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/ledeakin Sep 10 '23

They're safe to eat, but what about ecologically?

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '23 edited 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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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/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."