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Comment by mistrial9 | Hacker News Reader

I recently found out what the "AIM for Climate" initiative is from the US State Department press release, regarding COP26. The solution proposed by America apparently is "climate ready crops" aka "genetically modified crops from Monsanto etc"

I am honestly disgusted with the repetitive greed from western corporate interests on this Industrial AG topic. I do not trust one word of this news item, to start.

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Climate Ready crops could also be crops genetically engineered (not genetically modified, there is a distinction) to be more resilient towards a warmer world or specific threats of a region. Look at SCUBA Rice as an example of rice more resistant flooding. We risk drier climates & an increase in heatwaves to threaten our food supply.

Industrial AG is a problem though. Sadly Monsanto will no doubt take advantage of this initiative. There are other regenerative ag techniques that would make our farms more climate resilient but they require large upfront capital costs and policy incentives aren’t there yet in the US. these practices are also a good solution to reduce our reliance on nitrogen fertilizer

What's the distinction between modified and engineered?

Almost every crop is genetically modified, we have been doing it for thousands of years

Yes for some reason people don't like when we expedite the process.

.. or killing the ability of the plants of reproducing itself for profit.

Yeah, that is ridiculous. Especially with auditors going after nearby farms when seeds that can reproduce end up on other farms in small quantities through purely natural mechanisms.

I can imagine a future dystopia where the food supply collapses due to all the crops being sterile for reproduction and then some plant disease wipes them out.

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