Thanks Appleseed70 
I too enjoyed the thoughtfulness of the post, especially the heart of it. I hadn’t considered the ethical delinquency of breeding in suffering as a part of a breeds existence.
That role should definitely be left to God, or, as we Pagans say, Mother Nature.
1 Like
What does GMO really mean when you get down to it. The words are Genetically Modified Organism. Do folks really object to this? We have been doing it for thousands of years. A bulldog and a wolf are nothing alike. We genetically engineered bulldogs. True, when we started we didn’t even know what genes were, but we understood the effect. Or mechanism for genetic engineering was controlled breeding. We’ve done it with plants by bagging flowers and pollenating by hand.
So what is different here. It is not genetic engineering that most folks object to, it is techniques like gene splicing. This simply increases the scope of genetic manipulation we can accomplish. Moving genes between species could certainly cause unintended consequences but then so could most other kinds of manipulation we do to the environment.
Man has always manipulated his environment not fully comprehending the consequences. That is why we are called man not God.
What can we do? Use the best judgment we can based on all the information we know. Existence is fluid not static. Standing still has just as many risks as acting. There are no safe choices, just some more prudent than others.
As science and technology accelerate, the average person is left uninformed and few have the background necessary to make good assessments. Misinformation abounds as advocates with their own agendas attempt to build political coalitions to codify their positions.
In the end, the best we can do is to recognize our own arrogance.
I’m all for GMO research. Some of my best friends have genetic problems which will only be solved via GMO technology. One passed 2 years ago, time is extremely important.
The public gets up in arms about GMO food where there is no evidence of harm and yet accepts something like transfats in their food, a substance known to kill thousands of people in this country a year due to coronary problems instigated by this unnatural product.
So much of what people get excited about as existential threats is not based on logic. I believe chemical residue in food falls into the mythical threat category. The “best educated” people in this country widely endorse the health benefits of organic food with nary a thread of actual evidence that this investment has any actual payoff.
Where organic farming can be practiced efficiently I believe it can be better for the environment but it is hard to find evidence that even GROWING food organically is healthier than doing it with synthetic chemicals. I’d love to see an epidemiological health study comparing the two types of farmers. If organic farmers have better health profiles than those using synthetic products it wouldn’t prove the benefit of eating organic food by any means but it would be the best possible indicator of possible consequences for applicators of synthetic chemicals.
GMO salmon will be hitting the market soon. Enjoy!
Yes a major breakthrough to help feed the world.
1 Like
My pick your own customers constantly ask, “are they organic.” These folks have no idea how organic is defined since the USDA commandeered the term “organic”. They think organic means that the fruit has not been spayed with anything. Several small commercial PYO growers in an adjacent county who refused to spray got wiped out by SWD last year. Only one chemical that works on SWD is “organic” but it has a 3 day PHI which make it hard to fit into a spray program when the farm is open many days per week. SWD is having a huge impact on small fruit like blue/blackberry and I’m 100% confident that the growers who choose not to spray are going to get it. Once the fruit maggots crawl out of the infected fruit, their customers are going to get grossed out and become my customers. After 20 years of no spray on my blue/blackberry its sad that I now have to spray for SWD, but the airblast sprayer I bought for the orchard works great on the blueberry and blackberry.
My concern with GMO corn and beans is that Roundup is sprayed directly over the top of the food crop
I don’t like the way GMO’s are being constructed by the agchem companies in general. It is a completely unsustainable model as weeds become immune to roundup just as corn rootworms became immune to BT corn. I wish the GMO introductions could be overseen with the same government zeal in which they oversee pharmaceuticals but with a holistic perspective. That is the whole picture with the long view.
The GMO salmon are being farm raised in Panama to avoid environmental regulations.
Salmon in Panama??? What are they doing refrigerating the water? Salmon are cold water fish.
1 Like
You can’t market it in the USA without FDA approval. Salmon was created in Canada and grown in Panama. I believe the FDA approved import. A super safe excellent product. An eel gene is inserted to increase growth rates. Making a genetically superior fish that matures quickly. Humans rock!
Rocks crack.
Americans rock!
For some reason the fish are beginning to smell. Back to fruit.
I agree. I will not eat GMO fish or fruit
I see a time where you won’t eat then. So you won’t eat papayas? All are gmo.
I would not eat any salmon, as they will not be marked.
Soon all oranges will be gmo too.
All soft drinks have GMO’s so does 70% of processed food, so if it ain’t off the plant, chances are it’s GMO.
Corn, soybeans, canola, and papayas are GMO mostly.
1 Like
I did not know papaya a GMO fruit. I don’t drink soft drink, nor orange juice , unless fresh squeezed. I used to use corn /soybean/canola oil for cooking. now I switch to grape seed oil. try to avoid as many GMO product as possible.
what are you spraying?
Mustang and Malathion. Each has a 1 day PHI. I considered Delegate also, but it has a 3 day PHI