GMO and right livelihood hi all,

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Norden
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GMO and right livelihood hi all,

Post by Norden »

Hi all,

It's clear. Buddha said there are five trades are to be avoided by lay people: business in weapon, human being, meat, intoxicant and poison.

We should not change this list according to our taste. But Buddha teaching is about compassion and not harming others. GMO Food is said to be harmful but it is harmless according to other people.

The question is, if you have business in food that may have GMO content is this considered right livelihood? Thanks

Edit: sorry typed hi at the wrong place.
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KathyLauren
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Re: GMO and right livelihood hi all,

Post by KathyLauren »

Some GMO foods are probably harmful, and some aren't. So the Buddhist approach would be to avoid working in a business making the harmful ones.

Om mani padme hum
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PeterC
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Re: GMO and right livelihood hi all,

Post by PeterC »

Norden wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:09 am Hi all,

It's clear. Buddha said there are five trades are to be avoided by lay people: business in weapon, human being, meat, intoxicant and poison.

We should not change this list according to our taste. But Buddha teaching is about compassion and not harming others. GMO Food is said to be harmful but it is harmless according to other people.

The question is, if you have business in food that may have GMO content is this considered right livelihood? Thanks

Edit: sorry typed hi at the wrong place.
GMO itself is really not the issue, selective adaptation of plants and animals has been going on for centuries, with effects that one might consider 'unnatural' - compare, for instance, at an x-ray of the head of a french bulldog with that of a wolf. The bigger issue is modern agriculture itself, which is massively damaging to the environment. If you have a problem with GMO, you should have much more of a problem with that.

But in terms of right livelihood - it's very simple, the Vanijja Sutta spells it out the negative list unambiguously. You may conclude, from a personal perspective, that other things are also damaging and should be avoided (e.g. working in Facebook), and that may well be the right karmic decision, but that's not prescribed here.
Norden
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Re: GMO and right livelihood hi all,

Post by Norden »

I was told by a Buddhist monk that there is a reason why Buddha prohibited five livelihoods. We should not change the list just because some jobs are harmful. Buddhist teaching is about non harming but I was told that if the food contains GMO it's not wrong livelihood because it's clear as you already said too the list is crystal clear. This is where the problem starts, Buddhists are told to follow Buddha's teaching i.e. middle way, the list is clear. But Buddhists are also told to avoid harming others. I think right livelihood is relatively underdeveloped topic.
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Ayu
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Re: GMO and right livelihood hi all,

Post by Ayu »

The off topic moved to here:
https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.p ... 49#p571849

And this topic moved from Mahayana Buddhism to Ethical Conduct.
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Redfaery
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Re: GMO and right livelihood hi all,

Post by Redfaery »

For what it's worth, I believe most GMO cheese is coagulated with bioengineered rennet, as opposed to the lining from a calf's stomach. So GMO can actually be beneficial... at least if you're a cow.
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