Saturday, January 17, 2015

This just in: Americans don't know what food is.

80% are in favor of mandatory labels on food containing DNA. Are you fucking kidding me right now? Almost all food contains DNA, whether it's fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, etc. It's especially embarrassing when you consider there's a distinct question on GMOs, and nobody made the connection. By the way, it's just lovely how many people want GMOs to be labeled, despite them probably eating a ton without realizing it, and GMOs themselves presenting benefits over organic food for the most part. Look at the graph! People are more concerned with GMOs than they are with trans fats and calories in restaurant/school menus! Don't get me wrong, it's nice that people want to know what they put in their mouths, but you just know most of these people would systematically avoid GMOs if given the chance. But hey, we live in a world where people are unreasonably afraid of anything that's more than six letters long, so why am I even surprised at this point?

18 comments:

  1. I'm so embarrassed for my country. Next we'll be proposing a ban on all bread products with carbohydrates.

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    1. If there's a ban on sugar then we'll only be able to drink water

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    2. There's a joke where people wanna ban dihydrogen monoxide, which is water...
      Seriously, there is a good reason we Americans are the butt of many jokes...

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    3. That's not a joke though people fall for that crap all the time. I think there even was a city that nearly voted to ban it. There was also one time where the Indiana legislature tried to change the value of pi to 3.2, not really related but still pathetic.

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    4. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4534017/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/local-officials-nearly-fall-ho-hoax/
      found it, I mean christ

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    5. Seriously. No wonder we Americans have a bad name...

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  2. Ask anyone these days and they'll tell you organic is the way to go. I'm not a scientist or a nutritionist but people need to listen to the experts more. How are you gonna tell me that organic is better when everyone who is actually qualified on the subject says GMOs can be beneficial. Same with everything, people need to have a little faith in each other instead of fooling themselves into being know it alls.

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    1. It's because the EVIL CORPORATIONS want to kill us all by poisoning our food with genes and stuff!

      The most ironic thing is that companies that produce GMOs actually ARE the scum of the universe, but their products are the polar opposite.

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    2. Yeah, I always ask those people why the corporations would want to poison our food, and they say something like "For the money, duh." Like how thick can you be, if they wanted to be cheap they wouldn't waste money on the chemicals in the first place. How on Earth would "sabotaging" their own products with GMOs make them money?

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  3. I made a long winded post about the economics of this that apparently didn't go through (or I'm a moron and can't see it). Anyways, the point was this: Ignoring the nutritional issue for a moment, GMO labeling would increase the cost of GMO food, making it more expensive for the people who buy GMO food (i.e. can't afford organic cause they aren't super rich) to eat.

    Making more people starve because "we deserve to know what is in our food." Brilliant.

    If I recall correctly, Penn and Teller's Bullshit! has a pretty good episode on this.

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    1. But if GMOs were labeled, demand would also take a huge drop, forcing the prices down so that the things would sell to start with.

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    2. I'm not convinced GMO labeling would significantly shift the demand curve of GMO food, but I could be wrong. I think the people who care already do the research and buy organic or whatever.

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    3. You're overestimating the critical thinking capabilities of your average consumer. They think everything they can't understand is inherently bad.

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    4. Ironically, some of them believe in Christianity, where they worship a being they can't understand...

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    5. It's a lot less ironic when you consider Christianity pretends to give all the answers science hasn't figured out yet, and even some of those already disproven by science (because science is hard). "God did it" is simple and straightforward enough that they can accept that.

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    6. It's still a bit ironic in that the God they believe in is an omniscient being even they themselves don't understand. So they hate everything they don't understand because it goes against the deity that they don't understand...

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    7. I think what GMO labeling will do is people start creating more and more GMO only and then Natural only stores, I mean its really already happening but that will just become bigger

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  4. The thing is, you need to eat DNA, as it is a steady source of nucleotids, which you need not only to build your DNA and RNA, but also to have actual adenine molecules and thus ATP. True, nucleotids are quite easy to recycle, but having them in the diet IS good.

    GMO may be troublesome, but not for their effects in the organism, but rather their effects in the populations of pollinizators and wild plants, as well as the scumbag procedure of having to buy seeds every year.

    Goddammit this has to be a joke.

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