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Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
GMO have dubious benefits and the risks are fairly large:
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides are totally unsustainable - because they use finite resources, and they kill off the natural processes in the soil *that we completely depend on*. This method of farming causes huge erosion problems and it poisons our water and causes dead zones in the ocean and contribute about 20% of our overall greenhouse gas emissions. And, we are using up the available deep aquifers, as well.
We cannot continue factory farming; for many reasons. GMO's are case-in-point to what we are doing wrong.
Climate change is forcing our hand, by making it obvious that we are farming in an unsustainable way.
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The thing is GM are just techniques, tools if you like. Just because it is possible to hit your thumb with a hammer doesn't mean the hammer shouldn't be used to drive in a nail.
Industrial farming the way it is currently done is indeed unsustainable. Whether or not a version of it will still exist in a world that doesn't use fossil fuels and, ultimately, with a steady state economy, I don't know.
Even small scale urban farming could see benefits from using GM crops though. Possibly, because the environment is different from industrial farming, a lot.
Methane from sewage or food waste is a good thing but the energy embodied in the methane is relatively small. Enough to run the sewage plant plus a bit is usually about it.
GM has potential there too, in creating more efficient micro-organisms for the sewage-to-methane-plus-fertilizer conversions.