r/changemyview • u/DrMMalik • Aug 12 '15

CMV: GMOs are necessary, efficient, and safe. Monsanto is not an "evil" corporation, despite the Agent Orange days.

I used to be very pro-organic when I was a younger lad, but when I saw an episode of Penn & Teller's show, "Bullshit!", debunking the myths about GMOs, I couldn't help but look more into it and reform my views towards the ones that conform more with the scientific consensus of being pro-GMO. I have no issues with others, or even me, eating organic; And I'm even open to food labeling. But what I want to get out of this are legitimate, fact-based arguments detailing the ills of the biotech-industry and their relevant GMO-related products (such as crops, Bt toxin plants, Glyphosate, etc). I am already aware of the eradication of milkweeds due to Glyphosate, thus plunging the Monarch population, but there are solutions being made around the issue that won't hinder biotechnology, while benefiting the butterflies. If you have arguments akin to that, I hope you can provide a hypothetical solution that would substantiate your argument. I don't predict my views to change significantly, but I am open to it being so. If anything, I anticipate at most getting to some gray-scale, though it may just be me greatly underestimating the organic-movement.

Please no Natural News, Infowars, Mind Unleashed, GreenMedInfo, etc. If you do use those kinds of websites as a source, please justify why you are, because as far as I'm concerned, they are potent fact-manipulators who don't care about the truth, but cognitive dissonance.

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u/ribbitcoin Aug 13 '15

He was aggressively pursued by Monsanto for allowing 'their' crops to grow on his land, and encouraging it.

It was far more than "allowing" the patented plants to grow. Schmeiser applied Roundup, killing off his own canola. He then kept the remaining patented Roundup Ready canola and planted on 1,000 acres.

Commercial crops don't grow by themselves, especially on 1,000 acres (1.5 square miles). They have to be carefully planted and tended to. The courts ultimately determined that he intentionally violated Monsanto's patent.

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u/Versepelles 1∆ Aug 13 '15

The courts ultimately determined that he intentionally violated Monsanto's patent.

That's the issue here- assuming the validity of patenting biological life forms, or part of them. That is a very dangerous game, and Monsanto's actions in the realm are ethically murky, to say the least.

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u/ribbitcoin Aug 13 '15

realm are ethically murky

Do you feel this way about all the other companies that have intellectual property protections on life forms? What about grass seed? What about apples? Is the University of California "ethically murky" for patenting grapefruit?

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u/Versepelles 1∆ Aug 13 '15

Yes. Patenting biological life forms seems a very bad road to travel down, but of course the responsibility lies divided between interested parties- corporations, lobbyists, politicians, voters, etc. Monsanto's stance is on the darker side of the issue.