Anyone else extremely uncomfortable with the new Food fight challenge?

One its not really a charity its an Advocacy group which automatically makes me squmish.

But the whole statement is extremely biased, its full of claims that are designed to scare people but lack actual evidence to back up their claims.

Although companies that produce genetically modified organisms say they’re safe to eat

Actually, its not just companies that produce gmo's that say this:

The European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2010 report on GMOs noted that "The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."

http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf (pdf) A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001-2010). Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food. European Union. 2010. p. 16. doi:10.2777/97784. ISBN 978-92-79-16344-9.

"A 2008 review published by the Royal Society of Medicine noted that GM foods have been eaten by millions of people worldwide for over 15 years, with no reports of ill effects."

Key S, Ma JK, Drake PM (June 2008). "Genetically modified plants and human health". J R Soc Med 101 (6): 290–8. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2008.070372. PMID 18515776.

In fact the closet paper I could find arguing against GMO's is this:

However, a 2009 review in Nutrition Reviews found that although most studies concluded that GM foods do not differ in nutrition or cause any detectable toxic effects in animals, some studies did report adverse changes at a cellular level caused by some GM foods, concluding that "More scientific effort and investigation is needed to ensure that consumption of GM foods is not likely to provoke any form of health problem".


Which basically means more research is needed before you can out right say that GMO'S are safe, which is a fair comment.

when given a choice, many animals avoid them. Rats turn their noses up at genetically modified foods

How did they get this evidence? the only article I could find to back up their claim was this one:

about high school students testing junk food vs health food

Guess who it was written by? non other than the Institute for Responsible Technology the people who are sponsoring the competition.

Their stupid hyperbolic statements designed to create a reaction because the single party group assumes that natural = better.


I really, really dont think threadless should be supporting this competition at all, if they were they should be sponsoring another comp thats in support of gm's because the issue is a debate.

I'm all for threadless supporting charities but not Advocacy groups.


The problem is, this isn't a black and white issue their are plenty of arguments in support of using genetic modification to improve plants.

One our population is on the verge of hitting 7 Billion people, by 2050 they predict we'll hit around 10.5 billion people.

national geographic article on population 7 billion

We already struggle to support 6 billion people, in fact theres an entire population group (the bottom billion) that live well below the poverty line and are still starving today,

how are we expected to feed a further 4 billion? most of which are coming from developing countries?

Decades from now, there will likely be two billion more mouths to feed, mostly in poor countries.

national geographic article on population 7 billion

We have roughly the same amount of space to feed ourselves but almost double the amount of mouths to feed, we've already pushed the limits of the Green Revolution and now were looking for the next one.

Genetically modified crops may very well be the answer:

Paul Collier

We dont really know because the research is still in its early days , so until we actually get scientific evidence to back up the claims its a debate.

And threadless shouldnt be involved in it.