The great GM crop yield myth exposed
source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-crops-myth-812179...
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- JanforGore
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The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.
Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"
He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one.
The GM crop – engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller, Roundup – recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil. Even with the addition it brought the GM soya's yield to equal that of the conventional one, rather than surpassing it.
The new study confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM soya produced 6 per cent less than its closest conventional relative, and 11 per cent less than the best non-GM soya available.
The Nebraska study suggested that two factors are at work. First, it takes time to modify a plant and, while this is being done, better conventional ones are being developed. This is acknowledged even by the fervently pro-GM US Department of Agriculture, which has admitted that the time lag could lead to a "decrease" in yields.
But the fact that GM crops did worse than their near-identical non-GM counterparts suggest that a second factor is also at work, and that the very process of modification depresses productivity. The new Kansas study both confirms this and suggests how it is happening.
A similar situation seems to have happened with GM cotton in the US, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over.
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GM food is not the answer to world hunger. Addressing the cause of hunger is. This is only a profit making scheme for CEOs like Hugh Grant of Monsanto to make over THREE MILLION dollars a year not even counting the hundreds of thousands of shares he has in the company while people continue to starve in the world.
And our own FDA has helped them put something on the market that goes in our bodies and the bodies of our children that was not scientifically vetted and is not labelled on our food. It is time to expose the corporate frauds that seek to control our food and water and send more poor farmers in this country and in Asia, Africa, and South America into debt. Patenting life is immoral as is deceiving the public about what they are eating and devastating our environment.
We need to boycott Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, and any other multinational in the business of profit over people until they are held accountable for their deceptions.
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anjela3
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Afterthought.....it's not the GMO that's the problem here, it's the pesticide. The GMO is the bandiad to fix the impact of the pesticide.
- 3 years ago
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anjela3
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jubal
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I agree with Dagos, it is better to cultivate the way nature intends.
Jan thanks again for a very powerful article.
I have been spreading the word here locally.
- 3 years ago
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jubal
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dagos
- This comment has been hidden for review.
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dagos
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queenofit
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dagos:
I tried to find an English translation for my own reading, of your statement. I hope this is close enough to get the meaning, as I find it worth while reading in English too.
My apologies if it is not well translated?
'Unfortunately the god money blinded the peasants promising their a new one El Dorado, did not be so, and now complain themselves. Useless to complain itself, sent to ffanculo the seeds changed and returned to cultivate like nature commands.'
- 3 years ago
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queenofit
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anjela3
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The 2005 WHO report on GM foods, quite lengthy, but very thorough.
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/biotech_en.pdf
This one particular report, and the following responses seem to indicate that GMOs are the evil of the modern world and that those invested in creating them are behind perpetrating this evil upon humankind for ...evil purposes.
First, probably most people here have been eating GMOs their entire life. And if you don't want to eat GMOs, the only way to insure that is to grow your own.
There is no doubt, however, that genetic modification of foods as well as organisms has overall had more of a positive impact on human survival and well being then the other way around. It is nothing new and there are plenty of people around today because of GMOs. But then one could argue that we have too many people on the planet and maybe we shouldn't be messing with what God has made and let those that have benefitted just...die. I just don't think that is going to happen. We won't go backwards in technology. What we can do, as suggested in the WHO report, is to continue to work on the impact of GMOs. The biggest concern should be the impact on the environment, specifically biodiversity and its delicate balance. But with global warming, wars and increases in nuclear energy (and the potential disasters), looks like GMOs are one of the better things humans are doing.
Bottom line, this one article does not accurately represent the whole of what has been happening with GMOs over the past 30+ years. So the other non modified soy beans grow better, then grow them and move on. There are plenty of diabetics (almost 8% of the US population) that would argue GMOs are a good thing (just to mention one little benefit because EVERYONE knows someone that is diabetic)...sad, but true. - 3 years ago
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anjela3
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JanforGore
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anjela3:
And no one report otherwise does either. Eat their crap if you (in general) want it, however, people have the right to know what they are eating. If you dispute that, you dispute Democracy. And this isn't just 'one report' disputing this. The entire GLOBAL COMMUNITY has rejected them, just like they did the Iraq War. I happen to think that matters.
- 3 years ago
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JanforGore
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stopnoise
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Excellent News Jan!
- 3 years ago
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stopnoise
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ebdotkom
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It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!
- 3 years ago
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ebdotkom
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JanforGore
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Well, thankfully I gave up sugar and artificial sweeteners. They gave us saccharin, then aspartame, and now more poison courtesy of Monsanto.
- 3 years ago
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JanforGore
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JanforGore
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Now how could this story that was number 8 on the frontpage just drop off entirely not to be seen now in the first 100 in only five minutes without a change in ratings and more comments? Who is pushing stories like this to the back of the pack because it isn't cheesy or sexy enough to make tv? This is IMPORTANT information about our health and environment that needs to be seen. Perhaps the head of programming needs to know what is going on on this side of the station? It is getting ridiculous.
- 3 years ago
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JanforGore
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queenofit
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JanforGore:
I don't want to sound like "sour grapes" but I agree with your point about information such as this, which continues to be shot down is simply too obvious. I for one am getting tired of it too. This IS important "educational" type of media. And, it is effecting how people function, you better believe that!
Oh well, thanks to you JanforGore; your persistence is what will win out, because truth will prevail.
Stay Strong!
- 3 years ago
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queenofit
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JanforGore
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JanforGore:
Lately this site has been more like 'tabloid' journalism with the influx of the same names posting tons of BS links getting to the frontpage everyday as they vote themselves up. If I didn't know any better I would think it was planned. That's what happens when you make posting here more about competition than quality reporting. People who put up one or two educational stories don't stand a chance against the influx of BS we have seen lately. And look at the four on TV now. Who cares what someone says about the next Batman? Or beer pong? It is ridiculous and imo goes against everything this station was meant to do. But of course, I guess if you speak out about that it only solidifies your place here as well.
- 3 years ago
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JanforGore
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queenofit
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JanforGore:
Jan, this is a serious issue in society today, it is what keeps the sheeple, happy and content. Free to graze in the land of intoxicating simplistic views of the world; "oh what will Britney do next?"
I am quoting a friend of mine, whom I correspond with, a view from the UK:
"You mentioned the Britney Spears phenomena etc, - was listening to the late Texan philosopher on some audio lectures, Rick Roderick, who was superb in my view, largely self taught, at 13 he'd stopped going to school, - his father was a professional con-man and his mother a beauty therapist, - he was alone a lot, and reading Doestevsky and Sartre as a kid, - it didn't harm his development one bit.
Anyway, he is critical of all forms of authority and power, - including the profession he ended up in, as a professional philosopher, - he kept getting sacked from the universities over there, serious ones as well, like Duke, - he was just too honest and radical for the academic world to be able to deal with, - the fact he called most of his colleagues intellectual cowards I don't suppose helped, or the fact that he said the students he had to teach were being exploited, as "unpaid workers" - they have to pay for education, - which he felt was work, and that they should be paid for doing it.
Point being, he zoomed in on one lecture to Pres Reagun and Madonna, as powerful emblems of where things began to get really surreal, - he insists neither of them had any real talent in what they did, - but their "popularity" was a product of simply "being popular, for popularity's sake..." and it snowballed with every move they made of course, - the content was obscured, only the "image" was relevant. I agree with him.
He felt the media reached a new all time low by giving so much coverage to those two people, and became a travesty of what it once was meant to be."Relevant to GMO's you bet. Relevant in how the media is bent to basically follow the money and turn their nose away from issues that will really matter.
Prove me wrong, I want to be wrong~
- 3 years ago
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queenofit
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victimofcoal
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Monsanto will be putting GM sugar on the shelves this fall. Poisoned from within.
- 3 years ago
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victimofcoal
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JanforGore
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Amen. Nature knows best and we should not be playing God with it.
- 3 years ago
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JanforGore
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onechance
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No surprise there... There's NO WAY to do better than nature already does.
Close your doors clowns!
- 3 years ago
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onechance
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JanforGore
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BAD SEED: The Truth About Our Food
- 3 years ago
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JanforGore
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dcuisinot
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Very interesting study, and it seems like a great reason alone (without the many other negative things about gm food) to grow non-GM crops.
- 3 years ago
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dcuisinot
