What Neil deGrasse Tyson and some of the other scientists/doctors (myself include) have are saying is that the IDEA of GMO's is a great one. The fact that we can engineer our foods to get the traits we want or add additional beneficial traits is an incredibly useful tool. We've already engineered rice that is able to produce vitamin A, which has been a huge help for places with vitamin A deficiencies and we can engineer potatoes to absorb less fats and oils when we fry them, there is also a professor at SUNY-ESF who is using GMO's to try and save the American Chestnut tree from extinction.

GMing is simply another tool in humanity's struggle to survive. First it was finding which foods were safe to eat, then it was breeding organisms within species to make inbred organisms that had the traits we wanted (think cattle, dogs, cats, corn, banana's; some of these things are more inbred than the Hapsburgs), then we starting creating our own hybrids across different species, and now we have GMO's.

However, what I object to is the current corporate use of GMO's to exploit farmers over patents, and breed for traits that people do necessarily need. NdT I'm sure is not advocating for that, but is advocating for the use of transgenic organisms/GMO's to solve some of the world's most pressing issues.

GMO's are probably the most powerful tool we have to curb world hunger, and mal-nutrition, and it could also be the thing that allows humans to venture beyond the solar system. What the Sift seems to be objecting to, and the rest of the "developed" world is the use of GMO's by greedy corporations who care more about turning a profit than solving world problems (there isn't very much money in feeding the needy and hungry). They are the one's making what appear to me more or less useless and potentially dangerous GMO's. Turn your anger away from GMO's specifically and narrow it to the ill use of GMO's by greedy corporations.

Lastly, the argument that "we don't know what they'll do" is for the most part unfounded, there are a decent amount of studies (find them yourself sorry) which show that GMO's in general won't cause harm (though it really depends on what you're trying to make). The same argument was made about the LHC "We don't know what will happen when we turn it on!" but everyone was fine.

Sorry, man, I like you, but you're way off base here.

Farm animals weren't engineering by NATURE and NATURAL SELECTION, we did that shit. Bananas, wheat, dogs, horses, you name it, none of them exist now as they would without human intervention. Hell, there was a recent Top 15 video about his very subject.

We've been doing this for centuries and we've just gotten better at it.

Why do it? The yields might not be astronomical, but in lots of cases they enable some yield over nothing.

Should there be strong regulatory oversight? Of course, same way there is for any commercially produced food.

But the fact is, it's going to happen, and anyone who opposes it is pissing in the wind.

Ironically, I tend not to eat much GM food myself, simply because I like to cook and I like to eat locally source food. But I think it would be selfish in the extreme for me to deny people in less favourable situations (without easy access to arable land for instance) the opportunity to use these technologies.

I just realized yesterday that bananas grow what to me is upside-down.

I have a banana tree growing in my backyard and based on its size and growth rate I'm expecting it to fruit for the first time sometime soon, but each leaf that grows out come out rolled up from the center of the last leaf, and I couldn't visualize how the stinking bananas could grow out of there. (There are no stems or branches or trunk.)

Then I looked it up and saw pictures like the one in this video where all the bananas in a bunch have their butthole pointed up at the sky and their stem attached at their bottom.

Who knew?

But make sure you drink some prune juice with the bananas, or you'll end up with the other problem he mentioned.

/ducks

Whose bright idea was it to serve Bananas Foster for dessert?

*banana

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*Banana

It's clear you have never tried this form of employment?

I was a checkout person once, at the start I wanted to top the fastest average scan list they released every week, I took pride in knowing all the veggie/fruit codes for quick weighing, I pre-scanned the belt to see how I was going to pack the bags and what room I would have to put things aside etc

That lasted a little while, until my soul was drained from my body, my back started to ache quicker and quicker, my feet got blisters and one inconsiderate asshole customer after another made my day a little shittier with their stupid inane behaviour. Do you know how your fucking eggs got delivered to the store? They're going to be fine.

Well then I realised why the women working full-time was slow, didn't give a flying fuck about where she packed things and couldn't be damned learning the code for bananas. It simply didn't matter in the slightest, you're all coming back for your shitty groceries week after week, I'm getting paid all the same and my shitty day isn't going to go faster being happy than it is being miserable.

That effect only lasts 1-2 hours, no matter your attitude, packing shit for 8hrs is going to get stale. Packing shit for 8hrs a few times a week or every day, well you're constantly thinking "Would I get fired if I punched this guy? Maybe, I think I can make a solid case."

I could craft you a nice burger all the time or I can just slap together some shit your gonna shove down your greasy gob anyway. How much do I get paid again? Oh yeah, fuck all.

You are correct, I did not go to your link. In the past they have consistently been un-scientific right wing propaganda sites masquerading as science or news, so I don't bother anymore.
As has been pointed out, May to October IS winter in the south. What's ignored is that the reason the ice MAY have not melted as fast last summer in the North is that the heat that normally sits on the pole moved south and cause our heat waves all summer (well, yours, it stayed 70deg here). What was ignored was that it also didn't freeze as fast this winter because the cold that normally sits there was also moved south, causing our harsh winter. If you counted the entire year, it shrank....again....like it has for the last 20+ years.
One tiny incomplete data set is not climate. One season in one place is not a full data set. In the last decade, the trend has been for polar ice to melt FAR faster than it re-freezes, to the point of allowing a North West Passage and a lack of pack ice that's eroding the northern tundra.
It's way easier to have a significant increase AFTER there was a larger significant decrease in ice. It's no where near normal levels, even if your link is correct that this one season it increased (and I think it's likely either wrong or you misinterpreted it).
Science has said for decades that the polar ice will melt, and it is doing so. Your contention that it's increasing it asinine in my view, and flies in the face of over 100 articles I've read that said the exact opposite.
I did the most important thing a person can do to slow the rate of increase of climate change, I didn't have children. (you are correct, your ilk has denied the issue long enough that no one can stop climate change, it's happening now and will get worse for the next 100+ years even if we stopped adding CO2 today) That means as long as the food lasts another 40 years, I'm good and screw the rest of you. I also see the futility of petitioning the government or populace to get off their ass and stop screwing up the planet, that time came and went in the 70-80's, it's FAR too late to fix the problem, and some like you still sit back and say 'there's no issue to fix'. I only hope you have children that will blame you when they can't eat or drink anymore because of lack of food and water.

For some, everything is a 'debate' about 'state control' because that's all they think about.
You are wrong, most climate scientists are clearly in the 'climate change is happening and it's man made' camp, I've never met one that wasn't, and I know hundreds of scientists. The right wing has you by the brain banana and you would rather believe your party than science, because science wont' just tell you what you want to hear. To me that's sad and dangerous.
4%! Whoever told you that was a bold faced liar.

You don't judge people?
Would you date a college graduate, or a tatted-up meth user?
How about a banana? Prefer one ripe or overripe?
How about your car, would you like a clean one or a dirty, bashed up one?
How about if his path is to take everything you have, including your life? You respect that?
What if you are the father and want the baby?

So Christians are supposed to just applaud when they see something as egregious as abortion? Were Christians supposed to just stand by while Nazis gathered up all the Jews?

Speaking of which, your brother wants to be a Nazi...do you judge his path?
What is he wants to be a Christian...do you judge his path?

Well . . . in her defense, the man in the banana hammock is pretty well built and the fat man chasing him . . . Yeah, I'mm gonna go with don't get caught by the fat man.

(Not to mention, if banana hammock isn't gay, then my whole reality is wrong.)

Why do I sense fakery here? He's wearing an assless banana hammock and a cowboy hat? The guy with the camera has enough time to realize what is going on, turn on his camera, point it to himself and announce "O dam hes naked look..you can see him running look.." turn the camera back and it then looks like they come running out of a house or alley half way up the street?