Are GMO's actually bad?

[Jade]

Organic farming also uses pesticides, herbicides, insecticides etc. The difference between it and conventional farming is that organic farmers do not use synthetic/man made chemicals, which are supposedly worse, but I am not so sure anymore. The synthetics appear to be more effective in performing their duty (killing bugs), and therefore less of them need to be used in comparison to those which are organic. In fact, because of genetic modification, some plants produce their own insecticide and therefore it is not necessary that they be sprayed at all or as much. Does that then not mean that less chemicals are used in conventional farming practices? I understand that there is much more to consider then the quantity of chemicals used, but it is an argument which I have been spouting and now realize is mistaken.

This is a good point. However, I believe plants and our ecosystem respond better to natural pesticides in general cooperate better with naturally occuring systems that prevent pests - mostly a healthy, vibrant ecosystem as opposed to a monoculture. And some chemical pesticides have wreaked such a havoc on our ecosystem (see: DDT). Honestly, I prefer *really* organic pesticides - like praying mantis, or chickens who patrol the crop rows and eat the problem bugs. Again, if you can facilitate a healthy ecosystem, needing to supplant the immune system of plants is much less likely.

The argument goes that they are afraid that people will not purchase them simply because of the label, not because of any legitimate health concerns. They are afraid of losing money. Basically, why label if there is no real reason for it?

The FDA, who is in charge of the labels, is hardly trustworthy, IMO. Do some research on that and see where it leads you.

I don't know, does Microsoft release horrible Operating Systems to slowly force people to buy the next best Operating System they make as an incentive to push people off their old OS?

I worked on an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft back in the day, where persons of the State of Iowa received over $400 million in compensation. The amount of horrible, backhanded things that Microsoft did/does in the name of eliminating competition and furthering their monopoly is insane.