lunamoth: mod (Christianity, Christian, Christ, religion, christianity)

[Willamena]

Congratulations, Laurie
The forum's in good hands.

[Quagmire]

Congrats Laurie. I actually just sent you congratulatory frubals. I meant for my comment to be "Congrats! Or re-congrats. Whatever's appropriate" but, as I often do, I hit the "enter" key by mistake while I was typing it.

I should probably make a thread titled, "If you get unsigned frubals that don't make any sense, that would be me".

[Buttercup]

Congratulations, Laurie! Good to see you as a MOD again.

[lunamoth]

Thank you again everyone.

I am experiencing a weird computer glitch now...having a difficult time typing in posts. I'll respond to any and all questions when I get it fixed.

luna

[Guitar's Cry]

Congrats!

[kadzbiz]

Good on you Laurie

[lunamoth]

Thanks guys!

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by Booko

Welcome back!

GMOs are a very hot and controversial topic when it comes to plants used for foods.

What do you think about the subject?

It's a pretty large subject with no simple answer. I strongly object to the blanket-labelling of all genetically modified food as "frankenfoods" etc.. That is just scare-mongering IMO. While we do not have routine food-shortages in the world right now, they will be coming if our populations keep growing and our climate changes significantly. Biotechnology offers another kind of approach to improving yield, improving nutritional value of foods, increases disease resistances in plants so less pesticides etc are needed, and making plants for adaptable to harsh growing conditions so they can be grown where it is hotter, colder, saline, polluted etc. Not to mention the GM plants that can be used to actaully remove heavy metals from soil and clean up the environment. There is a lot of negative propaganda and misunderstanding about GM foods in the public discourse. GMOs are not a magic bullet, but they are a potentially important tool for helping feed our growing population.

But, there are real concerns about GM plants...containment being the biggest. Once you introduce a new gene into the gene pool it has a great chance of cross-contaminating out of your control. How much harm that can do will depend upon the gene of course. Right now a lot of the genes being introduced have a much greater value to the manufacturer than to the grower or consumer. These are genes that are sexy or look good to the board of directors in many cases, not necessarily the ones that are going to help farmers in developing nations. But, industry has the big bucks to develop the technology and they should be encouraged to do this so that when we really do have a crisis, the technology will be ready. As long as certain ethical practices are in place (which right now they do not seem to be, see below).

There may also be some health concerns regarding allergens in GMOs. I do not understand this well enough to comment, but it seems to me that it could be no worse than problems caused by all the chemical treatments we put on our crops, nor worse than the changes in antigens we create by other breeding methods. Transgenes, like all genes, encode proteins. When we eat plants those proteins are broken down by our digestive systems like any other...they are not somehow more resistant to digestion than anything else. There are other issues related to the kinds of promoters and regulatory sequences used with transgenes, but I'm a little rusty on that. Guess I'll just say the jury is out...proceed with caution.

My biggestion objection to GMOs has mostly to do with the business ethics of the big corporations that develop them, intellectual property etc.. I think that there are some very unethical things going on in this right now so that developing nations can be hurt more than they are helped. I really worry about one or a couple big companies controlling the vast majority of food sources for the world.

[lunamoth]

Hi All,

I've also asked to step down from moderating.

Thank you,

luna

[Buttercup]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

Hi All,

I've also asked to step down from moderating.

Thank you,

luna

Wow! It's not good to leave the place unsupervised with a feral chimp running around.

I'm sorry for whatever reason you feel you have to leave the staff, Laurie. < he's your favorite remember?

I hope you'll stick around....if not, I know where to find you young lady!