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Judge Rejects Approval of Engineered Sugar Beets
countertrolling writes "A federal judge has ruled that the government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation in the United States. The decision could lead to a ban on the planting of the beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers. Beets supply about half the nation's sugar, with the rest coming from sugar cane. The Agriculture Department did conduct an environmental assessment before approving the genetically engineered beets in 2005 for widespread planting. But the department concluded there would be no significant impact, so a fuller environmental impact statement was not needed. But Judge White said that the pollen from the genetically engineered crops might spread to non-engineered beets. He said that the 'potential elimination of farmer's choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer's choice to eat non-genetically engineered food' constituted a significant effect on the environment that necessitated an environmental impact statement. There's still hope, isn't there? That we can at least get this stuff labeled properly?"
I know the "greens" love to worry about GMOs but what is your particular fear? Are you afraid the proteins or amino acids will make you sick? Left-over anti-pest traces? Or are you falling into the marketing trap of "ooh, scary Frankenfoods!" please be sure to think critically for yourself.
John
How about my hope that anti-GM zealots won't behave like alarmist idiots? Nope, that hope has been dashed.
Look, almost everything you eat has been genetically modified. The fact that some of it was modified by altering DNA is pretty much irrelevant to the discussion; the supposed dangers of GM come from unbalancing the environment by introducing a foreign organism, something that we've done and then dealt with many times throughout human history. (Note, I'm ignoring the supposed health risks in consumption. They have no relevance to an enviromental impact study.)
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
If you mean cultivated to be tasty and edible, then yes it took a long, long time to get there. But the GM stuff available now is tasteless and unappetizing. If your tomato leaves you thirsty after the first bite, the it's not a juicy tomato. If your strawberries are red on the outside and white and tasteless on the inside, then you've run into the magnificence of GM foods. Unfortunately, GM foods weren't designed to taste better, but to last longer. If you have the opportunity to buy at a farmers market than you won't have so much GM foods. But at Walmart, that tomato has been carried halfway around the planet, kept in warehouses, by the time it gets to the store it's barely edible, but as long as it looks fresh for most shoppers that's all that matters. As for pets, they've been inbred for so long that most purebreeds are thoroughly retarded.
Yes, but nobody has ever shown that there is any negative effect from spreading the pollen. It is pure poppycock.
Baloney. That small-time punk farmer has no more right to shake down a respectable corporation like Monsanto by interfering with Monsanto's ability to maximize profits and be the sole source of food than a two-bit local clothing store has the right to steal customers from an upstanding corporation like Walmart.
...continues apace.
Then create your own IP and do your own thing? Moocher.
Aha! "Fox News", the new "well then you're hitler" of internet arguments! I addressed who and why in my post, are you saying I'm incorrect? If so, then who petitioned for the lawsuit?
moox. for a new generation.
4 Billion years of evolution ? Really ? You need to check basic facts. Life doesn't exist 4 billion years. The earth itself barely makes that number.
Furthermore, you just might want to check just how badly surviving species are outnumbered by non-surviving species. Sure the "one species conquers all" event hasn't yet happened, but an "a few species conquer all" event has in fact happened.
There are 4 "human" species alive today. Used to be 5 not that long ago. In history there have been thousands of human species, at least. Almost hundred of those have been found. And most weren't "intermediate steps", most were evolutionary dead ends.
The diversity you see today is still quite extensive, but it's pitiful compared to what existed even a few million years ago. There was a time when dozens of human species existed.