(I know this is about Rifftrax, but we don’t have a Rifftrax community.)

  • Jakdracula@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Have we checked all food to see if exploding them makes them into something better or did we just stop with corn?

    • SonicDeathTaco@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Let me tell you a little story about brassicas… broccoli, cabbage, bok choi, cauliflower, kohlrabi, canola oil. They’re all this little guy. Edit: Shit! I missed the exploding part. gracile green plant with small yellow leaves that looks nothing like broccoli

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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        8 months ago

        Bananas are a similar one to corn too. Take something almost entirely inedible and cultivate it into something edible. Makes you wonder what convinced them to start.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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            8 months ago

            Could be. We still don’t know why people became sedentary farmers over hunter-gatherers, but it’s happened many times in history.

            Somehow, farming happened independently but around the same time around the world, between 8000 and 10000 years ago. This is everywhere from Europe to the Americas to New Guinea, all apparently independently of each other!

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                8 months ago

                Beer was one of the first processed foods, but I don’t think that was the reason for the development of agriculture.

                They were farming taro on New Guinea 10,000 years ago. There’s no tradition, as far as I know, of making alcohol from taro.

            • Strykker@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              Saying we don’t know is kinda dumb though, farming allows a population group to massively outperform a hunter gatherer group in terms of food and energy collected over a year, this allows them to have more children, and results in fewer deaths due to accidents while hunting. Farming also means fewer people are required for the same amount of food intake leaving more people free to do other things like develop tools and weapons

              This all snowballs resulting in massive growth that allows the farming group to kill off or absorb any group that doesn’t farm.

              Same as natural selection/evolution, random choices/changes occur and the ones that lead to more children are the ones that last 1000s of years.

                • hark@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  If I’m going off my own experience and behaviors, I would assume that laziness made it seem like simply planting things would take less effort than hunting down an animal without doing hard calculations on total calories in/out and without imagining what could go wrong with the “lazy” approach.

            • Restaldt@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              Ever seen the happening?

              I bet its like that only instead of killing us the plants tricked humans into farming them

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Probably used is processed in a dish or alcohol were the seeds didn’t matter much, and over time farmers just made it easier to eat raw because “why not?”

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    This is what these non GMO types always seem to forget: we’ve been modifying the crap out of everything for the past thousands of years. We’re now justuch more efficient and smart about it.

    • Dettweiler@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They always picture someone in a lab with syringes and special machines to “modify DNA”. Most of the time it’s just a couple of potted plants under a lamp and a cotton swab. For fruit trees, you’re pretty much just replacing a branch with another branch. Tape and staples might be involved.

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Genetically modified plants is very different from selective breeding. Selective breeding mimics the natural evolution process, removing natural selection and replacing it with human decisions.

        Using a separate root stock from your fruiting trees isn’t genetic modification or breeding. It’s just taking desirable size features from a root stock and growing your desired fruit from that. It still remains two different plant, with two different DNAs. The fruit would produce a child of the fruit tree, the same as if it was grown from seed. If the root tree was allowed to flower it would create a seed the same as if it were never grafted.

        GMO are an extremely useful technology. When well regulated and tested will help produce food for the growing world population. The big problems with it are the consequences of it. Plant have been modified to tolerate high doses of weed killer, pesticides and fertilisers. These all help increase the productivity of the land, but the impacts are terrible on the local environment. Residual weed killer and pesticide may pose a risk to human as well.

        • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Thanks. Comments above yours are a bit disingenuous, trying to bunch up intrusive lab techniques with selective breeding. While the definition of GMO is pretty vague, let’s not pretend what Monsanto does is exactly the same as what Native Americans did.

          • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            It’s not. It’s more advanced, and yes, it’s better.

            You know, more technology becomes available, you use it to make life better for everyone. Monsanto execta can go pound dicks, but in principle, GMO food is perfectly fine, safe, and healthy. If anything, it’ll be more healthy (more vitamins), more plentiful as new crops can withstand droughts better, etc. etc. etc.

            So far the only counter argument to that that I’ve heard here is “nuh uh!”

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          When well regulated and tested will help produce food for the growing world population.

          No. It won’t.

          The Bill Gates/Monsanto Bootlicker Brigade wants to pretend that it’s (somehow) the actual foodcrops we have at our disposal that is (somehow) “flawed” and therefore requires unnecessary and (thoroughly patentable) meddling to “fix” - but, like all capitalist “solutions” to the problems caused by capitalism, it is merely a disasterous (but profitable) distraction.

          And, of course, this is quite apart from the fact that the right-wing histrionics about “population growth” has turned out like all other right-wing histrionics - false. In a few decades’ time, you’ll see these same capitalist bootlickers peddling the dubious wonders of GMOs now whining about population shrinkage.

          • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            You realize that if you cross breed plants and come up with something new, you can patent it? The only point you actually made about GMO is not specific to GMO.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              You realize that if you cross breed plants and come up with something new, you can patent it?

              Yes… I can cross-breed plants. Hell, it’s happening right now in my garden - cross-bred avocados, chillies and mokapanos. And since I’m not a parasitic organisation that only exist to make “red arrow go up” at the expense of everybody and everything on the planet, I can easily decide to simply give it all away for free.

              After all - I don’t benefit in any way when my fellow human beings live in a food insecure hellscape one paycheck away from starvation… but the parasites you lot are shilling for does.

              • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                Your complaint seems to be with capitalism and is completely separate from GMO.

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Your complaint seems to be with capitalism

                  Who do you think is peddling the (alleged) “need” for GMO food crops, genius? The tooth fairy?

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      This is what these non GMO types always seem to forget

      This is what these nauseating pro-GMO types always seem to forget - developing a food crop for thousands of years to become useful to humanity is not the same thing as destroying food security through capitalist monocropping with the aid of a few dodgy genes injected into something that never needed it in the first place.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        destroying food security through capitalist monocropping

        This has very little to do with GMOs.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          You want to claim that capitalists are (somehow) not the only people that stands to benefit from GMOs?

          Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            That’s such a stupid statement I don’t even know how to respond. Like I’d probably need to recreate several years of basic education before we could even be in the framework to consider a proper answer to your question. But which point you’d realize what a stupid premise it is.

            Let’s start here: why the hate for GMOs, when your problem is with capitalism?

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              That’s such a stupid statement

              Good lord - I so hate dealing with liberals.

              The only reason we have GMO food crops in the first place is due to capitalist profiteering - nobody else has any need for it, genius. GMO food crops is a “solution” to a “problem” that never existed.

              Is this hard to understand, liberal?

              • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                This has nothing to do with being a liberal. Scientists have said it’s more sustainable to use GMOs because genetic manipulation is just a tool you can use for good or evil. We have a larger population than ever before and an environmental crisis to deal with. We need every technological advantage we can get. This problem isn’t just about capitalism. Even if we get rid of capitalism and find we have enough food it’s always better to use less land and cause less environmental damage by using pest resistant crops and nutritional crops like golden rice. That’s assuming a revolution solves all food shortages despite the progress of climate change and pollution taking their toll on global food security.

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  This has nothing to do with being a liberal.

                  Yes it does, liberal - you swallowing this liberalese hook, line and sinker has everything to do with your shitty liberal politics.

                  Scientists have said it’s more sustainable to use GMOs

                  Oh, really? And where is their evidence?

                  We have a larger population than ever before

                  So your shitty liberal politics have absolutely nothing to do with the right-wing histrionics you are regurgitating here? You do know that shills get paid for shilling, right? Are you getting yours?

                  it’s always better to use less land and cause less environmental damage

                  You mean that exact thing GMO foodcrops have abysmally failed at accomplishing so far?

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        Yeah, all scientists are evil, all corporations are evil, all people working there are evil, it’s all evil.

      • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yes, while monocultures aren’t great, GMO crops just speed up the process you mentioned first. Developing a food crop over thousands of years. If we can speed up that process and generate better crops, why wouldn’t anyone want that?

        The whole politics around GMOs and greedy companies is something I wish didn’t exist, but GMOs is the way to go.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          GMO crops just speed up the process you mentioned first.

          No. It doesn’t. It shits all over the process I mentioned first and then it gets called “progress” by techbros like you.

          If we can speed up that process and generate better crops, why wouldn’t anyone want that?

          Why would we want that when our food crops have already been developed for us over thousands of years before our food supply was hijacked by a class of profiteering parasites?

          Are you listening to yourself?

          but GMOs is the way to go.

          No. It isn’t. Unless you’re a fan of everybody but the ultra-rich suffering famine - then it’s pretty much a ready-made recipe for you.

          • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            You literally make one argument: “nuh-uh!”

            Maybe read into GMO, what it does?

            Yeah, companies like Monsanto can suck dicks, but it’s not the only one and even they make loads of advanced too. Blame the managers, not the biologists. Changes to tomato DNA makes it that they stay good much longer, those are the results of GMO, these are the things that people like you are trying to stop.

            If the world is to survive the coming climate change disaster, we’ll NEED GMO more than anything but we can rest easy knowing that people like you will be on the line to stop that and make sure we’ll continue to go hungry.

            Learn a little, become less extremist.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Blame the managers

              You mean the people whose propaganda you are shilling here?

              makes it that they stay good much longer,

              Yeah… that’s what’s been holding our civilization back, genius - tomatoes that don’t act according to what your techbro sci-fi fantasies dictate they should.

              If the world is to survive the coming climate change disaster, we’ll NEED GMO

              Right, right… it just so happens (totally coincidentally) that we will (allegedly) “need” the (alleged) “solution” the very capitalists who caused the problem in the first place happens to be selling.

              What else do you believe, liberal? That Musk will reserve a spot for you on his Mars colony?

              • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                No one is mentioning Musk. He can go fuck himself on Mars, he’s a pile of shit.

                It’s a harsh reality that food may become hard to produce with the climate crisis. Obviously it’s large corporations to blame for that, but regardless of the blame, we may need to find new ways to farm depending on the climate.

                I’d rather rely on science than “thousands of years of selective breeding” to achieve the same result.

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  He can go fuck himself on Mars, he’s a pile of shit.

                  Harsh words for a bunch of people who shares his ideology, methinks. You should’nt be. Either be nice to your idols - or critique him properly. You’re a scientist, right? Shouldn’t be too difficult for you.

                  Obviously it’s large corporations to blame for that,

                  Oh look… another “scientist” that completely fails to apply their “scientific mind” to political reality. Why is that a feature amongst scientists?

                  “thousands of years of selective breeding” to achieve the same result.

                  What kind of scientist doesn’t recognize the scientific process in action? That is… unless you believe that it’s only white people in lab coats who could possibly ever do “science.”

          • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I’m not into tech, but I am a scientist (chemistry, not biology) but I have a pretty good grasp on it.

            If it can generate more hearty crops, it’s a net good for everyone.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              more hearty crops

              Yes, because we don’t already have the ability to do this, right? Our food crops is so “non-hearty” one has to wonder why we bothered with civilization at all.

              • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                That’s an asinine take on everything. The only reason we need “more hearty” crops is the increase in population, and the climate crisis.

                Also “food crops are” not is.

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  and the climate crisis.

                  Ah, yes… another “scientist” that wants to fix the climate crisis while completely ignoring the very thing that caused the climate crisis in the first place.

                  How “scientific.”

    • Bizzle@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Do you think the Native Americans hundreds of years ago were wearing lab coats in clean rooms, CRISPRing fucking maize? Selective breeding is different than genetic modification. If you don’t even know what it is or what you’re talking about about AT ALL, to the point where you’re conflating two completely dissimilar terms, maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself.

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    What about all of the other varieties of corn? Are they not relatives to each other?

  • RatBin@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I have seen this image many times in my uni courses.

    • when european first reached the continent, the breeding of the plant was heavily advance, somewhat on the right side of thr image

    • this is one of the staple crops without which we could not survive.

    • the current varieties are so productive, but they require all modern farming methods, which can be impactful

    • if you want to apply biological agriculture, the mkst recent varieties are not a good pick, unless they actively support that

    • that image also serve as a quick explaination as to how our food systems evolved. When you read ancient folk tales, or even when you read about these plants in Biblical texts, imagine the one on the mid left. A small plant capable of supporting a limited amount of people

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      What I think is more interesting in terms of New World staples is what the indigenous people of the Andes did with the potato. Not only did the cultivate dozens of varieties, they also learned how to freeze-dry them for long-term storage. That’s amazing for people who just barely entered the bronze age by the time of European contact.

  • kinther@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Damn I’ve never seen the evolution of corn like this before. Really interesting stuff!

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    For real tho - any estimations on how many gens/years it took/takes to get from A to at least C?

  • groats_survivor@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Is this even true? Why would they keep breeding something inedible and practically useless hoping in thousands of years it’d be edible?

    I really don’t know, it just seems like a stretch

    Edit: spelling

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      It is true. They can trace the genetic lineage. The original plant isn’t totally inedible, it’s just less nutritious and harder to process. The same is true with wild grains in the Middle East. precursors of domesticated crops like wheat and barley were cultivated from wild grasses which produced less, had less nutrition and took more effort to process into flour.

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s wrong to say they were useless like OP suggests. They were very useful. It was a crop you could reliably grow and come back to harvest.

        It also stored very well. The breeding was only to make it more useful. It was always useful.

        Much of the breeding was just selection. The crops you would pick and store would be larger. So we it came to plant your were using the biggest largest variety every year. A few generations of this would produce notable results. Then even finer and more deliberate selection would be done.