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Re: Price of Food

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:28 pm
by Jfanders
Oh, come on aman, now I got to know whats wrong with it. Oh ,please, come on, tell me tell me. I can defenatly keep a secret! And Bert, in response, do I really have to make it smaller, come on man. I mean, everyone loves Deadpool!

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:00 pm
by athakker
I agree with Bert, first and biggest catches my eye... when i first read it, i thought your resolution was based on it. I'm not asking you to change it, just saying my view-point on the first section.

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:23 pm
by Cmccloskey
While I would agree that genetically modified foods are not a "panacea", they are the most effective, cheapest, and most self sufficient way to solve world hunger. Realistically speaking, do you really think that "encouraging poor countries to grow more food" or whatever equivalent the alternative working paper suggests will actually have any effect? If it were really that simple, it would have already been done.

The problem that some of you are having is that you want GMO supporters to prove a negative. It is not physically possible to prove that GMOs are not in some way minutely harmful or dangerous. In fact, you can't even prove the same of Non GMOs. Non GMOs are more than capable of genetically mutating naturally. The thing that flummoxes me is the fact that people are being so stubborn about proving the absolute saftey of GMOs when in reality, the people who would be benefiting from their use don't even have access to restrooms or basic sanitation. The fact that people worry that people in Africa will suffer from minute health effects from eating GMOs when they don't even have a place to wash their hands after defecating just makes no sense to me. And again, I have no problem with wanting GMOs to undergo testing and study (which they already are). Not even the GMO producers are against that.

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:13 pm
by athakker
So McCloskey: You would like to add ANOTHER side effect from GMO's on top of all the other problems that poor African countries face for example: not have a place to wash their hands after defecating? Just because it is minute according to you? You enjoy the luxury of having medicines and vaccinations to fix the side effect. Poor African countries don't. The side effect may be minute to you, but maybe not to them since they have very few, maybe even no, medicines to fix an upset stomach caused by GMOs.

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:20 pm
by Cmccloskey
I just want to get this straight: You are comparing starving to death to an upset stomach?

This would not be "adding" on another problem. This would at worst, be substituting one massive problem for a minute one. If you asked ANY starving person if they would rather starve to death or have some food that has been "untested", I"m pretty sure I know what they would pick. The United States is one of the most stringent and secure nations in the world when comes to product saftey. There are THREE federal organizations that regulate GMOs before they can be released to the public, and yet they have the MOST GMO consumption and use out of any country. If there is any health effect to be had when consuming GMOs, it's clearly not noticeable enough to justify withholding from starving people. After all, we aren't forcing people to eat GMOs. In African countries, people are not ALLOWED to eat GMOs, despite the fact that tons and tons are donated to them to help stop starvation. I say let them have it, and if they would rather be "super extra specially safe" than not starve to death, then that is their free choice. Not their governments.

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:52 pm
by athakker
Not comparing the two. Just the first thing that came to mind.

Now fact: For every test that shows that GMOs are safe, there has been a test showing that GMO's do more harm than good. I and many other countries believe that giving people a type of food that has been proven to be harmful more than once.

Test #1: Shows GMOs have an adverse effect on health. Proved by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM): http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/06/18/r ... ur-health/

Test #2: Austria proves that GMOs reduce fertility (not soil, but for reproduction): http://www.organicconsumers.org/article ... _16247.cfm

When such tests endanger the health of innocent people, then why do we send such food to people? To spread more diseases? To eliminate a woman's chance of having a child? What price are we paying for the consumption of GMOs?
Cmccloskey wrote: In African countries, people are not ALLOWED to eat GMOs, despite the fact that tons and tons are donated to them to help stop starvation. I say let them have it.
You still wish to send shipments of tons and tons of GMOs to Africa even thought they will not accept it. So where does all that food go? [Going back to the resolution] This is one thing Res. 4-2 lacks. It does not even CONDEMN the act of wasting food. And you, a signatory of Res. 4-2, wish to keep sending and wasting food?

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:49 pm
by Cmccloskey
Now fact: For every test that shows that GMOs are safe, there has been a test showing that GMO's do more harm than good. I and many other countries believe that giving people a type of food that has been proven to be harmful more than once.
Test #1: Shows GMOs have an adverse effect on health. Proved by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM): http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/06/18/r ... our-health
That isn't a test. That is a biased website interpreting a test. Here is an excerpt from the ACTUAL study:
Also, because of the mounting data, it is biologically plausible for Genetically Modified Foods to cause adverse health effects in humans.
Biologically plausible is not proof. It means that there is the potential for harm.
When such tests endanger the health of innocent people, then why do we send such food to people? To spread more diseases? To eliminate a woman's chance of having a child? What price are we paying for the consumption of GMOs?
Again, you're missing the point or simply fear mongering. Not every person who eats GMOs will become infertile. There is a LINK between the two and nothing but a link. If it was as much of a problem as your scare tactics would have us believe, the problem would be so obvious that it would have been definitively identified. A minute percentage of women becoming infertile is a small price to pay for saving the lives of billions of people. Especially when those women CHOOSE to eat GMOs, out of their own free will.
You still wish to send shipments of tons and tons of GMOs to Africa even thought they will not accept it. So where does all that food go? [Going back to the resolution] This is one thing Res. 4-2 lacks. It does not even CONDEMN the act of wasting food. And you, a signatory of Res. 4-2, wish to keep sending and wasting food?
I don't think you understand. The people are perfectly willing to accept the food, it is the government that is refusing. This is something that is already occurring, regardless of what we decide. There are people who are desperately trying to get food to Africa, but are simply barred from doing so. Condemning the act of wasting food is silly. In any economic endeavor, there is waste. Trying to waste as little food as possible will cost more than if you simply increase production. Most of the food that is wasted is destined for developed countries, which is completley irrelevant to the topic at hand.

I have no problem with wasting food if it saves lives. The idea that wasting food is inherently evil is a false premise that you just came up with, and has no factual or moral backing.

Postponement

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:53 pm
by galukal
Debate on Price of Food pushed back to next week, Product Safety tomorrow.

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:34 pm
by SRaghavan
I realize that the price of food debate shall be pushed back a week, but in any case , I just want to share a very interesting article I found:

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/200 ... index.html

It gives a good summary of the topic and potential long-term solutions such as agro-industries.

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:07 pm
by vallada
nice find shree, lots of interesting stuff in their.. possibly amendments.. :shock:

Re: Price of Food

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:21 pm
by EWang
Just to remind everyone, we're debating the resolutions for this topic on Wednsday.