GM Food

[realisticphish]

This is prompted by a thread lauding anti-GM "activists" storming a corn field in Italy, destroying the whole crop.

This has to be one of my most hated issues. Primarily because any and all rational discussion on the issue is lost in anti-science hysteria. There are major issues to discuss, like corporate ownership of living things, the long term effects on soil/environment, health, etc. Those are legitimate discussions, which could be interesting.

But no, "SMASH THE MAN! SCIENTISTS ARE JUST SERVANTS FOR THE CORPORATE OVERLORDS!!!!!1!one"

People like that drive me to defend people like Monsanto, which makes me cringe. Just like idiot Christian bigots who make me defend Islam, which I find just as bizarre as their religion.

[GoneOffShore]

1. So you watched "Food Inc" and still would defend GM food?

Really?

[lazarus]

2. do you eat wheat?

or corn? Or rice? All genetically modified over millenia by man to suit his purposes. Modern genetic modification is just speeding up a process we've done our entire existence, to both plants and animals.

[TZ]

3. God damn it. Do you know ANYTHING about biotech?

And how its regulated? Really? And I suppose the WHO is a monsanto shill? PLease read ACTUAL science. Somehow a movie called "food inc" doesn't sound objective.
Geezus fucking christ I thought the GM is EVUL screeching in the Science forum was bad enough.
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/

[realisticphish]

6. did you actually, you know,

read the post? Thanks.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Do you get all your opinions from second rate biased documentaries?

[TZ]

4. I see even people who consider themselves "skeptics'

are influenced by the amount of mainstream bullshit on this topic. Considering the technology used is the same technology used to make DNA vaccines, I find all the arguments to be from people who have never ever bothered to read anything unbiased on the subject. For instance linking to a site called "seedsofdestruction". Yeah, thats an unbiased source.

[trotsky]

5. I thought it might cause some to think when I brought up Golden Rice.

Here's GM being used to improve the diets, and health, of billions - and it still got panned, and me bashed. Hopeless.

They all think humanity can feed itself with rooftop organic gardens in the city. Uh huh.

[Orrex]

8. You need to remember that GM foods are evil, and everything based on them is, ultimately, evil

Doesn't matter if it saves billions of people's lives; no good can possibly come of it.


It's like those people who object to distributing Plumpy'nut in famine-stricken regions on the grounds that some children there might have peanut allergies.

[realisticphish]

9. that right there is a great example

of "all or nothing." It seems to be a predominant concept in the woo-world. Anti-vaxers see a side effect in one person out of 2 million? IT IS UNSAFE AND MUST BE BANNED. This cancer therapy is 62% effective? IT'S ALL A MONEY MAKING SCAM.

Hell, we see it with candidates as well. If a candidate has one opinion I disagree with, they are an evil, evil person and must be cast aside

[laconicsax]

10. People tend to fear what they do not understand. Some ascribe conspiracy to everything.

I argued with someone a few years ago that insisted that Bt corn was behind the rise in child obesity. No reason why, just that it *had* to be; there was no other possible reason...after all, there hadn't been any studies proving that Bt corn didn't cause childhood obesity, and if there were, that would only prove a scientific conspiracy.

I feel sometimes like I'm in a perpetual argument with creationists on a variety of topics.

[Odin2005]

11. GM SUGAR BEETS WILL KILL YOU!!!

:eyes:

[Odin2005]

12. GM Salmon! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

:eyes:

[Orrex]

13. You might contract salmon-ella

Thank you, thank you.

[realisticphish]

14. or necrotizing fish-iitis

[Orrex]

15. Bit of a reach, but very nicely done.

I salute you!

[realisticphish]

16. heh

couldnt think of any other salmon jokes :)

[onager]

20. Here you go!

It was April the forty-first, being a quadruple leap year.
I was driving in downtown Atlantis.
My Barracuda was in the shop, so I was in a rented Stingray,
And it was overheating.
So I pulled into a Shell station. They said I'd blown a seal.
I said, "Fix the damn thing and leave my private life out of it, okay, pal?"

While they were doing that, I walked over to a place called the Oyster Bar.
A real dive. But I knew the owner; he used to play for the Dolphins.
I said, "HI GILL!" (You have to yell, he's hard of herring.)

Chorus:
Think I had a wet dream, cruisin' through the Gulf stream.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Wet dream.

Gill was also down on his luck.
Fact is, he was barely keeping his head below water.
I bellied up to the sandbar; he poured the usual: Rusty Snail, hold
the grunion, shaken, not stirred.
With a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich on the side, heavy on the mako.
I slipped him a fin, on porpoise.
I was feeling good; I even dropped a sand dollar in the box for Jerry's Squids,
Just for the halibut.

Well, the place was crowded. We were packed in like sardines.
They were all there to listen to the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsal.
What sole! Tommy was rockin' the place with a very popular tuna,
"Salmon-chanted Evening".
The stage was surrounded by screaming groupers,
Probably there to see the bass player.
One of them was this cute little yellowtail, and she was givin' me the eye.
So I figured this was my chance for a little fun.
You know, piece of Pisces.

But she said things I just couldn't fathom.
She was too deep, seemed to be under a lot of pressure.
Boy, could she drink. She drank like a...
Well, she drank a lot.
I said, "What's your sign?"
She said, "Aquarium."
I said, "Great! Let's get tanked!"

Chorus

I invited her up to my place for a little midnight bait.
I said, "C'mon baby, it'll only take a few minnows."
She threw me that same old line: "Not tonight, I got a haddock."

And she wasn't kidding, either, cause in came the biggest,
meanest looking haddock I'd ever seen come down the pike.
He was covered with mussels. He came over to me; he said, "Listen, shrimp.
Don't you come trollin' around here." What a crab!
This guy was steamed. I could see the anchor in his eyes.

I turned to him and I said, "A-balone! You're just being shellfish."
Well, I knew there was going to be trouble, and so did Gill,
Cause he was already on the phone to the cods.
The haddock hits me with a sucker punch. I catch him with a left hook.
He eels over. It was a fluke, but there he was, lying on the deck,
Flat as a mackerel, kelpless.

I said, "Forget the cods, Gill. This guy's going to need a sturgeon.
Well, the yellowtail was impressed with the way I landed her boyfriend.
She came over to me; she said, "Hey, big boy, you're really a game fish.
What's your name?"
I said, "Marlin."

Chorus

Well, from then on we had a whale of a time. I took her to dinner;
I took her to dance; I bought her a bouquet of flounders.
And then I went home with her.
And what did I get for my trouble? A case of the clams.

"Wet Dream" by Kip Addotta. For all you Dr. Demento fans.

[salvorhardin]

21. Oh wow, that brings back memories

I looked it up on Youtube, and sure enough someone uploaded the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEZG14eGmR8

[Silent3]

17. I'm opposed to GM food

This is no time for GM to be taking their focus off the development of rechargeable electric and hybrid vehicles. ;)

[realisticphish]

18. Why is General Mills building electric cars?

booyah :D

[Deep13]

19. Exactly. GM food is made from old auto parts. nt