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They are right about GMOs - they're just not that common, and the genes that are inserted are usually fine. Gene transfer just happens sometimes in evolution. Sticking a wheat disease resistance protein into a potato ... okay, so? what's the issue?
Now, selective breeding is entirely capable of changing crop characteristics on its own. And over the last 150 (and to an extent, tens of thousand) years, agricultural crops have been bred to be entirely different from their historical counterparts - more carbs/sugar and less of anything else, etc, to be more drought resistant, efficient at growing, last longer, look better, etc. This has, imo, made them somewhat less nutritious, and taste less good. Similarly, pesticide regulation, while much better than in the past, still leaves much to be desired - often a pesticide will be banned for having some subtle negative effect, and then a new one will be introduced that totes meets the regulations, then it'll be banned ten decades later, repeat. These are potential issues, GMOS are not. Same if you're a redditor who reads all the 'gmo good antiscience bigot bad' posts - surely some of them will believe it and then argue for it on /r/debate_everything_incesantly?
This doesn't mean there aren't people arguing - but often they're just people who genuinely believe it. If you're an ag scientist developing pesticides or breeding plants, you genuinely think you're making food provision more efficient, are following in the steps of norman borlaug, feeding the planet, etc, and genuinely think that pesticides don't matter much. And maybe they have an incentive to think so, and maybe anyone who cares too much and disagrees quits, but 'paid shills' (which also exist, sometimes) aren't always there. And even if they are ... who wins by pointing them out? Paid shills for your causes exist too, better to actually disprove their arguments, because they probably aren't shills!
You've entirely missed the point. It doesn't matter if GMOs are good or not. Based on the obscurity of the subs I saw this occur in and near identical posts (I remember going and checking similar posts because I initially thought it was the same person) demonstrates pretty well that it was bots/astroturfing. Which was what my post was about.
Second of all, the issue with GMOs are not really about if it's healthy or not. The problem is companies owning DNA and we've already seen ugly fall out from this. It will only get worse. I'm not prepared to advocate a total ban on all patents, as some do, but I think we should at least be able to say that DNA must be public information and cannot be patented.
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