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GMO and Modern Farming a good thing?

Gonzo, I really like how you pointed out that modern farming is a short term solution to a long term problem.  Yes and yes.  The UN, World Bank, and lots of other people in the know warn about pending global food shortages.  Modern farming does produce more product for less labor.  But like you, I do not think it is sustainable.  Even if we ignore the run off, we do not seem to be able to stay ahead of Mother Nature's adaptation.  Used to be, round up ready corn made economic sense because you could get rid of weeds easily.  Now, super weeds laugh at round up.  So you are right, chemical farming is becoming less effective.  Oh but there was a time when other than the poison in our water, it really did make sense... uh momentary sense which is why I like the way you put it.
 
We cant really fall back to huge scale tilling because then our top soil will become dust bowl material.  The solution is that we use the stuff between our ears to find a better way.

I am rooting for aquaponics.
 
The GMO moniker of "Feeding the World" is laughable, as much food that is thrown away in the USA alone.... What I am saying is there is plenty of food, people starve because they dont have money to buy food not because there isnt enough produced.   There have been many studies and test fields and GMO doesnt outproduce Organic by that much.  In my view the only advantage of GMO is the Farmer uses chemicals in place of labor. 
 
GMO has some merits, but if you want to convince me uncouple it from Glyphostate.  One GMO I wont touch is Corn, you look at the list of genetics in GMO Corn and I think you have to be insane to eat it. 
 
Just my views
 
 
 
Just to prove we can see eye to eye, I want to tell you how much I agree with the food waste argument. In my circles, I am the guy who argues against the "feed the world" argument for GMO because I believe the problem of food shortages is economic, not agricultural. I am pro-gm because I want farmers to have the choice to make as much money as possible. Its my entire motivation, which is why I defended so hard when you were all saying GM is not profitable.  That's still just insane to me.
 
You talk about "short term solutions" as if farmers don't know that its in their benefit to take care of their land. What do you know about No-Till agriculture? The idea is that if you spray roundup on RR crops, you can alleviate any need to till up the soil between crops. I know you won't believe me, but the glyphosate acts only on the weeds, and keeps the soil insects and microbes untouched from the oxygen damage of tilling. Plus runoff is reduced to 0%, tons of fuel is saved, and carbon footprint is lowered. I think it's a great idea, and US growers have been doing it since 1996.
 
Buzzman, it is not that GMO outproduce established hybrids.  It is that herbicide decreases great amounts of labor.  Half my time is spent pulling weeds.  The GMO benefit in this department is when they create a product which resists the herbicide.   That way, you can kill everything except the crop.

On GMO corn, bet you are already eating it.  Not like they have to tell us what type of corn is in a product.
 
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