{"id":36539,"date":"2014-02-27T13:26:02","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T13:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/?p=36539"},"modified":"2014-02-27T13:26:02","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T13:26:02","slug":"article_29417","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/article_29417\/","title":{"rendered":"GMOs, Silver Bullets and the Trap of Reductionist Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"Font-Weight: Bold;\">For Related Articles and More Information, Please Visit OCA&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/gelink.cfm\" rel=\"noopener\">Genetic Engineering Page<\/a> and our <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/monsanto\/index.cfm\" rel=\"noopener\">Millions Against Monsanto Page<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Against my better judgment, I&#8217;m dipping my toe into the genetically modified organism debate.<\/p>\n<p>These are rough waters. GMOs seem to <a href=\"http:\/\/news.sciencemag.org\/scientific-community\/2014\/02\/qa-why-are-we-still-shouting-about-gmos?rss=1\">polarize people<\/a> more than almost any other topic, including evolution or climate change. And the debates around GMOs &#8211; especially whether they are safe to eat or safe to grow &#8211; can get very fierce. While it takes a lot of effort, I try to stay open-minded on the topic, because this isn&#8217;t a simple black and white issue.<\/p>\n<p>But it should be obvious to<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">everyone<\/span> that the use of GMOs in agriculture &#8211; so far, at least &#8211; has come with some big problems. Even strong GMO proponents, if they stop and think about it, would have to acknowledge that important difficulties have arisen.<\/p>\n<p>From where I sit, the biggest problem associated with GMOs isn&#8217;t the technology per se; it&#8217;s how they&#8217;ve been deployed. Despite early promises, as GMOs move from lab into the real world, they end up being very disappointing.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">In theory<\/span>, GMOs sound very useful. They are supposed to <a href=\"http:\/\/ensia.com\/voices\/changing-the-global-food-narrative\/\">help us &#8220;feed the world&#8221;<\/a> because they will improve food security, dramatically boost crop yields, combat weeds and pests using fewer chemicals, make crops more nutritious, and have <a href=\"http:\/\/pubs.aeaweb.org\/doi\/pdfplus\/10.1257\/jep.28.1.99\">tremendous benefits to society<\/a>. But have they?<\/p>\n<p>No. Not really.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are rough waters. GMOs seem to polarize people more than almost any other topic, including evolution or climate change. And the debates around GMOs &#8211; especially whether they are safe to eat or safe to grow &#8211; can get very fierce. While it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1000,1031],"tags":[7,24],"organicbytes":[],"countries":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GMOs, Silver Bullets and the Trap of Reductionist Thinking - Organic Consumers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/article_29417\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GMOs, Silver Bullets and the Trap of Reductionist Thinking - Organic Consumers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These are rough waters. GMOs seem to polarize people more than almost any other topic, including evolution or climate change. And the debates around GMOs - especially whether they are safe to eat or safe to grow - can get very fierce. 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