GMO' s And I Don't Mean Grow My Own !

GMO’s don’t concern me unless they are overused. Breakthrough things like BT including and Roundup ready corn have greatly increased the worlds food supply and could do even more if adopted by all the worlds nations. Gene splicing is just a shortcut of what we do by cross pollination but more like a sniper approach rather than a sawed off shotgun. Faster results mean we can investigate more faster. 
My fear is a move to mono cropping and the loss of genetics but I believe home growers will work to preserve these.

@monkeydo we're obviously going to disagree on this one. The example of Roundup ready corn being a good example.

The principle of Roundup ready corn, as I understand it is the the corn is genetically modified in order to enable it to withstand higher concentrations of glyphosate, in order to kill competing weeds that hamper yield. Glyphosate being a systemic herbicide is drawn up into the plant and is present when it is harvested and consumed as food. The land quickly becomes unsuitable for growing anything other than a Roundup ready product because it has been contaminated. 

Personally I do not believe glyphosate is harmless to humans, so would prefer to reserve the right to have my food as free from this and any other ill conceived genetic experimentation as possible. Afterall, when was the last time you can remember a scientist or for that matter corporation admit they got it wrong ?

Looks like the GMO controversy here in UK is heating up. Frankly I'm not a fan of the Co-op per se, however I'm liking their attempt at some sort of stand against this stuff.

I had a great conversation with a farmer one day who has grown various crops, Veg his whole life.

In his opinion one of the biggest problems with modern day farming practices is the over farming of land. The ground never gets time to recover, and the only way around this to keep growing is heavy usage of fertilisers. 

He reckoned they messed about with veg genes years ago to try make all carrots straight etc...and they are only realising now that a lot of nutrients were also lost in the process.

In my opinion if you want quality food, we have to back to local produce like years ago. Like when my dad would have been growing up, everything they ate (which wasn’t a lot they were poor small time farmers) would have been from a 20 mile radius of home. 

Cheap logistics/Transport is great in ways and makes no sense other times. Eg/ in work at the minute the bottled water in the chillers comes from Scotland, Full 15L bottles of water. I’ve nothing against Scottish water but we have plenty enough of it here. Hard to believe it can pay to ship something so heavy, Bulky and cheap, and there’s still money in it for everyone along the way.

Sorry for the Tangent 😷

@rufio In a ideal world or even back in the day this was the way it was done ,we made our own butter from raw milk , we ate our own meat , and veg off our land , grandfather did crop rotation he was more a horticulturist than dairy farmer , recall well the discussions on seed potatoes , and how there was no demand unless it was maris piper , or wiljas , that's just spuds .It is a complete piss take that uk milk goes to muller or the netherlands to creamer plants (tassimo ect ) then the UK buys Irish produce to feed the UK ? wtf ?  

Food is power. Why else is Bill Gates the biggest owner of US farmland ?

Was many years back in my childhood that far more than half the protein consumed by my family was harvested from the wild. Fish, oysters, shrimp, crab, deer, feral pigs, rabbit, squirrel, scallops, and ..... My brother also had a small vegetable patch, about 6meters by 6 meters, in the middle of the city. We didn’t know we were feeding the family, we thought it was just fun and what everyone did. Halfway through my life it was a revelation that we weren’t regular like the neighbors who bought everything from shops. Those days are past but I fondly remember what fresh actually taste like and now it’s nearly impossible to duplicate that quality if you are just a consumer with cash and no skills. Eat local is something I’d like to see more often myself.

Posted by: @rufio

Sorry for the Tangent

Tangents are what we do at Percy’s. It starts conversation and makes us consider that other points might be valid. Keep em coming.

@toploader yea bro too true , Just wonder if it has happened to weed i meen crossing is natural it could happen in nature , but in labs who knows