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Pro-GMOs Site Embraces Skeptics, Marks Milestone

Avatar for Paul Rusnak Posted by Paul Rusnak|October 13, 2015

GMO Answers, an online portal dedicated to creating an open dialogue on the topics of biotechnology and GMOs in food and modern agriculture, is recognizing the 1.3 million consumers who have engaged in the online dialogue on the site, and thanking the community of volunteer experts who have answered more than 1,000 questions about GMOs and agriculture.

Coincidentally, the 1,000+ questions answered milestone comes on “International Skeptics Day.”

“On a day focused on critical thinking, open dialogue and scientific discussion, it’s only fitting we acknowledge that consumers have a lot of questions and are interested in learning more about where their food comes from and how it’s produced,” said Kate Hall, managing director of the Council for Biotechnology Information and GMO Answers spokesperson.

♦ More Social Commentators Changing Their Views On GMO Crops ♦

The celebration also is part of the second annual “Get to Know GMOs” month, inviting the public to ask their toughest questions about GMOs and join the conversation about how our food is produced.

Visitors to GMOAnswers.com can review the cache of questions answered by farmers, scientists, academicians, doctors, nutritionists, and biotech industry experts, who volunteer their time to answer questions submitted online. Some of the most viewed questions are:
1. Do GMOs Cause Cancer?
2. Is it true that GMOs require massive amounts of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides?
3. How much of our food in the U.S. is genetically modified?

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In honor of International Skeptics Day and to celebrate the milestone of 1,000 questions answered, GMO Answers is launching 100 days of GMOs. Starting today, GMO Answers will share one question per business day of the top 100 questions posted to the website across its social platforms, using the hashtag #100daysofGMOs.

According to GMO Answers, the goal of this social media campaign is to engage the public in a dialogue and raise further awareness of the most commonly asked questions.

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Paul Rusnak is the Senior Online Editor of American Vegetable Grower, American Fruit Grower, and Greenhouse Grower magazines, all Meister Media Worldwide brands. He is based in Northeast Florida. See all author stories here.

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Avatar for Mischa Popoff Mischa Popoff says:
October 13, 2015 at 11:32 am

The Council for Biotechnology Information will never win unless they recognize who the enemy is.

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Avatar for Matt Matt says:
October 13, 2015 at 12:22 pm

Because we all know the public LOVES GMOs. That is why we are having ad campaigns, etc. The truth is the public does not want GMOs or are apathetic about it. No amount of marketing campaign is going to change that. With numerous countries in Europe banning or opting out of allow registration of GMOs it is clear that GMOs (Transgenic genome modification) are on the way out.

This time sustainable biotechnology, that does not employ transgenic modification, will win out. The whole smear organic as not employing biotechnology is shameful. GMOs use a very selective portion of biotechnology. To try and paint all other segments of agriculture as backwards is shameful and should be called out wherever it pops up. Marker Assisted Selection, DNA Trait identification, etc. are just two of the most commonly used biotechnology traits that are used by conventional AND organic seed breeders. There are aspects of biotechnology that are NOT used by organic seed breeders such as (Transgenic modification of a genome, Radiation or chemical mutagenesis, etc.).

The whole “Biotechnology” smear campaign is like saying that unless a doctor does abortions, they are not really a doctor and therefore we should educate everyone on why abortion providers are superior. Inflammatory? Maybe, but then so is the way this article is presented.

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Avatar for Joseph Heckman Joseph Heckman says:
October 14, 2015 at 9:46 am

Read: Altered Genes Twisted Truth by Steven M. Druker

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Avatar for Camille Da Rocha Camille Da Rocha says:
October 16, 2015 at 2:04 am

While GMOs do not “require” massive amounts of pesticide/herbicide/fungicide, they ENCOURAGE the use of massive amounts. This is what people object to. If proponents would address the actual objection, instead of setting up and addressing other strawman “objections”, they will not make progress persuading opponents. The terminator gene alone is a horrible enough idea to make you want to wash your hands of the whole GMO issue. Anyone who would think this is a good/justifiable technology is nuts and not to be trusted.

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Avatar for Matt Matt says:
October 16, 2015 at 11:15 am

@Camille Da Rocha
Hi Camille,
The herbicide tolerance genes would not be worth having if a farmer was NOT intending to spray his crop. He would be better off to save the technology fees on GMO feeds and plant public varieties if he is going to cultivate his crops.

As to the terminator genes, I actually support this in GMO seeds. If the plants are sterile and do not produce pollen, then there is no risk in the environment. What the terminator gene does offer is some assurance that GMO crops will not cross pollinate with their wild cousins or with conventional or organic crops. This should have been a requirement from the beginning. GMO crops should NOT be allowed to produce pollen that can cross with their none GMO counterparts.

Some of the pesticide traits no longer work either. The over-use of BT genes is causing a rise in resistance in insects due to selection pressure (Those that are resistant to the BT genes breed a crop of insects that are all resistant). The same is happening with weeds and roundup. It is not that roundup is ineffective, it has just been so over used that farmers have killed all of the weeds sensitive to the herbicide and the few that are tolerant have survived to set a whole field of resistant weeds. So now they want to repeat that process with 2-4,D and others. Sometimes it just works better to mouldboard plow a field and bury all of those weeds and let them sit for a few years. The sad part is most farmers don’t have a plow anymore, not even a chisel plow.

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Avatar for Camille Da Rocha Camille Da Rocha says:
October 17, 2015 at 2:39 pm

When you say “GMO crops should NOT be allowed to produce pollen that can cross with their none GMO counterparts.” I do not think that is possible. And that would be the PERFECT solution. Instead, the GMO platn DOES create pollen and DOES cross-fertilize. If it has the terminator gene, and crosses with the neighbors crop, most of that neighbor’s seed will now not germinate. So that farmer cannot save seed for next year. Okay, maybe they shouldn’t be saved anyhow, since it is contaminated anyway. But some of their saved seed will still germinate, depending upon the degree of cross-fertilization, and it is unclear to me whether those that still germinate might now have GMO components.
The Victory Garden article seems to state that they might:
http://www.vintageveggies.com/news/terminator_gene.html
We are playing with fire and we are so clueless…….
Thanks for the reply, I definitely agree with the remarks about plowing!

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Avatar for Dan bates Dan bates says:
October 18, 2015 at 8:52 pm

Matt most farmers still do own tillage equipment.that statement right there proves you nativity in your statement. Traditionally breed plants goes through virtually no safety checks before they are released compared to gmo.this even includes seeds that are derived from using radiation. Why there are round up resistant weeds that really has nothing to do with go crops I never have grown any go crops and I have several kinds of weeds that are resistant to a variety of herbicides. It comes from using only one mode of action instead of several groups really has nothing to do with gmo crops. Many of the go crops have ether elimitated or greatly reduced pesticide use…..and if you want to blame big evil company like Monsanto or dupont..do not leave out whole foods who pray on Peale feel and ignorance and make way more money than Monsanto does.

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Avatar for David E. Miller David E. Miller says:
October 17, 2015 at 8:21 am

Just curious. How many of those leaving comments are actually farmers?

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Avatar for Bill Bill says:
October 17, 2015 at 10:38 am

Does anyone who has ever farmed or been on a farm make comments? Doesn’t look like it to me!

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Avatar for Dahlimama Dahlimama says:
October 19, 2015 at 8:31 am

like any technological advancement, there will be people who do not understand it and will be afraid of the change, Immunizations,Xrays, invitro fertilization have all faced the fire.When the pressure to feed the billions on this planet in the face of global weather changes happens and causes massive famines we will be glad we developed this technology. Have there been glitches, yes, will there be others, perhaps, but in the long run the ability to quickly defend a crop from devastation is crucial. If you could ask the folks who died during the Maunder minimum or Irish potato famine if they would have eaten a GMO potato or wheat or watch their children starve, I’ll bet a few of the 1 million + would have chosen to do so. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water because it is a new technology.

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Avatar for Matt Matt says:
October 19, 2015 at 9:19 am

@Dahlimama
Let’s examine a few of your technological marvels:

X-Rays
Kids used to play in them in the airport to see their feet. We learned many years later that over exposure to x-rays causes cancer. Doctors now routinely refuse to xray unless there is a strong probable cause that they will reveal something that can not be seen in other ways.

Invitro Fertilization
When done in a Human, it results in the death of dozens or more embryos. Little people who will never see life and are treated like a commodity. When done in animals, it was discovered that careful documentation of mother and father is required or severe inbreeding and disease results.

Immunizations
Methyl Mercury was used, and in some cases is still used, as a preservative. This is known to cause neurological damage. There have also been documented cases of governments sterilizing their population using this technology. This was not discovered until private charities uncovered it. Viral DNS strands have also been detected in some vaccines that has been proven to cause some autoimmune diseases. This is less of an issue today, but was a higher possibility early on with the technology. Other methods of producing vaccines were developed that avoided this unforeseen issues.

Irish Potato Famine
This was caused by Phytophthora infestans. We have many near 100% effective fungicide methods to control Phytophthora that have nothing to do with GMOs.

Maunder minimum
GMOs would have little to no benefit during a low sunspot effect. The simple solution would be to ramp up production of varieties that don’t take as long to produce a crop. There are numerous varieties that already are conventionally bred for just this purpose. We could also assume insect pressure would be stunted as well, since most insect life cycle is based around heating degree days.

In all of the example you provided, GMOs would NOT be the answer. We already have technologies and solutions that would address ALL of your examples. Claiming that people who do not embrace GMOs are simply technologically backwards is like saying we all should have spent a lot of time in Madam Currie’s lab (Hint she died of Radiation poisoining) or played in the xray machine at the airport or maybe ran in the DDT clouds that were sprayed in the cities during the early part of the last century all because they were “New”.

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Avatar for Matt Matt says:
October 19, 2015 at 12:38 pm

@Dan bates

I am a farmer. My wife and I run Becker Family Farms in Wisconsin. In my area many farmers have switched to no-till only. They have sold most or all of their primary tillage equipment. Almost no one I know owns a moldboard plow. A few still have field cultivators, but I would argue that those are NOT primary tillage. The few that still have some primary tillage equipment are dairy farms. Most of them use them because they are spreading liquid manure on the surface of the soil. The local village and in many cases the DNR requires incorporation of Manure when spread in the late fall to prevent runoff into lakes and streams. A few villages have odor ordinances and requires manure to either be incorporated or injected.

I am a veggie farmer so I still rely on plowing and more intensive land prep operations.

Resistant weeds are produced through natural selection by continuous use of the same herbicide with the same mode of action. Eventually a few plants naturally develop resistance or tolerance to that chemical. This leads to resistant class of weeds, that if it is allowed to produce seed or pollen, can spread to other fields. Birds, Animals, Field Equipment, Custom Harvestors, wind, etc. can all spread resistant weed seed or pollen to fields that have never been sprayed or had GMO seed planted.

The definition of a pesticide is: “a chemical preparation for destroying plant, fungal, or animal pests.” Herbicides ARE pesticides. The use of herbicides has expanded exponentially with GMOs. More pesticide has been used in the last 20 years than in almost all of agricultural history. You may be associating pesticide with insecticide.

As to people who shop at whole foods, who cares? People buy cars at greatly inflated prices based on the decal on the side of the car? Are you saying people should not be able to choose where to spend their dollars? If people want to support farmers who grow their food in a particular way, why should you care? If you could sell your crops to whole foods at inflated prices, I am sure you would be very happy to do so. If this just envy at the prices some farmers are receiving? You are more than welcome to hop on to the organic/non-gmo bandwagon and earn more money for the crops you grow. No one is going to stop you. You might have to listen to some complaining from folks whose only option is to sell to the local elevator at cut throat prices.

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