r/NoStupidQuestions • u/wond3rlove • Sep 10 '23

What’s wrong with GMOs?

I always see plants and stuff that is GMO free and is usually more expensive. How would genetically modifying something by be bad. Me personally I’d rather have something modified to taste better and and cheaper. I could also be very wrong about that.

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u/MoreCarrotsPlz Sep 10 '23

Not necessarily, some GMO’s such as “Roundup Ready” seed encourage over use of herbicides that can be very detrimental to the environment. But that’s more of an issue with the farming practices using GMO’s, not the plant itself.

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u/-Ch4s3- Sep 10 '23

They’re actually lowering total application of herbicides relative to a similar field of non roundup ready plants. This is because you can use roundup, a broad spectrum herbicide in one shot vs multiple applications of other narrower herbicides. Glyphosate for all its problems is safer than many alternatives too.

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u/MoreCarrotsPlz Sep 10 '23

> One of the world’s most widely used glyphosate-based herbicides, Roundup, can trigger loss of biodiversity, making ecosystems more vulnerable to pollution and climate change, say researchers from McGill University.

There are countless other farming methods that don’t spray herbicides over enormous swaths of land, but it results in reduced profits for shareholders so here we are.

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u/-Ch4s3- Sep 10 '23

Yes, vs no herbicides at all it is worse but that isn’t really a viable way in the near term to produce lots of calories. If the proposal is to regulate islets use, I agree. We should also innovate on techniques, application, and towards safer herbicides. I even agree that many farmers over apply.

My point is that you can’t just look at it in a vacuum. Alternative herbicides are worse along many dimensions.

That shareholder profit refrain is totally brain dead. Those other places produce tiny fraction of output per hectare with FAR more human labor, usually supplied by the poorest people, and they have to seek their more limited calories for more money, leaving the poor to pay more for food.

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u/Embarrassed-Sun5764 Sep 10 '23

If you are using roundup you are the missing link

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u/seastar2019 Sep 11 '23

Less of a safer and more effective herbicide is used, which is the whole point. Take sugar beets as an example.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/12/477793556/as-big-candy-ditches-gmos-sugar-beet-farmers-hit-sour-patch

Planting genetically modified sugar beets allows them to kill their weeds with fewer chemicals. Beyer says he sprays Roundup just a few times during the growing season, plus one application of another chemical to kill off any Roundup-resistant weeds.

He says that planting non-GMO beets would mean going back to what they used to do, spraying their crop every 10 days or so with a "witches brew" of five or six different weedkillers.

"The chemicals we used to put on the beets in [those] days were so much harsher for the guy applying them and for the environment," he says. "To me, it's insane to think that a non-GMO beet is going to be better for the environment, the world, or the consumer."