this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
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Wait. Wtf is wrong with GMO again?
In dietary terms, literally nothing is wrong with it. There are economic concerns because the business model is to patent (copyright?) the GMO stuff and force growers to buy seed every year, instead of saving seed from each harvest. There's also some concern that really successful GMO crops, such as Roundup-ready corn, will dominate planting and become a monocrop which could lead to massive crop loss if a blight or other disease evolves to target that particular strain.
The other things in the picture vary between probably-but-maybe-not-harmless (aspartame), definitely harmless (MSG), to actually helpful (fluoride and Prozac).
Bottom line: the meme, when interpreted correctly, implies that pop songs are generally good but somewhat artificially manipulated.
Well, there's all kinds of GMOs that serve different purposes, because GMO is not just a thing or chemical, it's literal DNA and genes that they alter in crops. They can be good, like the corn that has fish genes to make it more resistant to frost, or the golden rice in Asia that contains more carotenes so kids don't go blind.
But as the other comment said, they're expensive and can't be regrown again, as if they're copyrighted. And yes, if we replaced regular non-GMO crops with GMO crops and reduced genetic diversity, then we'd be fucked if a plague or virus hit them and they all died. Furthermore, if one of these crops still actually had the potential to grow seeds and got out into the wild, it could cause environmental issues like becoming an invasive species, and we already have a shit ton of those around the globe.
But people used to use GMO as a trigger word to scare uninformed people into denouncing all GMOs and looking for GMO free foods.
Technically, almost all foods we eat today are "GMO" in a sense, as we've been doing selective breeding of crops and animals since the ancient times, hence why we have such fat animals, bananas without huge seeds, mostly orange carrots instead of the other colors, etc. But the genetic modification stuff didn't start until the 70s.
Here's a lovely video I remember watching back in middle school that talked about them by Kurzgesagt
Most or all of the GMO crops will both pollinate and germinate. The requirement to buy new seed is legally enforced, rather than a biological necessity.
There have been cases already where pollen and/or seeds have blown into neighboring fields and hybridized with non-GMO crops. At least one grower has been sued by Monsanto for harvesting and selling Roundup-ready soybeans that were hybridized that way.