Morendil comments on Nonmindkilling open questions - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Yvain 23 March 2012 04:23PM

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Comment author: Morendil 23 March 2012 06:37:52PM -1 points [-]

an example to plug into X

Are GMO foods safe?

Comment author: fubarobfusco 23 March 2012 09:04:15PM 11 points [-]

"Safe" for whom? This could mean several different things:

Does eating (a particular) GMO food cause health problems?
Does planting (a particular) GMO food crop cause chemical environmental problems, e.g. a chemical expressed by GMO crops causing beneficial insects to die off?
Does planting (a particular) GMO food crop cause biological environmental problems, e.g. by becoming an invasive weed?
Does planting (a particular) GMO food crop cause economic or governmental problems, e.g. by contaminating adjacent non-GMO fields with pollen from a patented gene line?
If GMO crops are very successful in the market, will this lead to crop monocultures that will experience catastrophic failures?

As with "organic food", the halo/horns effect is strong with this one.

Comment author: TimS 23 March 2012 07:01:04PM 8 points [-]

Unfortunately, this question has become entangled with political/personal identity issues, and thus has become quite mind-killing.

Comment author: Costanza 23 March 2012 07:13:02PM 5 points [-]

Greenpeace and the Heritage Foundation both have strong (and opposed) opinions on the matter.

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