I recently watched a fantastic documentary on the realities behind Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), in particular food - GM food as it's called. The documentary is The Future of Food, and I highly recommend it to you. There are many interesting and valid issues that are brought to the forefront regarding the dangers of GM food, starting from how it is produced to its effects on the world ecology. In essence, corporate-style mass production of genetically modified seeds, e.g. using Round-Up seeds, is a dangerous path down the destruction of biological diversity. At one point, we had hundreds of different types of potatoes and corn. Today we have a handful. Most of the corn grown in the US can only be used to feed livestock because it produces an insecticide (BT) that kills the bugs that try to eat the plant. But the corn is eaten by livestock, which we then eat... you should watch the documentary. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can stream the movie from there using the Watch Instantly feature.
Coincidentally, the Scientific American's lead story as of this writing is "Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?'
This GMO issue adds to the mounting evidence of the wonders of rural life and is convincing me that I ought to move out of this crazy city ASAP, and go back to rural America where I left a large piece of my heart in the first place.
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