Group items tagged

"We are regularly confronted with genetically modified foods, be it in the news or on our plates. In what way are GM crops different from conventional crops? What is known about their possible risks for human health or the environment?" - Introduction to Biotechnologies in Agriculture - How food GMOs affect crops - How food GMOs affect the environment - How are GMOs regulated - more

gives pros and cons as well as governmental role etc

Drought tolerance/salinity tolerance: "As the world population grows and more land is utilized for housing instead of food production, farmers will need to grow crops in locations previously unsuited for plant cultivation. Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in formerly inhospitable place" I thought this was a really interesting reason for the genetic engineering of crops and such. Allowing a plant to live in an environment it wasn't made to survive in is fascinating and definitely challenges nature's "survival of the fittest" theory.

In the decade and a half since the agricultural biotechnology industry in the United States staged its first field trials, federal and state governments and private corporations have spent billions of dollars on research, commercial development, and regulation. This paper focuses primarily on the environmental successes and failures of that investment and the implications of that experience for U.S. readiness to deal with the next generation of agricultural biotechnology products

This is about an hour long but it's really interesting and debates the difference between having foreign material in food and the ability to be able to feed less fortunate countries

I didn't listen to the whole thing but wow, 70% of foods contain some sort of genetic modification, did not know that. whats interesting is learning that some foods are genetically modified and put on the market without real knowledge of long term effects on humans and the environment. I'm interested in learning how some of these foods can get FDA approved without proof of long term safety. seems "iffy" to me.

I think the main issue of GMOs is that we really have no idea what the effects are going to be on the environment/soil etc in the future. This article talks about that as well as a philosophical side which is kind of a different spin on things