CookieCows

Speaking of herbicide resistant, has anyone tried to get kudzu off their property? It's not on ours yet but I have seen it as close as 10 miles away. We used to live in Dahlonega, Ga and it was beautiful but killed everything in it's path. The county/state has great difficulty eradicating it.

We have so many areas on our property that we need something fast growing and drought resistant for erosion and have actually mulled over using kudzu but quickly come back to our senses. It's beautiful and heavenly smelling when in bloom but in my opinion a dangerous vine.

Don't mean to interrupt your subject though.. don't think this is anything genetically altered, just a strong, deep rooted vine.

Deb

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Lagniappe

I've heard Kudzu referred to as "The scourge of the south " . There are a few small businesses whos focus is the manufacturing of Kudzu products . They produce a broad spectrum of products from jams to textiles and even animal feed and wine .
From what I understand ,it is nearly impossible to control .

mskitty38583

cookiecow ----get a goat. they will eat the @#$% out of kudzu. we had friends in sandersville ga whose land was over run with that 'lovely' stuff. they got a goat and turned it loose on the property and it tore the mess out of it. the goat eats it to the roots, when it starts to come back up the goats take care of it. after about 2 yrs. of the goats eating it, it finally died out. in ga. they do make kudzu jelly(its gross) and they use the vines for making wreaths. and all of this started when they brought it fom overseas( china or japan) as a fast growing ground cover. it has killed muskadine vines, and has even choked out of the natural cedars that grow in ga and in tn. it is a bane to the existance of natural native plants. if you dig it up, ALL the roots have to be dug up and burned.

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Tropicallvr

The thing that makes most people wary of GMO products brought to us by companies that are focused on the bottom line is just that, they are focused on the bottom line and it would take years of testing to learn the true impacts of these products. These years of testing would cost these companies alot of money. Pharmaceutical companies are guilty of this as well; pushing new medicines onto the market before they are fully tested, or self tested. Then later having these drugs pulled from the market, and mass lawsuits resulting from side effects from the drugs or death.
Here's where the mix of the two(GMO and Pharmaceutical) come in.
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/ne...ting-food.html

mskitty38583

that is the point i was trying to make. thank you

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momoese

Wow, that is really upsetting. Honestly I feel a little sick to my stomach reading that.

CookieCows

There's alot of reading on that website but I do want to go back and expand onto other links to learn more of what they have to say. I have mixed feelings over it and I don't like to read what seem like dramatic scare tactics. We do use chemical pesticide on our garden and even with that the Japanese Beetle still win the battle at times. We're going to try out aquaponics this growing season for salad and herb crops so we can at least stay away from chemicals on that.

Isn't it a 20yr. test trial before FDA will approve a drug safe? When they release drugs before that don't they require a form to be signed to release the company from lawsuits? I took a drug like that once and had to sign a form stating that I understood that it had not been passed by the FDA yet. Sometimes when you have a disease that has no cure, people would like to have the option to try unproven drugs. I also think that it's possible that a person who has strong feelings against GMO crops being grown to produce drugs might change their opinion if they were forced to walk in the shoes of someone waiting for a cure.

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momoese

From what I read they are just trying to make more money as usual by finding a cheaper way to produce already produced drugs. They are not using the plants to find any cures. If that's what you're concerned about you should think about helping to protect natural rain forests where the possible cures may actually be located.

CookieCows

Touche'

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CookieCows

To clarify though I wasn't actually talking about finding "cures".. I was thinking about the maintenance drugs that people have to take to help them to endure day to day.

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bigdog

I'm by no means an expert on any of this, just an interested observer and student. What I do know is that the great fears that people have about GMO's, and with good reason, have yet to be realized. A link within that last link was suggesting that the cross-contamination COULD happen, and that it is theoretically possible for you to end up eating drug-laced corn flakes. In reality, none of those things have happened.

I share many of the same concerns about GMO's that everybody else does. The very possibility of eating Paxil in my corn flakes (although I don't eat Corn Flakes) is disconcerting to say the least. There is a lot of work to be done and a long ways to go for the government to institute some strict regulations that will ensure the safety of the food supply.

All that said, I think GMO's have great possibilities. Just because there could be some danger associated with some science shouldn't mean that completely abandon the idea. It means that we need to find ways of making it less dangerous. The science itself is not the bad guy here.

harveyc

I have a relatively small farm but have farmed GMO corn and alfalfa and believe they are safe, but I have no interest in growing a banana that glows in the dark! Pesticides used on my GMO crops are less toxic and more effective than the non-GMO versions I've grown. I'm more concerned about contamination in subtle things like multi-vitamins, heavy metals in fish, etc.

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Gabe15

This may have been mentioned (I admit I havenʻt read thru every post in this thread), but a lot of GMO work is not to create trees that grow bacon, corn that can sing opera, or bananas that glow in the dark. Much work is done with moving genes around a lot easier that are already present in congenors (members of the same group). Say you found the cold hardy gene of Musa basjoo and introduced it into ʻSabaʻ, I donʻt think too many of us would have a problem with that. Yes, there are a lot of questionable things that have been done, will be done and could be done, but its not all crazy freak plants everywhere, some of it is actually pretty mundane.

This point has been said before, and its my opinion too, its not the science where the problems lie, its how the science is used....politics I guess you could call it.

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momoese

Just to be clear I don't have a problem with the science behind it. I have a problem with the lack of control, the lack of responsibility, and the lack of respect that the GMO corps and our government has shown us.

If it's a two headed snake and chopping off the corporate or government head doesn't kill it then the science head must be chopped off to kill the serpent. Seeing how neither is going to happen and the world is already polluted with something that shouldn't be here in the first place I'd say we screwed the pooch. I only hope that someone at some point is held accountable.

The only possible fix is for the consumer to be warned and become outraged and not buy this crap, but it's kinda hard to do when the government won't force labeling on an untested product because someone is getting their palms greased by these GMO corporations.

CookieCows

I think paxil in your cornflakes is right up there with the glowing banana and so far we DON'T have paxil in our cornflakes but we do have more disease and pest resistant crops. I have to throw my hat in with science. If they can use corn or wheat to help pharmaceutical companies make better drugs ... that's not the same as eating your antidepressant with milk instead of swallowing the pill. We try to be as organic as we can on our little spot of the world and hope we can filter through what we read and hear to determine what "we" consider might be articles that are factual and of real concern and what is a dramatic, "what if".

I hope no one has taken offense to anything I've said. It's interesting to have conversations of different views. We have so much to learn from one another and I for one want to learn more on how I can get my darn garden to do better without using pesticides as we've had lousy luck up to this point. My husband and I gave up and started spraying the heck out of our vegetable garden and it has still been touch and go.

I'm a wife, mom and Nana and the kitchen and garden is more of my comfort zone anyway.
Deb

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CookieCows

I agree with the labeling issue Momese .. that is upsetting to me

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Tropicallvr

I totally agree.

Cookie Cows- From the little I've read on the web it's seems it takes about 3.5 years of testing before it can pass FDA requirements and be released to the public, but as it is being sold it must also under go perodic tests at the same time by the company/FDA. So on a peice of paper it reads something like the average amount of years spent testing Phama drugs is 10-12 years.
I don't see that link as part of a scare tactic, its scary, but if that's what's happing that's what's happening.

mskitty38583

disclamer: this is what i believe, it is not ment to upset, insult or wound anyones pride, ego, or ideas.

science is good thing. intentions are what is bad. and the human race does not always take into considerations the cause and effect of the things that they do.(present tense , past tense, or future tense) i believe, ok if you want it here and you want to use it, hey thats kool,LABEL IT. i want the choice to decide if i want to use if. every human on this planet has a choice of free will and i do NOT agree with the fact that i have not been given this choice. these laws and legislation about this mess is not suppossed to be left up to small group to decide what i have to use. this should be put before every one in every country and let the people decide. and if they have a problem with their"mutations" getting into other peoples property, let them grow their stuff in enclosed places where it cant infect other peoples land. why are they sueing the little man, its the little man who should be sueing him. it has contaminated his land, he didnt ask it to be there. i think that is wrong for this company to do this. if there are farmers who want to grow this sort of stuff..kudos to you. however, MY OPINION most people wont want this growing in their fields, or tainting their land,water,plants.
about 15 yrs ago they put me on synthitic peneicillin( it was genetically engineered). i had taken everytype of antibiotic there was( it was in its natural form in those days) due to ear infections,sininus infections..etc. when they gave me this antibiotic i became seriously ill. i almost died. i was in the hospital hooked up to every machine there was. when asked about the meds i was on i told them about the antibiotic. they did research on the antibiotic i took and found it was enginered genetically. THIS CRAP CAME WITHIN 24 HOURS of my mother putting flowers on my grave and my kids not having a mother. the naturally grown( un altered) antibiotic i had used all my life. so if you wonder why i get so angry( or passionate) about this that is why. i am no longer able to take ANY type of antibiotic. there is one that i have found that hasnt killed me yet and that is echinachia and i have to be carefull about that. that is why the purple cone flower that i grow i am very protective over. the plants that these seeds came from, my great grandma planted in mi. when she first married and it was a weird plant my great granpa dug up out the woods about 65-70 yrs ago.

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CookieCows

Tropicallvr yeah that is scary. I'm assuming you got this info. off of fda.gov ... It was 30years ago that I took the unapproved but released to the public drug that I had to sign a waiver for. So many guidlines have gotten so lax these days.

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inkcube

something to keep in mind about GMO's, there are many products made with GMO organisms that are not labeled. around 60-65% of soy beans grown in the US are GMO plus many by products of soy beans are made with GMO organisms; fats, oils, fat-based coatings, lecithin, and numerous other emulsifiers made from modified fatty acids emulisifirs derived from soy that is used in many chocolates, ice creams, and desserts.

some other additives produced from GMO organisms; citric acid,vitamin B2 (riboflavin coloring), vitamin C (ascorbic acid), the sweetener, aspartame (nutrasweet), Beta-carotene coloring,the thickening agent, xanthan. the organisms make the process of making these additives safer and easier than previous chemical processes.

some other additives commonly found in food made with GMO organisms;
- Gucose syrup: Used in sweets, baked goods, and soft drinks
- Dextrose (glucose): Sold pure or used in sweets and energy foods
- Fructose: Sweetener for diabetics
- Dextrin: Filler and thickener in sweets, convenience products; carrier substance for flavors and vitamins
- Maltose (maltitol): Sweetener in sugar-free or low-sugar products

some of the enzymes used to make these additives are economically impossible to produce without biotechnological methods. certain procedures use "immobilised" enzymes, which are bound to a reaction surface. rather than mixing freely, they remain fixed to a surface and are not present in the final product. this give a much purer additive.

these products are in every day food items; ice cream, diet sodas, vitamins/OTC meds, chocolate, etc.

also my current research with plantains is utilizing GMO plants, i just planted 100 plants from Honduras that are GMO engineered for black sigatoka resistance - if the work done with plantains succeeds then the next step will be to develop a GMO cavendish. a lot of similar work has been done with papayas and ringspot virus - transgenic papayas now cover about one thousand hectares, or three quarters of the total Hawaiian papaya crop.

not all GMOS have bad side effects.