Can anyone think about why this mass extinction event is unlike the last one? Anyone? Yes, that’s right: Homo Sapiens. If we want biodiversity, we’re not going to sit around smelling our farts for millions of years waiting for evolution to do it.
B) In practice GMOs are used to enable massive use of harmful biocides (glyphosate) which poison the soil, the workers, and our food. So the idea that they are like pesticides is not exactly correct but it’s not far off. [2]
C) GMO patents have allowed large firms to extort farmers with predatory business models and Monsanto/Bayer for example have filed hundreds of lawsuits against farmers who accidentally had some contamination with their “patented” seeds. [3]
GMOs are not a cure all. The whole reason we have problems in farming is our failure to see the whole system of life and our reliance on pinpoint “solutions” that only cause more problems.
[1] https://youtu.be/fFhTPHlPAAk
[2] https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/study-monsant...
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto...
For example, an organic banana you buy in the store is the exact same cultivar of cavendish banana you get that is nonorganic. It is also susceptible to the blight that is spreading around central America and whiping out entire plantations of banana. The cavendish is selected by the farmer because it transports better than land race varieties you can also grow in central America. genetic modification could include increasing expression of traits found in the cavendish, like a more durable peel, in these other cultivars that are naturally resistant to this blight. Suddenly you have a new banana cultivar in grocery stores in America that is resistant to blight. Blight actually whiped out the cultivar that used to be found in grocery stores in the 1950s, the gros michel banana.
Reliance on monocrops is a huge issue for our food supply as the environment changes. Genetic modification is an excellent tool to perform changes that might take dozens of seasons making crosses in the field otherwise, with many more perhaps unfavorable traits also being inadvertently selected for thanks to linkage.
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520277465/agrarian-dreams
But I have been studying small scale regenerative organic or “biodynamic” agriculture and it seems that biodiversity in the soil itself - a healthy complex microbiome - is an important part of fighting disease. Stressed soil leads to stressed crops that can’t fight disease when it comes.
But don’t take my word for it. Listen to Jason Hobson talk about this here: http://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/episode-69-jason-h...
And I agree completely that monocropping is a problem. But look at the farming of JM Fortier or Eliot Coleman. There is no monocropping. I am hopeful that with my open source farming robot we can help make farming like that viable at larger scales without sacrificing biodiversity in the soil or the crop patterns.
I know personally what happens when the farmer next door to my hobby farm (and forest) sprays his field of GMO soy. And is the opposite of an increase in plant (or animal) diversity, let me tell you that. The effects of spray drift is visually obvious immediately, god knows what it does in the long term.
The science behind genetic engineering has the possibility of increasing diversity. Market forces do not. At least not for now. Perhaps some competitive pressure will eventually get us there. But primarily this is just about making lots of soy, maize, and sorghum. Mostly to put into animal feed.