Reflections: Discussion Forum - sgForums

For the discussion forum activity, I decided to join sgForums to post threads on the topic regarding GM foods.

Generally, sgForums is a poular forum based in Singapore. Users can comments, uploads or post topics about their daily life activities and any “unusual” thing that happens around them, that is potentially to  be a hot topic. Hosts forums such as Chit Chat, Bar, Aunt Agony, food, babes, politics and a marketplace. Users can havemore options and posts their comments or start a new topic on the correct category. sgForums was ranked 151 in Singapore worldwide network traffic, according to Alexa.com. The fraction of visits to Sgforums.com referred by search engines is approximately 34%, and it is based in the UK.

Although it wasn’t the first time I visits the forum ( it was way back to secondary school  I think!), but I still roughly remember the functions and tabs on the homepage of sgForums. On the homepage, different categories of forums are available for user to visits. Besides that, recent posts and top forums will also be available on the homepage of sgForums. A shoutbox is located on the top right hand corner for user to voice their feelings and thoughts over sgForums.In order to gain different perception and views, I have started 2 different threads name with similar meanings on 2 different categories, Foods and Speakers Corner. 

Homepage of sgForums

First I posted under Foods category because it was the primary category where it belongs to, but the views and replies are not very satisfying. Over 80 viewers has viewed the thread, but in the end only 4 replies altogether (2 reply were from the same person and the other 2 was from me).

Thread: "Believe It or Not! GM Food cause cancer" under Food category

On the other hand, the second threads, which I posted under Speakers Corner category, was quite popular and has even featured on the homepage of sgForums.

Thread: "Sure anot!! Consume GM Food = Higher chances of cancer?"
                under Speakers Corner category

Below are some replies extracted from the thread:

No lah, GM food = General Manager's food ie rich people's food

Poor people in 3rd world countries eat organic food.

Actually, rich people in Singapore are afraid of dying now, so they now like to eat the poor people's food ie organic food only.

When they buy vegetables, chicken and drinks, they asked "Is it organic ?"

What an irony. – by Devil7030

Genetic modified food.

Yes, I came across such reports.

Mainly due to the uncertainty on how newly modified genes express themselves.

As much as molecular science has come so far, there is still little knowledge on how genes interact and communicate to switch one another on and off.  – by 4sg

this question has always been a debate...I've got no comments.

Most of the food that we consume have chemicals added during their growing process..

If you guys really wanna be safe, stick to organic food which is rather expensive.

Otherwise, be a vegetarian. – by dangerboi

Well, there are reasons why the food industry has resisted GM-labeling in most countries. In Singapore, it isn't practiced. Obviously, there are huge money interests at stake here and CASE is not doing their job.

While research on GM-food has not been widely publicised, they have been linked to birth defects, here and here, long-term sterility, are toxic to mammals. In fact, they have been found to have no effect on yields as most proponents like to assert. Most GM-foods have been engineered either to be resistant to certain herbicides/ pesticides, like Monsanto's Roundup-ready products, or engineered to last only 1 generation so that farmers cannot save their seeds and have to go back and buy seed from MNCs like Monsanto.

And it's obvious that such a tactic has only the company's profits in mind, not the food security of any country or the world in mind- profit maximisation through food monopoly. More often, getting involved in GM crops cost farmers more money in terms of the herbicides/ pesticides used, water usage, expensive, patented seeds that there is huge stress caused by the financial burden.

I think the west is going for transgenetic crop in a big way. Starting from the UN sponsored crops in Africa. – by freedomclub

From the replies, most readers agrees with that point and provide their point of view on this matter. Some of them have no comments while freedomclub has provided detailed information that how the progress of GM foods being develop.

As a conclusion, through forum discussion, we can have different perception and feedbacks from different readers, therefore provide more information and statistics on how well the acceptance of public on this topic. In this case, public acceptance is quite an important factor because the targeted consumer for GM foods is human. They need to gain trustworthy from user before they can proceed with developing the products.