Reduced fertility would be great. 7 billion is too many for comfort, do we need 10 or 20? 500 million would be a lovely number, enough for progress but 14 times more resources (& less pollution etc).
Had another brainwave again today. The continual reusing of the oil is the most likely cause.
Warning,do not read link if you enjoy regular fried takeaway and value your health.
agcinternational.com/filter-elements.htm
bloody hell I have an infected toe [camel] a tin of canola oil fell from a shelf onto my thong......Should I sue 
We are stuck with GM foods wether we want them or not.
They have been around in Australia since the early 80's.
GM cotton was the first that comes to mind being imported as a pest resistant variety. (I realize this is part of the “rag” or clothing trade)
Tobacco is another GM crop, but hopefully not as many of us were exposed to this as non-smokers.
Canola is the favourite at the moment and copping the flak. I think the big hassle with this, is the control one company has over this, with its “Roundup Ready” GM tag.
The use of this seed is a huge benefit to growers as the weeds can be controlled in the crop “post emergent” using “Roundup” a glyphosate knockdown chemical. (Which usually kills everything it comes into contact with when used at the correct rate). This canola was tolerant to Roundup.
Insulin used for the treatment of humans is another that is produced by GM modified bacteria.
If you eat eggs, milk, pork or chicken there is a very good chance that they have been in contact with a GM modified feed source.
Let's concentrate on the things we can control and not the ones that have bolted 30 years ago.
For better or worse they are here to stay.
My two bobs worth is, at this time we are struggling to be able to feed the current world's population, so we must do everything in our power to ensure that our current agricultural practices are not compromised, by ill-informed media drumming up hype that is just not true.
Am I passionate about this???
YES.
My job is to teach young people how to feed our growing population, safely and just as importantly, it must be sustainable.
So at the end of the day, I guess I'm pretty one eyed about something that we already have, use very successfully and is in everyday use.
^^^ Chook, last time I looked, cotton and tobacco are not foods.
Canola is kinda GM but kinda not. It is rapeseed with the toxicity bred out (30yrs ago), just like they used selective breeding techniques to make dog breeds, types of sheep, or different coloured flowers on some plants.
BUT the new stuff IS different as the DNA is changed in a lab (not just selective breeding) to make it glyphosate resistant. That may be just great, but nobody knows really if eventually the resistance will spread to other plants, making herbicides useless. We all thought antibiotics were just grand until they were overused...
That argument may be negated in time though.
What many people have an issue with is things like the "terminator seed" that can only be planted once, and seeds from the resultant plant are non-viable. Thus farmers have to buy from the company every year. And then we have patents on seeds etc (since when can a company patent "life" ??? )
It is not about airy fairy statements from Monsanto about "feeding the planet" (awwww warm fuzzy huggy feelings)
It is about MONEY and them being able to sell all the seeds for a plant with NO other sources of seed (even taken from your own plants). When we don't really know if it is healthy for us.
Like Thalidomide was OK....... asbestos was OK...... smoking was OK.... etc etc
Yes Mark, I totally agree with you.
I'm the last person on earth, that likes a chemical company.
I was just pointing out that other things have been GM without our general knowledge and put out there without us being aware.
Yeh the future is very worrying, what the shake down will be with these sorts of things, but I guess we can't mark time forever.
Don't get me started on the terminator genes. That is downright unethical, that it can be controlled like that. Although a lot of vegies etc. are already hybrids and their seed cannot germinate.
Plant breeding has been fast tracked for a long time, by firing the desired genes into a healthy seed on a gold carrier. All under a microscope.
So many many years, of developing a particular trait, such as dwarfing stems to prevent wind blowing the crop over when maturing, can be achieved in one single growing season.
There is a huge amount of this done to alter seed, for example to make them rust (fungal) resistant. Not shed their seed when ripe, so they can still be harvested etc.
Not strictly GM, but how close is it???? It's a very fine line.
It worries me about what we don't know and can only dream what the powers to be, or military might be up to.
Just send a clone off to war and we are totally safe eh??? Yeh dream on.
Thanks for your thoughts, Chook
...last one.
The Amish are all for GM foods and crops. Yes you Luddites, the Amish.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7742471.stm
What is supposed to be the actual danger of eating GM food? People go on about it like it's poison and will turn you into a tentacled mutant
^^^ pwee I do wonder if the fear may be founded.....
Look at Thalidomide. The chemical compound shape can be in two orientations. One is a mirror image of the other (look up "isomers"). So basically when you make it you have a substance that is chemically the same, but half the molecules are right handed and half are left handed (a mirror image)
ALL the physical properties of the two isomers (left and right handed) are identical. The physical effect on the body of both isomers is identical.
But one of them causes terrible birth defects. Nobody could explain that.
Let me reinforce that: compounds that are identical in chemical composition and all physical properties - they are exactly the same stuff and have the same effect on the body - but half the molecules in a handful of the powder cause birth defects and the other half of the SAME molecule cause harm.
Our body is very interesting and we had no idea that an isomer that was identical in every respect, bar orientation, would have ONE difference (being that it harmed unborn kids). With all our cleverness, we had no idea.
It is akin to if you had two glasses of water that chemists could not tell apart in a multitude of tests - but the one that somebody looked at funny, or prayed over or something, killed people when they drank it.
I'd rather not find out the hard way about different DNA in food.
Yes companies are creating GM crops to make a profit, and yes they are also doing it to feed the masses. They two aren't mutually exclusive, except in the minds of those that have an agenda.
WTF Mark?
Panda, just to clarify I was not claiming GM food produces any isomers of existing compounds. Just saying that our bodies are ridiculously complex things and given our track record with major surprises like Thalidomide, having totally same properties but a different effect on our bodies.....I would not trust GM tucker.
Then regardless of safety, I have an issue with a company owning life. Terminator seeds are totally incongruous with one of the 4 essentials of life - food (ie: the water, shelter, warmth thing). Everyone has a right to food, and I can envisage a day where all the natural stuff has died out and the only way anyone can grow plants is to buy seed from a company. That is a scary thought.
Don't the conspiracy theorists have a quote from some pro - New World Order pollie saying he who controls the food controls the world or something? (Just getting back on track as PM33 started the thread )
GM stuff is great !!
I modified some northern lights with some bubblegum
,(20 years ago)
no one complained of headaches, in fact , they came back for more!!
