# If you support banning GM foods then you are a racist **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2017, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441 "2017-08-23T08:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/1 "2017-08-23T08:25:31Z")
The people most hurt by the banning of GM foods are POC. Golden rice alone could save millions of lives a year. [http://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/blocking-gmo-staple-food-crops-hurts-poor](http://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/blocking-gmo-staple-food-crops-hurts-poor) [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/golden-rice-opponents-should-be-held-accountable-for-health-problems-linked-to-vitamain-a-deficiency/](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/golden-rice-opponents-should-be-held-accountable-for-health-problems-linked-to-vitamain-a-deficiency/) [http://www.slate.com/articles/health\_and\_science/project\_syndicate0/2013/02/gm\_food\_golden\_rice\_will\_save\_millions\_of\_people\_from\_vitamin\_a\_deficiency.html](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/project_syndicate0/2013/02/gm_food_golden_rice_will_save_millions_of_people_from_vitamin_a_deficiency.html) ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/2 "2017-08-23T08:55:51Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > The people most hurt by the banning of GM foods are POC. Does it then follow that Catholics are racist? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/3 "2017-08-23T08:56:08Z")
This is a stupid position. Of course the opposition to the genetic modification is nonsense, but it is not racist, it has no basis in racialist ideas (it is ignornt and full of the left Woo). ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/4 "2017-08-23T10:57:24Z")
It’s usually pretty easy to spot racism in the wild. It ain’t tricky at all. But thanks for the heads up. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/5 "2017-08-24T16:32:30Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > The people most hurt by the banning of GM foods are POC. Products Of Conception? There’s a degree of truth to the accusation that well-off Westerners are hurting the poor\* by demonizing agricultural biotechnology, including the low-income farmers in Third World countries who’ve benefited from such crops as [GM brinjal (eggplant)](http://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/bangladeshi-bt-brinjal-farmer-speaks-out-gmo-controversy) and [GM cotton](http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/06/science/la-sci-sn-gmo-cotton-better-diet-indian-farmers-20130606), as well as those denied access to golden rice (which could save the vision and lives of children subjected to severe vitamin A deficiency). Flinging charges of racism against irrational GM opponents probably doesn’t help matters though. \*those poor people in the Philippines and India should avoid GM foods and instead buy healthy organic produce at their local Whole Foods market. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/6 "2017-08-24T19:13:52Z")
Take note that at the core of **all** agriculture is selective breeding. Most people don’t realize this, but selective breeding is genetic modification. Unless you eat exclusively wild organisms, you are eating genetically modified food. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/7 "2017-08-24T19:40:01Z")
Jesus, you’re on a roll. Anti-GMO people are idiots. If you’re assuming that only brown people starve to death, then what does that make you? Wait, don’t answer that, [Thomas Nast](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/TheUsualIrishWayofDoingThings.jpg). > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Does it then follow that Catholics are racist? ? > [@boffking](#): > > Take note that at the core of **all** agriculture is selective breeding. Most people don’t realize this, but selective breeding is genetic modification. > Unless you eat exclusively wild organisms, you are eating genetically modified food. Mmm… [non-GMO corn](http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/relevance/Z_diplo_earsmall.jpg). For dessert, non-GMO bananas ([just pick the seeds out of your teeth!](https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/user_upload/about_us/news/Crops/domestication-of-the-banana.jpg)) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/8 "2017-08-24T22:02:02Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > This is a stupid position. > > Of course the opposition to the genetic modification is nonsense, but it is not racist, it has no basis in racialist ideas (it is ignornt and full of the left Woo). Not sure it’s wholly left woo, though. Around here, in my experience, it’s pretty common for right-leaning folk to be anti-GMO and anti-vax, as well. All that conspiratorial government is trying to control you type of woo. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/9 "2017-08-24T22:27:14Z")
I guess it can be argued to be racist in result, if not in intent. But that’s hardly the underlying issue. It’s not like, say, voting restrictions where the goal actually is racial disparity in results. The issue is a distrust of science and purity as a moral concept being applied to food. It ironically trivializes the real issue to bring up racism, as the connection is distant enough to be argued against. Far better is to stick to the anti-science part. Then, if you want, throw in that it _also_ disproportionately affects minorities (due to the link between minority status and poverty). ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/10 "2017-08-24T22:54:20Z")
You DO know there are several countries where POC are the ruling majority, yes?? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/11 "2017-08-25T00:49:22Z")
What is POC in this context? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/12 "2017-08-25T03:10:26Z")
Person/people of color. As in non-white, though some people in another thread seemed to think it meant a euphemism for “colored,” but not in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/13 "2017-08-25T13:43:26Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Products Of Conception? > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Person/people of color. All I could come up with was ‘points of contact’. I’m not hep to the new lingo. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/14 "2017-08-25T13:47:58Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > ? \*The doctrine of the catholic church is against condoms and this causes the avoidable deaths of millions of “proofs of concept” in Africa. Therefore catholics are racist (\* this is of course an extension of the OP’s “logic”, not my own opinion) ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/15 "2017-08-25T17:26:53Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Does it then follow that Catholics are racist? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/16 "2017-08-25T19:34:55Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > \*The doctrine of the catholic church is against condoms and this causes the avoidable deaths of millions of “proofs of concept” in Africa. > > Therefore catholics are racist > > (\* this is of course an extension of the OP’s “logic”, not my own opinion) Yeah, I don’t think these areas are experiencing population decline. GMO = more people, condoms = less people, by the OP’s logic. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/17 "2017-08-25T22:55:26Z")
Right wingers are against GMO products? I never knew that. I always assumed that was a left thing, since the “Nature’s Market” section of my Kroger offers many (and PROUDLY labeled) organic, non GMO, non gluten, non meat, etc products that I always assumed was the demense of the liberal animal lover. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2017, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/18 "2017-08-26T00:00:05Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Right wingers are against GMO products? I never knew that. I always assumed that was a left thing, since the “Nature’s Market” section of my Kroger offers many (and PROUDLY labeled) organic, non GMO, non gluten, non meat, etc products that I always assumed was the demense of the liberal animal lover. Google Alex Jones and Mike Adams (of NaturalNews infamy) and GMOs. Both are right wing loons who freak out over GMOs, although they’re so far out on the right that they’re flirting with extreme left wing territory. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/19 "2017-08-26T00:39:35Z")
Mike Adams is right wing? I don’t care to follow him, but I guess I assumed he was a lefty type because his shtick is an extreme version of anti-science hippies. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441/20 "2017-08-28T21:17:09Z")
I guess that depends on how far back into the GM foods story you go: Back in the 1990’s Monsanto was going to the third world countries and saying, “Look! We’ve got this new corn you can buy. We’ve created a strain that’s high yield, high nutrients, insect and mold resistant. Great Stuff! Just sign the contract…” Some of those third world countries took it. Some of them said, “No thanks. We noticed that part of that genetic modification also produces a sterile seed. So it’s nice that you’re offering a high-nutrition high resiliency grain, but it’s rather nefarious that your contract locks us into a decade of buying exclusively from you. We’d rather grow a corn that has seeds that we can set aside and plant next season.” Then Monsanto went to the media and said “Look! These stupid leaders are denying food to their people!” I found that to be rather unsavory corporate behavior – possibly racist. It was really more about gathering the funds and controlling the market with no concern for actually benefiting the consumer. But, hey, capitalism isn’t about benefiting consumers. –G! Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Lock him into a seafood supply contract? Who’s getting hooked? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-support-banning-gm-foods-then-you-are-a-racist/794441.md?page=2)