Re: BIOTECH: Farmers are not shunning biotech this season

From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Mon Apr 30 2001 - 21:22:54 MDT


At 12:20 PM 4/30/01 -0700, Max More wrote:

>"Now it's time for a planting season that was seen as a potential turning
>point in the adoption of new technologies on farms. After all of the
>controversy surrounding Starlink and other genetically modified crops, many
>consumer and environmental groups expected farmers to back away from
>biotech crops.
>
>That isn't happening. One reason -- on Formo's farm and on thousands of
>others -- goes back to a perennial uncertainty: the threat of corn borers,
>which can chomp away a year's profits in a few days."

>http://www.techreview.com/screaming/bioarticle.asp?SMContentIndex=0&SMConte
ntSet=0

With better testing and more discussion, farmers will be able to decide for
themselves if they want to farm with genetically modified crops.

In another article I read today, "Genetically Altered Foods are the Key to
Feeding Increasingly Hungry World" (August 27, 2000, Op-ed By Richard
Berman) -- a couple of quotes of rational. I especially liked the
statement about "The organic crusade finds an audience in a movement that
sees natural farming as one step on the road back to Eden."

"The plain truth, quoting FDA Commissioner Jane Henney, is that 'biotech
products have produced no evidence of food safety risks: not one rash, not
one sore throat, not one headache.' That is not a claim that organic foods,
which often eschew such fundamental safety steps as pasteurization, can
match. "

"How then is the organic-foods industry able to put this new exciting
agricultural technology under a cloud? Part of the answer is the tendency
of many Americans to cling to romantic ideals. The organic crusade finds an
audience in a movement that sees natural farming as one step on the road
back to Eden. Chefs Collaborative’s founding organization, Oldways, for
instance, speaks of looking back for dietary lessons that would help
humanity weave a seamless web of agriculture, behavior, history, tradition,
culture, health, finance, politics . . . ' Or as Chefs Collaborative board
member Judy Wicks puts it, 'We like to say we use good food to lure
innocent customers into social activism.'"

http://www.guestchoice.com/oped19.htm

Natasha

Natasha Vita-More
http://www.natasha.cc
Book - Create/Recreate: The 3rd Millennial Culture
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