“Truth? You can't handle the truth!”

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

GM food conspiracies vex me. If enough research is done, this science could solve world hunger. I think the bigger conspiracy is the one that holds back scientific progress like this. 

[Emp]

Sod GM food! I'm more concerned with the idea of VALIS and SPECTRA two alien supercomputers. VALIS beamed thoughts to Philip K Dicks, while SPECTRA had to make do with Uri Geller.

Why an alien supercomputer would target Geller? Well your guess is as good as mine.

[House of Usher]

GM food as a solution to world hunger is a red herring. Food shortages in the developing world are due to food crops being exported to raise revenue to pay off debt. Starving people in the Ethiopian highlands, living on 1,000 calories a day, grow coffee for export. You can't eat coffee. It's not a question of unproductive land or low yield crops, it's a question of peasant farmers not being able to afford to eat the food they themselves grow. While this goes on, land becomes exhausted growing commercial crops, and irrigation schemes result in soil salination.

World hunger is a problem of wealth inequality. Technology isn't the answer.

[Robin Low]

GM food as a solution to world hunger is a red herring. Food shortages in the developing world are due to food crops being exported to raise revenue to pay off debt. Starving people in the Ethiopian highlands, living on 1,000 calories a day, grow coffee for export. You can't eat coffee. It's not a question of unproductive land or low yield crops, it's a question of peasant farmers not being able to afford to eat the food they themselves grow. While this goes on, land becomes exhausted growing commercial crops, and irrigation schemes result in soil salination.

World hunger is a problem of wealth inequality. Technology isn't the answer.

I'm pretty much in agreement with this, particularly on the inequality issue which I consider the real problem when it comes to hunger. However, technology can be an answer to some problems - for example, creating crops that can cope with high salinity would benefit people living on ocean margins.

I'm generally pro-GM, but I'm also intensely wary of commercialisation and profiteering, and my concern is that the technology is driven by commericial interests rather than need or social benefit. However, unless non-commericial organisations have the money to undertake research and testing nothing is going to change. Unfortunately, non-commercial organisations can only fund research through charitable donation or taxation, and the only people who can provide that is us.

Regards

Robin

[House of Usher]

Preoccupation with hunger and GM food leads to the non-food industrial uses of GM plants often being overlooked, especially by the anti-GM camp. One application of the technology is to grow plants that are able to absorb industrial pollutants from the soil.

[The Legendary Shark]

Planet Earth has been engineering crops for billions of years. We have everything we need on this planet, and more. The Earth is abundant.

It is mankind who squanders these resources, as Ush points out.

Another major reason behind world hunger is the misuse of the world's water. Europe, for example, is stealing water from Africa at a terrible rate. (This may not sound right, but what makes up 90% of any living organism? This includes all the cheap crops, livestock, flowers we make the poor bastards grow for us for pennies. Any water left is than contaminated by our industries, which would rather pollute Africa than Sussex or Wyoming.)

There is no food shortage in the world. It's an uncomfortable fact that we in the "civilized" world take way more than our fair share - in all things except responsibility.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Apologies for my late night (not entirely sober) outburst.

A big part of the problem is Western greed. I'm pretty sure I heard something about there being twice as many obese 'people' as there are starving people. So the solution is simple, as Billy Connely has pointed out, cannabalism. "If everybody ate just one person, the problem would be halved overnight".

But anti-GM protestors still vex me. When they burn a field of GM crops, they are effectively burning useful information, it's tantamount to burning books in my eyes. Goddamn know-it-all hippies.

[TordelBack]

World hunger is a problem of wealth inequality.

Absolutely true, and has been for many decades now.  There's more than enough food to go around.

Technology certainly isn't the answer to world hunger as things stand, but that doesn't mean that GM crops can't play a role in the future, or in those countries that can afford them as an option.  Increasing yields so that less land is under cultivation reduces soil erosion and increases available land for wildlife, recreation etc.; their non-food roles are only beginning to be explored; increasing cost-effective food production in the first world could potentially free up the economies of the developing world from relying on monocultural production for export at miniscule margins.  And so on.  Their potential role in the convergence of food species to single varieties has to be considered very carefully, and as always the power of big business in over-riding such valid concerns has to be controlled somehow.

[The Legendary Shark]

Grow your own spuds!

[Professor Bear]

I was under the impression that the issue with GM foods was the underhanded manner in which companies (not just Monsanto and their love of monopolies) go about pushing their product and giving the impression they have something to hide.  Personally I see no problem with the idea that we need to do long-term testing on GM food before it can be allowed to permanently contaminate the food chain.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Grow your own spuds!

Indeed, I do. It's a very serious skin condition

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Lot's of people are marching through London today to protest against the formidable cuts preposed by Sir Guy of Osbourne and his band on no goods. Good luck if your going.

[House of Usher]

But anti-GM protestors still vex me. When they burn a field of GM crops, they are effectively burning useful information, it's tantamount to burning books in my eyes. Goddamn know-it-all hippies.

The preferred method is trampling. It's hard to keep a fire going in a field of unripe crops.

[TOMMIE]

I do agree with you  dear Jared Katooie that Israel becomes the harmful for their enemies by forge of passports from other countries that might helpful to kill the enemies with the help of other countries . This is not a fair thing that Israel is doing here . 

[Matt Timson]

Yep. And have you, sir, done any first-hand research? What is your knowledge, may I ask, of light aircraft vs. passenger planes and the effects each would have on a building such as the WTC? What types of missile could be used to fire on the WTC yet have millions of first-hand witnesses (people on the streets) see airplanes? Did our government get to every New Yorker and threaten and/or brainwash them into claiming that they saw airplanes rather than missile fire? And what kinds of special effects did our government doctor up during LIVE broadcasts?

I'm not sure why I'm even bothering to "argue" with you. I can tell your type a mile away. You're the guy who's always right.

Always helpful to get that one in early- before the other guy does

Not that I actually buy into it- but there was talk of the planes being holograms (no, really!), so people would see planes, as opposed to whatever did supposedly bring the buildings down.

I love these threads- but people that can't play in them without being pinheads (and I don't necessarily mean you) should probably just give them a wide berth.  They're a bit like religion threads, in that if you know full well that you're not interested in actual discussion (the idea that you might be persuaded to have a bit of a rethink of your worldview, as opposed to sitting in your compound of ideas, surrounded by gun towers to shoot down any other ideas before they get into earshot), you might as well bugger off and devote your energies to something else instead.

Again, that's not particularly aimed at you.