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Comment by spaetzleesser | Hacker News Reader

I remember all the PR about GMO that told us that GMO makes plants resistant against pests so pesticides would be less necessary. Turns out the main use for GMO was to make the plants more resistant against herbicides so even more could be used. Very disappointing and a very cynical campaign by industry.

I guess the same happened with the push for plastics recycling by industry which also turned out be pure deception.

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Cory Doctorow had a good thread on this a few days ago.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/26/plastic-fatalistic/#recyc...

The first big anti-GMO push was against the transgenic Flavr Savr tomato. It's unfortunate that pesticide resistance is conflated with other potential applications.

Additional pesticides/herbicides cost more money to the farmer. So why would farmers continue to use GMOs if their cost would go up?

Their yields go even higher. It is also a matter of being able to use cheaper broad spectrum herbicides like glyphosate rather than something that is more expensive but won't kill an unaltered crop.

More output. Easier to farm.

I noticed GMO propaganda mostly focuses on how safe GMO crops are by themselves and glosses over roundup completely.

They have a tendency to link GMO detractors to global warming denial and antivaxxers also.

It works. I wouldn't be surprised if big foot, chemtrails and flat earth all receive support from people who weaponize the label "conspiracy theory"

That would be the Putin and global warming “sceptic” playbook. Put so much bullshit out that nobody believes anything anymore.

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