Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

biolsci.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–49 of 49 posts

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#41

Post by stcredzero »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #19
ck2 wrote: post #17

We are doomed because big business is protected by politicians on both sides. It's too late now and it will never be banned. And why the heck does the USA continue to do welfare for the corn industry which is massively profitable.

Corn is an Iowa thing; Iowa has the first Presidential caucus in the nation: U.S. Presidents are beholden to corn. Bear in mind, this is a gross over-simplification of the core problem (e.g. Archer-Daniels-Midland seems to have an amazingly powerful set of lobbyists), but it should still give you a sense of what's what. Setting aside native sons (Tom Harkin 1992; plus, Clinton's 'bimbo eruptions' didn't help), you ha…

There's a book about this. The Merchants of Grain. It's like the agribusiness Manufacturing Consent.

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#42

Post by jokermatt999 »

varjag wrote: post #25
pygy_ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, accidental downvote (big thumb, small screen). I'd like to add that, partiality aside, the Monsanto's argument is fallatious and unconvincing (appeal to authority). Give me data from independent, properly designed studies, not the mere opinion of experts.

Consider a set of politicized disciplines, S1, S2, .. Sn (e.g. climate science, GM foods research). Let P1, P2.. Pn be proponents of prevailing theory in respective discipline, and D1, D2, ...Dn be their detractors. Define coherence K as cardinality of (P1 & P2 &... &Pn) | (D1 & D2 &...&Dn). Varjag's conjecture: as n approaches infinity, K asymptotically approaches zero. Therefore if true, the argument from authority…

I wouldn't say I'm particularly convinced of the evils of GM food. I think it's generally harmless, at least from what I've seen.

Still, I would not put as much trust in a study/debunking coming directly from Monsato than I would a study coming from other sources.

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#44

Post by allenp »

FiReaNG3L wrote: post #39
bugsy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Monsanto rep, how's it hanging? Glad you could create your new account an hour ago and post a single time using it.

Wow, at least try to argue the points he puts forward, or go back to Youtube to post comment.

I agree that the comment wasn't helpful but it is somewhat suspicious that an account was created just to refute this study.

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#45

Post by asdfj843lkdjs »

Joakal wrote: post #21
ck2 wrote: post #17

We are doomed because big business is protected by politicians on both sides. It's too late now and it will never be banned. And why the heck does the USA continue to do welfare for the corn industry which is massively profitable.

The Corn Republic? [0] [0] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Banana_republ...

Actually the exact opposite of a banana republic.

A banana republic depends on bananas or some other cash crop. The US dos NOT depend on corn. Quite the opposite, it uses tax revenue from OTHER profitable sectors of the economy to subsidize corn.

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#46

Post by brudgers »

ck2 wrote: post #17

We are doomed because big business is protected by politicians on both sides. It's too late now and it will never be banned. And why the heck does the USA continue to do welfare for the corn industry which is massively profitable.

King Corn [PBS documentary] http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/

Extended clip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDurZc5Yr6c

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#47

Post by Dove »

gruseom wrote: post #8
Tomco wrote: post #6

This study has been debunked. It was paid for by an environmentalist group and the people behind the study used a faulty methodology to get the results that they wanted.

Who funded the debunking?

I find it disturbing when conversations about the validity of studies (or criticisms thereof) center around things like funding or ideology rather than methodology. It is another way of saying, "I don't take seriously anyone who disagrees with me," which is not good intellectual hygiene.

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#48

Post by mentat »

Dove wrote: post #47
gruseom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who funded the debunking?

I find it disturbing when conversations about the validity of studies (or criticisms thereof) center around things like funding or ideology rather than methodology. It is another way of saying, "I don't take seriously anyone who disagrees with me," which is not good intellectual hygiene.

The problem is that science is being essentially undermined by funding battles. The lay person or even casual scientist can't make substantial fact based decisions and can't trust the summaries. Hence the doubt about any study.

Re: Study: GM corn causes organ failure in mice

#49

Post by gruseom »

Dove wrote: post #47
gruseom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who funded the debunking?

I find it disturbing when conversations about the validity of studies (or criticisms thereof) center around things like funding or ideology rather than methodology. It is another way of saying, "I don't take seriously anyone who disagrees with me," which is not good intellectual hygiene.

I agree with your first statement (though your second takes it too far IMO). Still my question was relevant. Our judgments of these things are necessarily probabilistic and trust-based, at least in the absence of personally replicating a given result. Following the money is important in estimating the odds.

Money involves desire. Desire involves emotion. Emotion trumps intellect. That may be disturbing, but it's a bedrock fact about human nature.

Post reply on HN