what do you think

GM crops the way foward or a step back

Jimmy Doherty was on TV last night looking at GMs http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fsxq6 

I couldn't wrestle the remote control from my housemate so didn't get to watch it. Did anyone manage to see it?

GM is not a step back, and is the result of the pressure on farmers to produce the most with the least amount of money.  100% of my corn and soybean acres in 2008 were GM, most likely it will be that way in 2009.  The yield increases are not that dramatic, but the ease of handling certain problems is.  Gone are the days where you fretted about your weed control when it rained for days.  If you get 3 weeks of rainy weather and end up with weeds as tall as your soybeans, you blast the whole mess with roundup and are done with it.

Saw a piece on the BBC about your CAP, the usual drivel about subsidies and taking them away.  The non farming public of the US and UK are so stupid when it comes to their food supply, less than 6 months ago the BBC was about to wet themselves about the world food crisis, now they are back in the saddle taking a jab at rich farmers, just like Obama did here yesterday.  They (non farming public) don't want pesticides, they don't want subsidies, don't want GM,don't want animal confinement, they don't like to live next to farms in many cases, want the entire world to be a vast wildlife preserve, and also want to walk into the store and buy food with about 1% of their income.  The damn fools just can't see it is things like GM and subsidies that make food so cheap, compared to everything else(imagine if food prices had risen like car and house prices the last 20 years).

I have to agree, GM is a step forward. People may complain and argue against GM, but in the end it is society that has created the need for GM by continually demanding cheap food.

Kansas - I completely agree, the majority of the urban population are clueless when it comes to food production and have a complete lack of understanding that their constant demand for cheap food is actually the driving force behind the very things they are complaining about - GM, intensive, particulalrly battery, farming etc. The other thing that gets on my nerves is the 'celebrity' chefs waging war against intensive farming, especially Hugh FW, who was protesting against intensively reared chickens, syaing that it doesnt cost much more to produce organically yet then charging an outrageous price for the very product they are promoting. And while I'm having a rant, people who move into rural areas and then expect farmers to change their working hours to suit them really get on my nerves, and its because they have this picture of the rural ideal yet the reality of it is somewhat different, really winds me up!

But back to the topic, I am a big fan of GM and until someone provides me with solid, scientific evidence from trials that have been allowed to take place and not been mowed down by eco-warriors then I might believe the arguments against, but through my own experience of working with GM crops I can't see that they will be of anything other than a good thing.

Wont be any alternative if they dont want us to use all these sprays they insist on banning, and also want to eat and drive cars in the future.

Good piece there Kansas.  I think many people don't want GM without realising what they actually do or mean for the consumer.

I think it is only a matter of time before EU farmers are given the option of growing it.  The recent case with Georgina Downs will surely mean that farms are under pressure to spray crops less.   GM crops will provide this opportunity.

Interesting that the Amish folk were using it.  It made me laugh though seeing that chap with a team of horses pulling a sprayer and spraying merrily away in shirt sleeves! They seem very tidy farmers and all the farmsteads looked well maintained. 

The Amish are terrific farmers, they will readily adopt new farming practices.   My rough understanding is the reason they don't want electricity is it requires them to be hooked into the power grid, thereby making them dependant on the outside world, "the English".  Things like GM and fertilizers, etc. do not require them to be tied into the rest of us.  The Amish are a group of people who can probably survive the total meltdown of technology.

Amish are Germanic anabaptists, sort of cousins to the Mennonites, Hutterites, and Dunkards.  My mothers mother was a Mennonite so moms aunts, uncles and many of her cousins are as well.  The church they went to Friedenstahl(Peace Valley) became smaller and smaller, so  they teamed their local relief effort with a neighboring Amish congregation(Amish don't have church buildings, but both the Amish and Mennonites are big on helping out during disasters, the Mennonite Relief is one of the best run church disaster organizations anywhere).  My great aunts and their husbands went to the Friedenstahl church, and while that branch of Mennonites had cars and electricity, they could hardly be called worldly.  However, the hierarchy of the Amish church found out the two local congregations were partnering, and banned it, saying the Mennonites were too "worldly". 

Some of these groups have sort of an audit, in other words, a church leader comes to your farm and audits your books, then tells you what you will give to the church for a given year.  Another one of mom's cousins neighbored with a Dunkard(I think, there is another group whose name escapes me in that anabaptist group) they did things like fill silo etc.  During his audit the auditor discovered he was working with a non-Dunkard, and informed him this would no longer be allowed.  The neighbor ended up quitting the church over it.

Sometimes though the rules have to be bent.  I heard a story of an Amish dairyfarmer whose upright silo unloader was powered by a stationary gas engine and a hydraulic pump, then had about a hundred or so feet of hose running to the top of the silo.  Something happened and I can't remember what it was that was going to cause him to have to replace all that hydraulic hose, which was very expensive.  He was finally allowed by the church hierarchy to get electricity and hook into the power grid, because of the expense of maintaining the old system.