warning about people interested in cornstarch seed propagation

[maitaman]

I don't know where else to put this, but it has recently been discovered that using cornstarch made from GMO corn will not work in germinating orchid seed. I feel this is important in that it indicates, to me, that it could well be damaging to people who use the GMO cornstarch.
I've put a warning on the blurb for the book, Orchids From Seed: cornstarch method. Labeling of GMO foods is not required in the USA. For this and other reasons, it should be. It is in many countries.

 

[PaphMadMan]

Without any kind of reference to the research or an article to support this, it comes off as just another diatribe against GMO crops.

 

[SlipperFan]

I don't look at it that way. All I ask is choice: label the foods either GMO or GMO-free, then I can choose whether I want them or not. Without the label, I have no choice. The same is true of media for seed propagation. What is wrong with that?

 

[PaphMadMan]

No evidence was offered to back up the claim that it is harmful in this case (or in most cases). I have no problem with labeling, but GMO or not is one of the least important things we don't know about food or agricultural commodities.

 

[ehanes7612]

yes, cornstarch , that mecca of superfoods...nutritionally bound ..could alone feed an entire community of people ..so worthy of the GMO debate

 

[ronan]

we don't need GMO to feed the world, it's just lobbying and all about money. Just look at indian farmers problems with GMO coton...Masters and slaves, nothing changed!
Fortunatly there're still people fighting for their rights to grow good and "ethical" food, and there're still parents raising their childs with the same respect for the nature.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Could you let us know where you got this info from (it may be cited in your book, can you post a link to your book?)? What do you mean by GMO corn? Is this corn that includes the BT gene? Is this corn that has genetic resistance to "roundup ready"? Is this genetically enhanced to produce additional vitamin B? Is the genetic modification "sterilization" with the terminator gene? What genetic modification are your referring to?

 

[Ozpaph]

We artificially breed generation after generation of orchids................not far from GMO, really.

 

[gonewild]

We artificially breed generation after generation of orchids................not far from GMO, really.

Hybridization is very very far from GMO.

 

[Lanmark]

Thank you for speaking up, maitaman.

I'd like to know more as well, and I, like Dot, would like to have mandatory GMO/NON-GMO food labeling rules in place so I could at least choose what I put into my body.

GMO corn products are now being used in a wide array of food products being offered for human consumption around the world. It's not just the starch.

There are people who blow off warnings about pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, antibiotics and growth hormones in our food as well, but more and more pieces of evidence have come to light over the years which clearly show the dangers of eating such things. I choose organic whenever I can.

Getting back to the germination of orchid seeds in starch, I have all the same questions which Linus_Cello asked. I am very interested to know these things.

 

[TyroneGenade]

I am unconcerned by GMOs. I don't think they are toxic or bad for you. I don't have any fundamental dislike for the idea (I love the glofish!!!). What concerns me is this:
Disease risk associated with residual glyphosate in GMO crops, http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24678255
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25883837

Most GMOs out there are for glyphosate resistance or for BTtoxin. We know that BT toxin can cross the placenta to enter the circulation system of the fetus as well as end up in breath milk (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21338670 ) and there is some evidence for it damaging red blood cells (sadly, I have lost this reference).

There is very little product testing of these crops beyond the economic feasibility. There are few safety experiments for the food and products.

I support the idea of labeling if but only because it will force companies to do the necessary safety testing.

I also believe people have the right to choose whether they would like to buy GMO products and manage the risk associated with glyphosate exposure.

I understand that mandatory labeling will probably increase the price of bread a few cents per loaf but that is the price of freedom of choice.

Maitaman, I would like to know the source for your cornstarch comment.

 

[ehanes7612]

Here is a good rule of thumb..anything made as a byproduct of corn, soy bean or sugar beat will probably be GMO..High fructose corn syrup, lecithin, corn starch, etc etc. and etc. Anything you buy as processed food will 99% guarantee be GMO. If you don't want GMO , the only guaranteed way is to make everything from scratch or buy from guaranteed organic certified GMO free ..but like I said, the more processed the more likely it has some GMO. And the more processed food you buy ..like chips and soft drinks and whatever..your concern for GMO is a bit alarmist as that stuff is more toxic from the additives.

 

[Secundino]

Reading your comments, I'm happy to live in olde europe ... even with Spain being the coun try with most acres of GMO growing!

Those products which are susceptible of being produced with GMO I don't buy any more, and as I don't buy processed food - I love to cook myself - it's pretty easy.

 

[Ray]

Some folks just have a very narrow definition of "genetically modified organism" and assume the rest of the world agrees with it.
Hybrids between orchids that do not have naturally-occurring, overlapping territories are definitely artificially-produced GMO's, as far as I'm concerned.
If folks have a different definition, they should carefully delineate it so the rest of us can understand it and form an opinion.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

 

[ehanes7612]

The GMO debate in the recent Washington state labeling made a distinction and this is what I tend to hear more often. GMO is more akin to placing genetic material specifically in the gene sequence that you can't get from hybridizing. Recombinant DNA techniques such as artificially splicing DNA into the genes made from scratch..using plasmid vectors or whatever they do now (I have been out of Biotech for 20 years so my tech language may be old school). I think the school of thought is that with hybridizing, the plants use their natural abilities to create new genetic material..whereas with GMO, there is a sense that the new DNA is forced, thus creating 'Frankensteins"

 

[SlipperFan]

My understanding, also, Ed.

 

[Lanmark]

I also cook the vast majority of my food from scratch starting with organically produced products. I don't drink soda, eat chips, processed foods and so forth. I try my best to avoid GMO food products. I am certainly not alone in this sentiment or endeavor. Mandatory labeling would greatly help.

 

[cnycharles]

I worked with a professor who created roundup ready soybeans, who worked for years and years breeding the plants. For his plants there was no GMO insertion, it all came from the genes the plants already had. I had no problem with the roundup part at the time because it wasn't known to cause problems.
The issue many people don't know is that political proponents of spreading roundup ready material is that selecting for this and many other resistances decreases the yield of the plant. If you truly are trying to increase the food supply massively, then roundup ready is not, it is going to decrease the food supply.
I am not sure that bt in corn or other things is a problem, more of a problem or less of one; at least in North America Bt is ubiquitous. This is why during wet years you don't have to spray forests to kill caterpillars because the natural Bt is already doing the job. Having helped a family who grew fresh crops for sale including corn, I saw that during high insect pressure times it was necessary to spray the corn every day! These chemicals were more botherable than Bt I think. So, at least here you are being exposed to it all the time as the spores or whatever are in the wind or rain. If I'm wrong about the risk then of course I'd like to be corrected.
The fact that there is resistance to labeling things GMO or not when everything nowadays gets labeled indicates that there is very big money behind it. Also it used to be an 'expectation' maybe I'm wrong that GMO would never be released unless it could be shown to be safe. We have plenty of food here so there should be no mad rush to introduce something that could be very unsafe unless there are very big bucks behind it or there is another reason for doing so
maybe the corn starch being used for seed germination isn't working because it's roundup ready (meaning it has round up in it) GMO corn... I'm mostly joking (and it's an incorrect example actually) but that's the problem with GMO is that if you aren't told what was introduced and for why, you can't make an informed decision. What if companies start putting peanut genes into everything? People allergic to peanuts would be in big trouble.
I enjoy cooking and using fresher things, but have that lack of time thing which restricts doing so but more power to those who can!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bullsie]

The GMO debate in the recent Washington state labeling made a distinction and this is what I tend to hear more often. GMO is more akin to placing genetic material specifically in the gene sequence that you can't get from hybridizing. Recombinant DNA techniques such as artificially splicing DNA into the genes made from scratch..using plasmid vectors or whatever they do now (I have been out of Biotech for 20 years so my tech language may be old school). I think the school of thought is that with hybridizing, the plants use their natural abilities to create new genetic material..whereas with GMO, there is a sense that the new DNA is forced, thus creating 'Frankensteins"

EXACTLY!

I have only my own experiences to go by. I raise sheep. Sis raises horses. On GMO corn I treated a lot of pneumonia in the sheep. Sis treated a lot of pneumonia in her horses. I had wasting and high mortality in my sheep. Sis' Vet bills were astronomical. Vet couldn't figure my mess out at all. Sis and I did a little research about GMO corn and a question to our feed provider. Recent growing of GMO corn.

Stopped using GMO corn (until recently, most farmers thought GMO just as good as traditional - what was all the fuss about). Horses immune systems returned. No more sick horses. The sheep stopped losing weight and mortality ceased. No more pneumonia! That was two near three years ago.

Again, this is my experience. Folks have to make their own mind up. Mine was made up in dead and dying animals.

 

[rbedard]

Side-stepping the political issue of GMOs, if you need non-GMO cornstarch for any reason, it is not difficult to get. Here in the US where the powers that be do not subscribe to a full disclosure epistemology, I will only purchase cornstarch from the EU which is non-GMO.