GMO's?

Vegan message board for support on vegan related issues and questions.
Topics include philosophy, activism, effective altruism, plant-based nutrition, and diet advice/discussion whether high carb, low carb (eco atkins/vegan keto) or anything in between.
Meat eater vs. Vegan debate welcome, but please keep it within debate topics.
Post Reply
HyperSquirrel
Newbie
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:37 pm
Diet: Meat-Eater

GMO's?

Post by HyperSquirrel »

I was watching some Happy Healthy Vegan videos and stumbled upon a video wherein they talked about how GMO's are inherently bad and harmful. While I agree that some GMO's can POTENTIALLY be harmful, to say that all GMO's are bad because they are all dangerous (or worse, 'unnatural') is just fear-mongering bullsh*t. Hell, even things like bananas are almost impossible to get 'naturally' unless you know, you WANT tiny, green, bland, seed-covered bananas. And sweetcorn used to be 1000x smaller and 3.5x less sweet (See asapSCIENCE). Anyway, I think being anti-GMO or 'anti-chemical' is just a waste of time; and I was quite disappointed to see this from Happy Healthy Vegan. What are your thoughts?
Cirion Spellbinder
Master of the Forum
Posts: 1008
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2015 10:28 pm
Diet: Vegan
Location: Presumably somewhere

Re: GMO's?

Post by Cirion Spellbinder »

The fact that GMOs can be harmful isn't relevant to whether or not they are harmful. Non-GMO foods and water can also be harmful too. There is no evidence suggesting that GMOs are any more dangerous than their 'natural' counterparts. Furthermore, GMOs have proven to be extremely helpful. They produce larger yields, taste better, and are cheaper. I try to buy GMO if I can for the reduced price and to support the production of more affordable food.
gab236
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2015 8:58 pm
Diet: Pescetarian

Re: GMO's?

Post by gab236 »

HyperSquirrel wrote: unless you know, you WANT tiny, green, bland, seed-covered bananas. And sweetcorn used to be 1000x smaller and 3.5x less sweet (See asapSCIENCE). Anyway, I think being anti-GMO or 'anti-chemical' is just a waste of time; and I was quite disappointed to see this from Happy Healthy Vegan. What are your thoughts?

You seem to confuse selective breeding and gmos (or i misunderstood) these are two different thing. Selective breeding is more of a control over a natural process than a purely artificial one like gmos. It is true however that something not being natural makes it dangerous.
User avatar
ThatNerdyScienceGirl
Full Member
Posts: 210
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2015 8:46 pm
Diet: Vegetarian

Re: GMO's?

Post by ThatNerdyScienceGirl »

HyperSquirrel wrote:I was watching some Happy Healthy Vegan videos and stumbled upon a video wherein they talked about how GMO's are inherently bad and harmful. While I agree that some GMO's can POTENTIALLY be harmful, to say that all GMO's are bad because they are all dangerous (or worse, 'unnatural') is just fear-mongering bullsh*t. Hell, even things like bananas are almost impossible to get 'naturally' unless you know, you WANT tiny, green, bland, seed-covered bananas. And sweetcorn used to be 1000x smaller and 3.5x less sweet (See asapSCIENCE). Anyway, I think being anti-GMO or 'anti-chemical' is just a waste of time; and I was quite disappointed to see this from Happy Healthy Vegan. What are your thoughts?
Happy Healthy Vegan is full of this kind of fear-mongering, which he also said about Splenda at one point in time (Splenda is fine as long as you don't consume 300 packets a day). If you want some pretty good science-based vegan YouTube channels, I'd watch UnnaturalVegan, there is a new channel I like called TheHonestVegan which uses a lot of science in some of her videos, and many of BiteSizedVegan's videos are education, although she is more emotionally driven.

For websites, i enjoy TheVeganRD and VeganHealth.org. I'd just steer away from many popular vegans, such as Freelee, FullyRawKristina, Vegan Gains, and Happy Healthy Vegan, as they tend to lie and spread misinformation FAR too often. They are the Zeitgeist of Veganism in my opinion.
Nerdy Girl talks about health and nutrition: http://thatnerdysciencegirl.com/
User avatar
brimstoneSalad
neither stone nor salad
Posts: 10280
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 9:20 am
Diet: Vegan

Re: GMO's?

Post by brimstoneSalad »

Re: Unnatural Vegan, Here's the link to her response video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NIgEgtOhlc

Long, but a very comprehensive debunking of HHV's video.
Post Reply