Reply #28: Small point

[dpibel]

You say, "A third problem is overreliance on pesticides and fertilizers (which GM crops can mitigate somewhat)."

One of the most common GMOs is "Roundup ready" corn and soybeans. Those crops don't mitigate the use of pesticides, they enhance it. The plants are resistant to Roundup, which allows the grower to really pour it on, eliminating all competitor plants. They do, however, allows the producer of Roundup to sell more product which is, after all, the most important thing.

There are some GM plants that express the natural insecticide produced by Bt Thuringiensis. Those may mitigate pesticide use somewhat. The downside is: When used as a natural insecticide, a Bt culture is sprayed on the plants. The bugs eat the sprayed leaves and die. The Bt, and its insecticide are dissipated over time or get washed off the plant before anyone eats it. The Bt GM plants, however, express the insectide at the cellular level, so it's inside the plant. You get to eat it.

As for mitigating fertilizer usage, if there's some GM plant out there that uses less fertilizer, I'd be interested to know about it.

For those who claim that GM plants can feed the world, there are studies out (which I'm too lazy to google up right this instant) showing that crop yields are lower from GM seeds.