[bduerst]

We saw the same layman rhetoric with GMO crops in the late 90's to early 00's. Slippery-slope nightmare scenarios, accusations of playing god, corporate greed run unchecked, etc. It seems to be a recurrent theme for new technology.

Typically, reasonable people don't buy into most of these scare tactics, even if the tactics are being used as clickbait.

[j9461701]

I think typical, reasonable people do fall for this stuff, though not because they're scared. They fall for it because it's all they ever hear about the issue.

Even the smartest of us can't know everything, and so if all you ever hear about say... IQ tests is "They're bunk, they don't test anything, they're gibberish, they're just an excuse for ivory tower academics to feel better than us" - it becomes a part of your natural understanding of the world, which you don't even think to question. The lies become part of the cultural fabric, and indistinguishable from truth without conducting your own research on what the scientists are actually saying. What you don't know you don't know is the most dangerous stuff of all.

[pjc50]

There was a real turning of the historical tide between about the 60s and the 80s with regard to this sort of thing; we went from "new technology must be a miracle" to "we've had all these revelations of the hidden downsides - thalidomide, leaded petrol, CFCs, acid rain, nuclear fallout, superfund sites - that anything new is suspect".

One tech business behaving in an untrustworthy manner poisons the pool for everyone else. Sometimes in a very literal way.

[shadykiller]

We've always played with nature without understanding the repercussions. Some turned out good and some bad. So the best strategy is to have a kill switch.

Unfortunately GMO has turned out to be a bad experiment(widespread usage of glyphosates) which has badly affected our environment and health and we are nowhere close to killing it.

https://gmo-awareness.com/resources/glyphosate/

[tonmoy]

Do you have any better resources to claim that "GMO has turned out to be a bad experiment"? Not only does "gmo-awareness.com" not create any confidence for me, but the points in the link are about a chemical substance and not really an impact of the GMO seeds directly. Moreover, all the points listed seem to be common for most chemical pesticides or herbicides if not used in moderation

[Mediterraneo10]

> The points in the link are about a chemical substance and not really an impact of the GMO seeds directly.

The whole point of Roundup-ready varieties is that you can douse the plants in Roundup and they will still grow well. Sure, there may be other GMO varieties that come without problems, but these particular GMO seeds are inherently linked with glyphosates.

[Spooky23]

Remember that you have GMO + herbicide + patents.

GMO by itself is a step beyond plant breeding that's been done for millennia. It's ok in my eyes until its combined with the other two things.

[stevedonovan]

There are other reasons to worry about GMOs, like agriculture dominated by the agenda of a few big multinationals. It would be sad if membership of the club of reason would be determined by simplistic rules like 'approves of GMO wholeheartedly, otherwise un-Scientific'

[Spooky23]

Many of these things have played out. We have declining biodiversity of staple crops, dependence on a small number of herbicides, etC.

[bduerst]

Monocropping is an agricultural method that predates GMO technology, so please don't attribute it to GMO. Same with only using herbicides that work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoculture

[Spooky23]

I'm not familiar with crops that were bred to be immune to broad-spectrum herbicide prior to GMO seed development.

Do you have any links describing those crops and practices?

[bduerst]

B73 hybrid maize was bred to be resistant to herbicides primisulfuron and imazethapyr, for starters.

I recommend you read up on the long history of hybrid crop breeding in the U.S. during the 20th century, if you actually are genuinely interested and not just trying to hold onto an untenable opinion about GMO technology.