The crazy conspiracy theory believed by 190 million Chinese - Alliance for Science
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Numerous public opinion surveys have shown that Chinese people have a sharply negative attitude towards genetically modified foods, despite the worldwide scientific consensus that they are as safe as any other. But the latest piece of research, published in the Nature partner journal Science of Food by two scientists working at University of California-Davis, is […]

You can read about the reason I'm asking this in the spoiler. TLDR I'm just wondering if there's some debunking I can do since western media is oh-so-not-trustworthy

spoiler

I'm in some IRL debate (Well, online but in a closed chat) with some libs. They are talking about the right-wingers saying Taylor swift is being paid off to spread democratic votes, whatever, hollyweird are all dems, no conspiracy needed.

I mentioned that we need to actually, you know, actively keep conspiracy theories from spreading, and my liberal friend is gishgaloping a bit, but I'll bite since they are sincere, even if wrong.

They came back with "Well china has conspiracy theories", which I didn't mention china, I didn't mention anything about censorship, it's just gishgalloping like I said, but anyway..

Any truth to this one? I mean being anti-gmo is not rare, so I'm not surprised if it was true. I don't have a good handle on high quality china news (And cannot read their sites myself, even with translators it's a slow experience).

Edit: Oops, I had to go AFK after posting this and didn't get to clarify as the comments were all being. I meant do Chinese people broadly believe in the conspiracy theories around GMOs such as causing cancer or making your DNA change or something like that. Of course GMOs are complicated science and are a tool used by capitalists to patentize (did I make up that word? Lol) the food industry, which is a natural science and typically difficult to patent.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    5 months ago

    The basic argument against GMOs is that it's difficult to establish that changes in modified foods are safe long term. There are studies such as this one showing that GMO foods can have adverse effects on humans:

    Serious adverse events of GM consumption include mortality, tumour or cancer, significant low fertility, decreased learning and reaction abilities, and some organ abnormalities. Further clinical trials and long-term cohort studies in human populations, especially on GM food-related adverse events and the corresponding GM events, are still warranted.

    So, I don't think it's exactly a conspiracy theory. On top of that, companies such as Monsanto have zero regard for safety. So, trusting them to do due diligence would be naive in the extreme. Not to mention all the fuckery Monsanto has been doing with GM seeds around the world.

    • Che's Motorcycle@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      5 months ago

      Another consideration is that GMO crops can interbreed with non-GMO plants nearby. It can be difficult if not impossible to predict the knock-on effects of this.

        • SadArtemis@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          5 months ago

          Considering a lot of crops aren't exactly native to where they're grown (and certainly not in monoculture forms) I feel like that is less of a concern, than the real issue- GMOs within the present capitalist system, do pose a serious potential threat to the food security and independence of nations and regions (as others noted in thread- through IP laws, and through the simple fact that it is being pioneered by some particularly evil and untrustworthy corporations).

    • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      5 months ago

      I'd argue that it's less that GMOs themselves are unsafe and more to do with corporate greed, since we get many of our crop breeds today by bombarding plants with radiation and chemicals and picking the ones with positive mutations. I think that compared to those strategies, GMOs are probably only as bad, if not slightly better a choice.

    • RedClouds@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      5 months ago

      Damn, there might be more to the GMO thing than I thought.

      I was referring to the crazy american conspiracies, but on a real scientific basis, there's more to considere than I thought.

      Do you know offhand if the crazy conspiracy theories are popular in China. Like "eating GMOs makes you a GMO" kind of blind talking points? Or are their considerations the scientifically (and capitalist) backed ones?