Genetically modified food, what is really going on, why are they genetically altering our food.??

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Not necessarily

To me the knock on GMO is the lack of diversity

No plant is disease proof

If the seed companies develop a seed that is more productive and all the farmers buy it there could be massive crop failure if the right virus comes along

You just start again with a different seed the next season.

 

[Dr.Destructo]

Shipping times of commercial fruits and vegetables will always preclude that home-grown taste. Those days died probably back in the 1980s or so. Up until I moved, I could pick my own blackberries a couple of miles from my house, and they tasted nothing like the commercially sold version.

Yes.
Unfortunately they aren't allowed to ripen on the plant, they are picked "green" and shipped in specific gasses or storage units created to artificially ripen them before being packaged or shipped off to stores.

Apples are usually picked during the growing seasons and kept in "cold storage" vaults for months, and shipped out to stores as needed.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

My question is why are many food companies genetically modifying our food?. What is the point, and what is really going on with all this genetically modified food.??!! Is there any danger here, with genetically modified food.??!!

My question is:

Why are you asking that question here?

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Greed and ignorance.

What is the result of "Roundup Ready Soybeans"? Thousands of farmers all over the world going bankrupt.

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Nope, that's not why. Sorry.

 

[daveman]

There have been successes, but there are just as many or more failures. I wish I could find a commercially available tomato that tasted like a tomato--same with strawberries. Both are big and beautiful, but they lack the flavor that I loved.

You're more likely to get what you want directly from the farmers' produce stands.

Or your own garden, if you're so inclined.

 

[Concerned American]

You're more likely to get what you want directly from the farmers' produce stands.

Or your own garden, if you're so inclined.

I live in an area where temps aren't conducive to growing produce until mid May until about Labor Day--the season is very short and the ground temp is cool. I tried growing tomatoes and jalapenos for 7-8 years with no real luck. I'd get fruit, but the flavor just wasn't there and the jalapenos had no heat. The same thing goes for the farmers markets around here. The area is good for hard fruits, root veggies and berries but not so much for soft fruits and tomatoes. On occasion you might get a teaser tomato or pepper, but it isn't the rule.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I live in an area where temps aren't conducive to growing produce until mid May until about Labor Day--the season is very short and the ground temp is cool. I tried growing tomatoes and jalapenos for 7-8 years with no real luck. I'd get fruit, but the flavor just wasn't there and the jalapenos had no heat. The same thing goes for the farmers markets around here. The area is good for hard fruits, root veggies and berries but not so much for soft fruits and tomatoes. On occasion you might get a teaser tomato or pepper, but it isn't the rule.

As an amateur agriculturalist, I'd say the problem is your soil.

 

[daveman]

I live in an area where temps aren't conducive to growing produce until mid May until about Labor Day--the season is very short and the ground temp is cool. I tried growing tomatoes and jalapenos for 7-8 years with no real luck. I'd get fruit, but the flavor just wasn't there and the jalapenos had no heat. The same thing goes for the farmers markets around here. The area is good for hard fruits, root veggies and berries but not so much for soft fruits and tomatoes. On occasion you might get a teaser tomato or pepper, but it isn't the rule.

Yeah, that sucks. However, you can get a greenhouse kit and get a good head-start on the growing season. Again, if you're so inclined.

 

[Captain Caveman]

My question is why are many food companies genetically modifying our food?. What is the point, and what is really going on with all this genetically modified food.??!! Is there any danger here, with genetically modified food.??!!

To increase crop yield. Resistant to bugs, grow quicker etc..

But there are draw backs. If you eat 1 tomato grown in the 1940's, you have to eat 8 of today's tomatoes to get the same goodness and nutrition. Here in the UK, unless the Strawberries come from Fife, or at worst Kent, any other strawberry is just a blob of tasteless water. And as the fruit/veg that has been modified, how are they effecting us, what with cancers and allergies increasing rapidly.

 

[Mac-7]

You just start again with a different seed the next season.

It might be a very hungry winter and fall till the next crop comes in

 

[Concerned American]

Yeah, that sucks. However, you can get a greenhouse kit and get a good head-start on the growing season. Again, if you're so inclined.

I have a room in the basement that stays warm due to the hydronic heating manifolds and I have started tomatoes and peppers before with a grow light, but if I was to start them now, which quite possibly could produce some good fruit, my room would be a jungle by May if the grow light remained sufficient with that much growth. LOL, its a common problem up here. BTW, have you noticed the size of jalapenos in the stores lately? Those things are not jalapenos--they are almost as big as Anaheims---and they have about as much heat as well. I think they are GMOs

 

[daveman]

I have a room in the basement that stays warm due to the hydronic heating manifolds and I have started tomatoes and peppers before with a grow light, but if I was to start them now, which quite possibly could produce some good fruit, my room would be a jungle by May if the grow light remained sufficient with that much growth. LOL, its a common problem up here. BTW, have you noticed the size of jalapenos in the stores lately? Those things are not jalapenos--they are almost as big as Anaheims---and they have about as much heat as well. I think they are GMOs

Probably are. I don't buy jalapenos, though, so haven't noticed.

 

[scruffy]

I can't speak to every instance but most of the time, it is done to increase disease resistance (from having fields and fields full of the same plants all susceptible to the same insects or fungi), which increases productivity, which increases profits. Sometimes it is done to make the food bigger or look better.

I think two reasons

a. longer shelf life
b. immunity to diseases

Part (b) is where it gets dangerous. For instance most of the corn is programmed to take up Round Up from the soil. Which means you have Round Up inside the plant itself. Which you then eat