General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells GMO Critics to "Chill Out" [View all]MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)I was being a bit facetious in my comment, but really, many of my issues go beyond GMO agriculture and reach into modern agricultural techniques in general and many of the unintended consequences of those techniques.
Monoculture based agriculture in itself is inherently unhealthy. Yes, I understand that 18 row windrower combines are more efficient in harvesting, thus reducing overall costs, but growing hundreds of acres of corn in an area invites the pests that prey on corn to come have a feast, thus requiring more insecticides to fight the pests. That's only one of the hundreds of issues facing agriculture.
Technological advances in planting and harvesting technologies could go a long way to beating some of these problems, if only big ag would take a few lessons from backyard gardening. In my garden, I achieve an insecticide free garden through many techniques, not the least of which is companion planting. If you could take that to a bigger scale through new planting and harvesting technologies, you could have large multicultural plantings producing more food per acre with less work, pesticides, and herbicides. Hell, you could even take it to the next step and be capable of labeling your product "Organic" (Organic in terms of technique, not a scientific definition of the term).
Instead, the focus is on bioengineering which produces its own problems. Even going to the most basic form of farming with selective breeding can produce unintended consequences (Apis mellifera crossed with Apis mellifera scutellata, for example).
A healthy dose of improved farming techniques would certainly do wonders for modern agriculture, too.