Are you aware and concerned about Monsanto's attempt to force us all to eat Genetically Modified food?

Check out Food Inc for some awful Monsanto practices.

I don’t think there is sufficient evidence to be concerned about the food’s safety.

If you eat food in America, the odds are extremely high you already eat genetically modified food.

Most of the food we eat is genetically modified – we’ve been working on it for thousands of years. Our pets are also genetically modified to suit our lifestyles. Why is that perceived to be a bad thing?

On the other hand, I do think that Monsanto’s business practices are pretty cutthroat. They should be scrutinized, so that they don’t monopolize certain parts of the food industry.

I’m very concerned, but I also don’t see what I can do about it. Is it even possible to find things now that haven’t been contaminated by Monsanto?

@dappled_leaves There is a difference between breeding and actually modifying genes. It is my understanding that Monsanto does the latter.

@tom_g
Do you mean this link?
http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/gmo_corn/index.html
I signed the petition. People should read this information..
I do not wish to eat this food. No studies have been done on the long term affects.
Monsanto is trying to take over and buy all the organic seeds. The Politicians do not care.

ditto @tom_g . Pretty scarry stuff. In case they totally destroy the food supply, there is always the planet’s ultimate back up plan ~

@philosopher, there are a couple issues.

1. We all eat genetically modified food. All of the crops we eat have been genetically modified through selective breeding over millenia. There is absolutely no scientific basis for this kind of knee-jerk reaction against GM food. There is no reason why genes inserted manually into food would act differently than genes that we’ve selectively bred.

2. Monsanto is not “forcing” us to eat genetically modified food. I don’t even see where you arrive at that conclusion.

3. Your post bothers me because it is outraged about the wrong things. There are serious problems with Monsanto’s business practices. There are serious problems with the concept of patenting an organism, like a GM crop. There are serious problems with Roundup and other pesticides that Monsanto co-engineers with its GM crops, and there are serious problems with industrial agriculture in general.

I think we should concentrate on these real problems rather than the “frankenfood” bogeyman. In fact, if we’re going to solve the problem of industrial agriculture and have more sustainable food systems, we’re almost certainly going to need to use GM crops!

there was one widely publicized study done on the GE Corn and the effect it had on mice, causing organ failure
http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11

I am not a scientist, so the language is greek to me. My husband is a scientist, in genetic toxicology and he says that there’s some holes in the information, however the information is enough to “give pause” to the idea of eating foods which contain GM Corn… we’ve gone to as much of a local/organic/certified naturally grown diet as we can afford with my husbands’ blessing.

I do everything I can to avoid anything that comes from Monsanto. Even if it’s not the GM prodcuts, it’s the REASON that they are modifying these plants, to sustain life after over use of pesticides and herbicides that kill all other vegetation around it… it’s dangerous stuff and I don’t want to take the chance of feeding my family food that’s been treated

the issue is that corn and soy in so many forms are pervasive in our “American Diets” whether we realize it or not. HFCS are a deriviative of corn, flavorings, thickeners, food stabilizers, all these things are derivative of corn or soy. So when someone says that Monsanto is “forcing” us to consume their products, it’s not too far fetched.

@christine215, that study seems to conclude that the dangerous effects were from the pesticides that are used along with the GM corn, not the corn itself.

Monsanto sells a pesticide called “Roundup” that kills weeds; it engineers its crops to be resistant to Roundup, i.e. “Roundup-ready.” Thus farmers can buy Monsanto-engineered crops, spray their fields with Roundup, and everything but the crops dies. Of course Roundup, like all pesticides, is a poison so it’s not surprising it causes harm to mice.

But that’s a problem with Roundup, not GM itself. (Sorry if you are already aware of this… couldn’t tell from your post.)

And I also try to avoid Monsanto crops as much as possible; I try to buy organic and local. But it’s expensive! And organic food could be less expensive if people were more accepting of GMOs! You can make a GMO crop that doesn’t need pesticides, and thus is easier to grow organically than a conventional crop! GM tech could, and should, be harnessed for sustainable agriculture. But the regulations for the “organic” label prohibit GM crops.

What about all those antibiotics in your fav. chicken dish?

Yes and yes, but my response is less worried, I suppose, because my remedy for dealing with evil shit (of any kind) is feeling and focusing on how strong “humanity’s life force” is (for lack of better phrasing). Would it help to know that this problem started 10,000 years ago? Or that this problem is also why we have 7 billion people on the planet? This is (rightfully) concern about suffering, and it is worry over the folly of people who aspire to control the world’s food supply.

I need to percolate on this some more. Not sure what I’m trying to articulate.

@smilingheart1
I do not eat that garbage. I eat organic or minimaly processed.
Everyone should be free to eat what they choose.
I also eat No red meat.

@Qingu I did mention that the reason that Monsanto is modifying the crops is to sustain the over-use of pesticides and herbicides (Round up)
the most worrying thing is, that in doing so, the factory farms are also creating new breeds of roundup-ready resistant weeds, which only perpetuates the cycle of needing to create more potent poisons to kill the weeds, and further genetic modification of the corn/soy crops.

@XD also has an excellent point, the fact that Monsanto is quite effectively (legally) eliminating the ability for small famers to use heirloom seeds and non-Monsanto GE/GM seeds.

Even if you’re thinking “well I don’t eat corn products” remember that most of teh corn and soy that we’re talking about ends up in feed lots. so if you’re eating meat from a supermarket, then you’re eating an animal whose diet consisted of these products which were sprayed with Roundup. Food Chain, people. we’re at the top and poisons that deposit into the flesh of animals that we eat, will eventually deposit into our bodies.

why there is not a greater hew and cry from the public I don’t know.

President Obama promised to end the “revolving door” between lobbyists for companies like Monsanto and the government. Then he names a former Monsanto attorney as the Deputy Commisioner of Food… and now the government is on a mission to stop small farmers from selling raw milk or from being able to lable milk as rBGH free (a synthetic hormone developed by.. guess who… Monsanto)
... sorry I ranted and got a bit off topic. I have friends who are farmers and the whole thing just sickens me.

Yes. I am aware.

I eat organic foods, grass-fed meat, and try to educate others when I can.

Besides Food Inc, you should really watch King Corn

May I have your portion, please?