Sunday, October 2, 2016

Questions on GM crop supporting facts

Awaiting answers for a few questions on GM crop supporting facts:

Note: This is not a post to claim all our ancestors were clever and not to support those ignorant/adamant ones who even don't want to switch from flood irrigation to other efficient ones.

1) Claim:" Every crop today is GM. Fruits and vegetables have not been the way we see it today very long back in history. They were different in taste or smaller in size and not so aesthetic or edible as today. Farmers have tried to cross breeds to get it in shape or edible"
My Take: True and Agreed. So it can be deduced that the farmers did the crossing in the field in a timeline may be centuries together since humans and nature have perfected it one step at a time since the day we started sowing seeds. There may have been a lot failures too.Time tested? What is the timeline of lab modified foods. What are the studies available on long term behaviour if these crops? I would expect atleast a 35-40 years (Half of average human life expectancy today) of non extrapulated/ non- scaled actual data . Calling it we are still perfecting things in lab cannot be an answer. We are playing with food that we eat atleast 3 times a day. While the lab grown and rarely taken drugs for diseases have an average trial for 10-20 years, can crop trials can be logically asked for a longer time? As a fact, the rice variety IR series we get today introduced in 70's are lab modified versions of native rice that are also a cause for widespread obesity and Type II diabetes in TN and Andhra, the most rice eating states.
https://www.facebook.com/kishoreinme/posts/10154143598184132
https://www.facebook.com/neanderthalfood/photos/a.317724941713399.1073741828.314060505413176/672293002923256/?type=3
2) Claim : "The lab modified GM crops are made to with stand drought, pests etc. that native crops do not"
My take: By history, Climate changes the earth has undergone is drastic. Right from higher valcanoic temperatures to various ice ages, the changes were in extremes and there have been predators for all organisms that existed. Even we had to fight neanderthals to survive.Droughts and scarcity were a very common thing to occur on Earth by history .So the fittest/adopted species had survived which we enjoy today. What we experience now is an accelerated human caused extremity in climate change due to carbon /Green house emissions. Irony is that the nitrogen fertilisers used contribute considerably to the green house emissons. Isnt it an escapism saying we create extreme climate tolerant plants instead of working on what needs to be corrected?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_agriculture
https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/articles/others/TakApr08.html
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

3) Claim : " We need to feed "x" billions by "y"th year for which we need "z"% of increase in production and food security needs to be maintained"
My Take: True we need to feed everyone by expected yyyy . But what is the answer to the amount of food wasted/discarded worldwide today? (Almost 40% wasted in US)There is a lotta production but how many get to eat a little everyday? What is the efficiency of food that gets distributed. For instance, a local farmer in Cauvery delta area producing rice will ship it to a central FCI godown 100s of miles away, let it rot and get it back shipped to his neighbour through PDS instead of getting it locally there. Isn't it a failure of world wide policies and politics to feed people rather than showing up a statistic for a claim?
http://www.endfoodwastenow.org/index.php/resources/facts
http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/food_waste_the_facts
http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/08/india-perishable-food-waste-population-growth/
http://qz.com/459469/india-should-heed-john-olivers-message-and-stop-wasting-insane-amounts-of-food/
http://thecsrjournal.in/food-wastage-in-india-a-serious-concern/
http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/india-wastes-more-farm-food-than-china-un/story-m4QiWkxAXtTIzlWMkHT4CN.html;jsessionid=6690C7CFD8819970D2297D25411173DF

4) Claim/Fact: " Monsanto will never introduce or use the terminator gene variety anytime but will only sue lot of farmers for saving their grains"

The problem of making food as a global industry lies here. Food is something that is to be consumed locally respecting the geography. Why will a company somewhere 1000s of miles away will give seeds to me and "permit " me to grow it while most of the people have always saved(brought locally) and sown their own seeds. Isnt it a violation of basic human rights to grow food to survive?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_legal_cases
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents
http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/why-does-monsanto-sue-farmers-who-save-seeds.aspx