MoJo: What Did Monsanto Show Bill Nye to Make Him Fall "in Love" With GMOs?

[booley]

32. I would love to hear the evidence that changed Nye's mind

As I recall what Nye said was he was worried that we really didn't' understand the effect GMOs would have on the environment.
(and yes I understand not all GMOs are the same. Each has to be examined on a case by case basis. GM papayas are not the same as round up ready corn)

And so far I have yet to hear it. What I have heard from random people is that anyone who has reservations about any GMO's is somehow anti science.

This is especially annoying since it would be amazing if adding a new organism didn't have an effect on the rat of the living things around it. You know, if we thought about the science of how living things interact?

there is actual science that shows that yes, The use of GMO crops have either directly or indirectly affected ecosystems:

Round up ready corn has led to increases in herbicide use (since it's designed to allow earlier and larger amounts of herbicide then farmers could use before)

Bt Corn has also created insecticide resistant root worms that specifically eat the very plants meant to kill it.
http://www.wired.com/2014/03/rootworm-resistance-bt-corn/

And while I don't' doubt that the vast majority of GMOs are safe for moist of us to eat, some people do already have a sensitivity to plants that naturally have insecticides (any of the night shade family like tomatoes and eggplants). Adding genes to produce insecticides is a pretty common GMO nowadays. Indeed, that's why GMOs have caused a reduction in insecticide use.

But since we don't (won't) label how are these people going to necessarily know what they eating might make them sick? Are there any studies on this? (I wasn't' able to find any) Because this seems to have been a good question to have asked BEFORE 2/3rds of the most ubiquitous crop in North America was engineered with this property.

and no, saying the good parts of GMO crops (like decreased insecticide use) doesn't' mean the bad parts don't matter.

And we can't' just stop at the science. We also have to look at how the technology is used. That root worm thing was totally predicted by scientists who had a plan to avoid it. A plan Monsanto said was unnecessary and farmers ignored.

Now maybe I am wrong. Maybe GMOs are some kind exception and won't (somehow) cause a selective environmental pressure, won't create these huge swaths of potential food for whatever organism learns to adapt to it.


But as I said, so far no has bothered to explain why evolution suddenly ceases when you engineer a plant and put in an ecology surrounded by all these other living things.