the supplier. You can no longer save your own seed and unsurprisingly the supplier's prices rapidly go from affordable to a significant cost. This is not a good strategy for improving your income.

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