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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Will It Ever End?

No, not complaining about winter, but this endless debate about the safety of gmo crops and food. I get a little tired of reading and talking about it but this news item about a recent video caught my attention today. License to farm
It is an attempt to explain some of the facts and dispel the myths and misguided thinking some seem to have about "franken foods". Comments about roundup injected into the seeds! Good grief! Not a clue.
From this simple uneducated farmer's point of view, and gmo canola is all I am familiar with., the genetic modification to roundup ready canola is as simple as the name. It is resistant to the herbicide Roundup, or it's generic equivalent herbicides. No more or less.
Herbicide resistance is something that occurs naturally over time in crops and scientists have simply taken advantage of that trait and used it to our (the grower's) advantage to develop a strain of the canola plant that can be sprayed with roundup and thrive while all weeds around it die. That simple. It is a cheap and safe herbicide that allows us to grow a clean, and therefore more profitable , crop.
Conventional (non roundup ready) canola required herbicide to control weeds too. More expensive and no safer than roundup.
Meanwhile, on a more interesting and enjoyable topic, one of my favourite youtube channels has a new video about what else, rusty old cars. The latest from coldwarmotors.
 

2 comments:

  1. I'm not a GMO fan myself, but a lot of folks don't understand that selective breeding and GMO are two different things.

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    1. Very true Gorges. Some people just like to throw a label on something and close their mind to the facts.

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