"GMO products and glyphosate are severely toxic to humans and animals..." - Plant Pathology Prof

[Berlum]

One has to wonder whether the RepubliBaggers have poisoned their brainpans by scarfing up vast quantities of genetically mutant foodlike product. Something has clearly driven them over the edge into a pit of sCienTifiC & mOrAl deRANGEment.


AGRI News: "All the benefits claimed for GMO crops are failed promises, and the abundance of weeds and insects resistant to GE plants or the products they were engineered to tolerate have seriously complicated our ability to control these pests, while greatly increasing the amount of toxic chemicals in our food," (Don) Huber writes....

At the same time, Huber (Purdue Professor emeritus) contends that yields have decreased because of GMO use. He said GMOs disrupt the integrity of the genetic code....

the rest: http://www.agrinews.com/huber/calls/for/different/approach/to/weed/control/story-5683.html

[Berlum]

1. "There you have it." - The Credible Hulk

[MNBrewer]

2. Some of what Huber says is scientifically sound

such as pointing out the benefit of rotating herbicides. But the OP basically focuses on one sentence in the article "In an article he authored in response to a pro-GMO article, Huber said that genetically engineered products and glyphosate are severely toxic to human and animal tissues."

Where is that referenced article? I bet it has been grossly misinterpreted in the linked agrinews.com article.

[Berlum]

3. Agri News is a pretty mainline Midwest farm publication

They print news from the Farm Bureau, 4-H, etc. - not exactly part of the anti GMO movement.

But, as the article notes, the evidence of massive GMO problems is mounting.

More to come...undoubtedly.

[snagglepuss]

4. k and r

[BrotherIvan]

5. It's peddling poison and the testing proving it is safe is laughable

There is an upcoming health tsunami in this country: the evidence predicts that the upcoming generation, 1 in 2 men will get cancer and 1 in 3 women. And lest you say that's because modern medicine has knocked out the other diseases that kill you, the fastest increase in age groups for cancer is below 40. Diabetic children, diabetic pets -- what has changed? The food supply!

Europe understands and some other countries are waking up as well (if our State Department and the Gates Foundation doesn't foist this rot on them first). And the most salient part of the article is that the YIELDS have decreased. That is the lie they sold the farmers in India. That could be why sales of GMO soybean seeds are dropping (not corn). Yup, greed over logic, but whatever works in this case.

Oh, and Fuck Monsato.

[HuckleB]

12. That's quite a fantasy world you're offering up there.

[NickB79]

6. Huber went off the rails a couple years ago

He previously claimed in a letter that he'd been made aware of an entirely new form of life, fungal in nature but the size of a virus, that survived and was strengthened by glysophate and infected both plants and animals of wildly different species:

http://www.greenpasture.org/fermented-cod-liver-oil-butter-oil-vitamin-d-vitamin-a/more-on-glyphosate---don-hubers-warning-to-vilsack-and-his-cover-letter/

It was subsequently laughed at by virtually all microbiologists of merit, everywhere, because the specs he was claiming on this supposed lifeform would make it unlike almost anything on this planet. If true, it's discovery would put him on the short list for a Nobel Prize.

Here is a fairly well-stated debunking of his now infamous letter: http://www.biofortified.org/2011/02/extraordinary-claims%E2%80%A6-require-extraordinary-evidence/

[dickthegrouch]

7. IMO He went off Monsanto's rails

They are using ridicule and isolation to keep him out of the way.

[NickB79]

8. No, the rails of good science

Monsanto wasn't responsible for him penning a letter that would make a freshman biology student cringe and scratch his head in confusion.

The only way he still has credibility is if you think there's merit to his previous unsubstantiated claims, which almost no one in the scientific community does.

[Berlum]

9. There has been a deliberate campaign to undermine Huber and his work. Meanwhile

The evidence keeps mounting and mounting about how problematic GMO seed and crops are.

Here's a link to yet another story, this one published this week by the New York Times, about how a disease is cutting corn crop yields -- and most plant pathologists (like Huber) see the problem arising from GMO, Inc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/science/earth/a-disease-cuts-corn-yields.html

[NickB79]

10. Your link doesn't support Huber's claims

And the cause of the disease is explained in the article:

No one is certain why Goss’s wilt has become so rampant in recent years. But many plant pathologists suspect that the biggest factor is the hybrids chosen for genetic modification by major seed companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta.

“My theory is that there were a couple of hybrids planted that were selected because they had extremely high yield potentials,” said Dr. Robertson, whose research is financed by Monsanto and the Agriculture Department. “They also may have been highly susceptible to Goss’s wilt.”

So, GM isn't the cause of the wilt, but rather poorly-suited breeding stock was selected when the GM seeds were first developed. They also point out that farmers are rotating crops far less frequently and using low-till methods more, resulting in soil pathogens building up to high levels.

Neither issue is specific to GM crops, and can and do occur in non-GM varieties as well for other diseases. The original, non-GM hybrids were themselves susceptible to wilt and were sold before GM technology even came to market. This is primarily an example of poor breeding practices.

GM crops have plenty of legitimate issues that make them problematic, which is why I find it so perplexing that people feel the need to tie every crop issue to GMO technology.

[HuckleB]

11. Nope.

Huber's hiding. His actions are clearly unethical.

http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/11/14/don-huber-controversial-activist-scientist-promoting-mysterious-gmo-superbug-scare-revealed-as-fraud/#.UoU2Tvmkop-