elfboi:

thepeacockangel:

m00nchaser:

If bees become extinct we will have exactly 4 YEARS to live on this planet. I don’t understand how “not caring” is more important than your life…

…GMOs are a technology, they do not have to kill bees, the ones intended to kill insects may be a problem for this reason, however not all genetically modified organisms do this. 

Like genetic engineering is something that can be used for a myriad of purposes, good and bad, like electricity.  One thing we should be working on is engineering pesticide resistant super bees

Maybe we should rather start banning dangerous pesticides instead. There are different ways of dealing with pests, although they tend to be more costly. There are natural pesticides, which are more costly, less effective, and must be applied more often because they degrade very fast, there are predatory insects and mites that eat those insects who would eat our food. We also need to bring back crop rotation, and make fields smaller and more diverse, with hedges and meadows in between. Instead of changing our agricultural landscape to make it more suitable for big machines, we should change our machines, make them smaller and more intelligent.

Treat the Earth as a garden, not as a crop factory. Create a landscape which is alive, full of vitality, not only producing food for us, but also leaving room for nature, cultured landscape blending smoothly into wilderness.

natural pesticides are worse for the environment and more toxic, they kill everything not just insects, as opposed to carefully designed synthetics which focus on just insects. For example citrus is quite good for humans, terrible for cats and dogs, just smelling citrus can cause ulceration of their airways, so you can design very targeted poisons.

Just because a thing is “natural” (how I loathe that word) doesn’t mean it is healthy, or good for the environment, organic farming is HUGELY destructive to land and the earth as a whole and is generally a vile and unsustainable practice that I will never EVER support, and frankly, modern methods of food production make it possible to feed everyone easily, which without capitalism would allow us to feed everyone and have a lot more spare time.  Creating a bee that would be unaffected by current pesticides would save effort and minimize suffering.

Yes, crop rotation is important, and honestly, there’s nothing wrong with a crop factory.  I’m in favor of manufacturing in ways that are for the long term good of humanity, reliable and effecient food production is one of the most important things to maintaining human welfare and anything that counters that aim is in my mind, absolutely out of the question.

Here’s a good list of articles on why organic farming is harmful:

Avery, Alex. The Truth About Organic Foods. St. Louis: Henderson Communications, L.L.C.; 1ST edition (2006), 2006.

Dangour, A., Aikenhead, A., Hayter, A., Allen, E., Lock, K., Uauy, R. “Comparison of Putative Health Effects of Oragnically and Conventionally Produced Foodstuffs: A Systematic Review.” Food Standards Agency. Food Standards Agency, 29 Jul. 2009. Web. 12 Jan. 2010. <http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/organicreviewreport.pdf&gt;

Hughner, R.S., McDonagh, P., Prothero, A., Schultz II, C.J., Stanton, J. “Who are organic food consumers? A compilation and review of why people purchase organic food.” Journal of Consumer Behavior. 21 May 2007, Volume 6 Issue 2-3: 94-110.

Kristensen, M., Østergaard, L.F., Halekoh, U., Jørgensen, H., Lauridsen, C., Brandt, K., Bu¨gel, S. “Effect of plant cultivation methods on content of major and trace elements in foodstuffs and retention in rats.” Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 1 Sep. 2008, volume 88, Number 12: 2161-2172.

MacKerron D.K.L. et al. “Organic farming: science and belief.” Individual articles from the 1998/99 Report. Scottish Crop Research Institute, 1 Dec. 1999. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. <http://www.scri.ac.uk/scri/file/individualreports/1999/06ORGFAR.PDF&gt;

Mondelaers K., Aertsens J., Van Huylenbroeck G. “A meta-analysis of the differences in environmental impacts between organic and conventional farming.” British Food Journal. 1 Nov. 2009, 111, 10: 1098-1119.