Minutus

I saw this MIT Technology Review cover story on a newsstand this week.
None of us want GMO in our diets, they present reasons why it may be necessary.
While I try to buy organic when affordable and available, many times the organic fruit or vegetable doesn't look very healthy, is mottled, spotted, off color, not robust, etc. basically looks weak.
Not sure, at times, if the organic benefit outweighs what looks like a less nutritious item or if the non-organic item is actually more nutritious. Many organic items like strawberries, pineapples, bananas do taste better and less chemical.
For example, potatoes are highly sprayed with fungicides to prevent blight.
A GMO potato being tested in a lab in Ireland would make a potato resistant to blight which still occurs there and could reduce or eliminate use of fungicides.
Blight-resistant potatoes would be one of the first major foods genetically engineered to incorporate defenses against plant diseases, which annually destroy some 15 percent of the world’s agricultural harvest. Despite the heavy use of fungicides, late blight and other plant diseases ruin an estimated fifth of the world’s potatoes, a food increasingly grown in China and India. Stem rust, a fungal disease of wheat, has spread through much of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is now threatening the vast growing regions of central and south Asia, which produce some 20 percent of the world’s wheat. Bananas, which are a primary source of food in countries such as Uganda, are often destroyed by wilt disease. In all these cases, genetic engineering has the potential to create varieties that are far better able to withstand the onslaught.
GM potatoes could also lead to a new generation of biotech foods sold directly to consumers. Though transgenic corn, soybeans, and cotton—mostly engineered to resist insects and herbicides—have been widely planted since the late 1990s in the United States and in a smattering of other large agricultural countries, including Brazil and Canada, the corn and soybean crops go mainly into animal feed, biofuels, and cooking oils. No genetically modified varieties of rice, wheat, or potatoes are widely grown, because opposition to such foods has discouraged investment in developing them and because seed companies haven’t found ways to make the kind of money on those crops that they do from genetically modified corn and soybeans.
Also interesting comments by readers against GMO.
http://www.technologyreview.com/feature ... ied-foods/
Susan

This is another article that feels like an industry plant in a respected journal.
We know this process well in the medical journals, especially regarding vaccines
and statin drugs which we do know are toxic and cause major damage.
It is good to see so many critical comments to the article. However, if this
article if published in hard copy all those comments will not be read.
t
From: healthyinfo6@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2014 1:56 AM
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Minutus] Will GMO be necessary?

I saw this MIT Technology Review cover story on a newsstand this week.
None of us want GMO in our diets, they present reasons why it may be necessary.
While I try to buy organic when affordable and available, many times the organic fruit or vegetable doesn't look very healthy, is mottled, spotted, off color, not robust, etc. basically looks weak.
Not sure, at times, if the organic benefit outweighs what looks like a less nutritious item or if the non-organic item is actually more nutritious. Many organic items like strawberries, pineapples, bananas do taste better and less chemical.
For example, potatoes are highly sprayed with fungicides to prevent blight.
A GMO potato being tested in a lab in Ireland would make a potato resistant to blight which still occurs there and could reduce or eliminate use of fungicides.
Blight-resistant potatoes would be one of the first major foods genetically engineered to incorporate defenses against plant diseases, which annually destroy some 15 percent of the world’s agricultural harvest. Despite the heavy use of fungicides, late blight and other plant diseases ruin an estimated fifth of the world’s potatoes, a food increasingly grown in China and India. Stem rust, a fungal disease of wheat, has spread through much of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is now threatening the vast growing regions of central and south Asia, which produce some 20 percent of the world’s wheat. Bananas, which are a primary source of food in countries such as Uganda, are often destroyed by wilt disease. In all these cases, genetic engineering has the potential to create varieties that are far better able to withstand the onslaught.
GM potatoes could also lead to a new generation of biotech foods sold directly to consumers. Though transgenic corn, soybeans, and cotton—mostly engineered to resist insects and herbicides—have been widely planted since the late 1990s in the United States and in a smattering of other large agricultural countries, including Brazil and Canada, the corn and soybean crops go mainly into animal feed, biofuels, and cooking oils. No genetically modified varieties of rice, wheat, or potatoes are widely grown, because opposition to such foods has discouraged investment in developing them and because seed companies haven’t found ways to make the kind of money on those crops that they do from genetically modified corn and soybeans.
Also interesting comments by readers against GMO.
http://www.technologyreview.com/feature ... ied-foods/
Susan

I agree that it's probably a plant. Don't confuse cosmetic differences with nutritional value. Non-organically grown fruits and veggies have a hard time matching organically-grown in the nutrition department because the fertilizers used leave out so many trace minerals and neglect adding organic matter back to the soil to encourage beneficial microbes.
Theoretically, I suppose, a non-organic item could match or come close to an organic one, but only if it were grown in very good soil that hadn't been badly depleted. It's hard to imagine that happening in most agricultural areas of the U.S.
Peace,
Dale

I would promote http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

Hennie

DALE MOSS schreef op 16-1-2014 23:57:

Yes! Joel Salatin is a hero for our times. (If the name isn't familiar, read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.)
Peace,
Dale

Hi Susan, I might be able to help with some comments. I am an organic farmer. The return to organic growing and the resurgence of the old vegetable species that were grown all over the world is bringing back different colors, flavors and looks of the vegetables we have been eating. They don't look healthy because we are not used to seeing them. For example last year I grew heritage tomatoes, carrots, and beets. They did not look like what is found in the grocery stores. We are used to perfect blemish free tomatoes, orange sweet carrots, etc. these heritage veggies gave amazing flavors but not ones we are used to. They are hard to sell commercially due to their difference. They are not bad just different.
Sent from my iPhone

I do not know this man’s name but will read up on him. Am familiar with
the Omnivore’s Dilemma but have not read it. Pollan has done some great
work
t
From: DALE MOSS
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 12:00 PM
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Minutus] Will GMO be necessary?


Yes! Joel Salatin is a hero for our times. (If the name isn't familiar, read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.)
Peace,
Dale

Thanks Maria.

Hi Maria;
I checked out your suggestion. What a great site Heritage is. Many moons ago we used to grow sweet corn commercially. The old timers used to ask us for Golden Bantam - their all time favourite corn. I had never hear of this corn and always thought it was an extinct species. Much to my surprise Heirloom has such. We'll have to order some for our garden (hopefully the coons will not see it). Funny how things evolve. We did try the corn Peaches and Cream way back when and no one would buy it as they thought it wasn't ripe to eat given the white kernels. Now it's the only thing available - it's OK but doesn't have that good corn taste that the yellow kernel corns have.

bob