GM Foods

I am very against GM crops and I am disgusted with Monsanto - Control the Food and You Control the People
An Australian Farmer lost his organic certification for his farm because of cross contamination with GM crops.
www.justmeans.com/Australian-Organic-Farm-Cross-Contaminated-With-GM-Crop/42665.html
If Monsanto are behind any thing I would be very wary. Bit like another Murdoch and the media! topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

What jess says, pretty much. Killing off weeds (see the Monsanto example and use of Roundup) is worrying because, indirectly that seems to kill off a lot of wildlife, starting with the insects that live on the weeds, and carrying on all the way up the food chain. As with most human endeavours, the issue is not simple. I'm not against GM in principle (essentially, that is what selective breeding has been doing for quite a while) but I agree that commercial companies should not be in control of the process.

This is a difficult one. I believe that Genetic modification of food plants can potentially solve major world problems. An example might be to increase the vitamin or protein content of staple cereals when a population is undernourished. Or staple crops that resisted terrible plant diseases. This could enable a poor farmer to feed her children adequately. Or modifying plants so that they produce drugs cheaply and easily - which may in turn protect endangered wild plants. There are potentially huge benefits. Some of these advances would not really be possible by old-style selective breeding.
The really annoying thing is that the original trail was blazed by Monsanto who focussed on a gene that would allow crops to be freely doused in their own pesticide "Roundup". We sell you the Roundup resistant seeds, fewer weeds, more productivity in your fields... So this was a very commercial and worrying. There was also much concern about selling farmers GM seeds that did not breed true - so they would have to go back and buy more next year, rather than save seeds from this years crop for next year's planting. Thus increasing dependence on multinational company. So a really bad start for GM that put many backs up.
The trouble is that the research to produce GM products is expensive and therefore likely to be produced under a commercial umbrella. And the companies will want to make a profit. That is what they do.
And you have to trial new crops in fields, so there is a theoretical chance of genes spreading on pollen to other fields or hedgerows where closely related wild plants are in flower. Unless you enclose the fields in tent that can prevent pollen grains escaping... not likely. However the harmfulness of this may not be great - if, say, wild mustard picked up a roundup resistant gene from oil seed rape plants... well it might promote the career of wild mustard as a weed i suppose...
So i am in favour of the research but also in favour of very tight legislation. And I would prefer to see more government or UN funded research and less commercial...

absentgrana, I agree with you about the issue of cross contamination.

If there is no containment of GM crops then they could easily cause widespread contamination. GM pollen can travel on the wind, or via insects, and cross-pollinate non-GM crops.

What would be the consequences of cross contamination on crops and wild and domestic plants?