Re: SOC/AG-BIO: AgBio Industry Beginning to Wake Up

From: R. Harrill (brixman@erols.com)
Date: Thu Jul 20 2000 - 05:49:04 MDT


GBurch1@aol.com passed on a piece that described how the biotech industry is going
to ram GMO down our throats whether we like it or not:

> In 1999, genetically modified seeds designed to produce their own
> insecticides or withstand powerful new herbicides comprised 57 percent of the

Here's an updated quote for you: "Science stops where politics [or marketing]
begins."

My last post was labeled troll-work by someone who insisted I had no right to say
anything until I had posted a certain (unspecified) number of posts first. The
abrupt Catch-22 attack took me aback.

Anyway, I have something else to say. If Catch-22 is still in effect, someone
else will have to set the server to delete my message.

Question: are you folks familiar with the Bay of Mexico dead zone? If not, here's
a basic reference...
http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1996/10/102196/feature.asp

Now the article gives a simplistic "nutrient overload" view of the matter, but
there are those who look deeper. And some of the better minds are wondering if
modern farming with its over-reliance on herbicides is causing problems much
bigger, and faster, than nature can clean them up. I'm only using the "Dead Zone"
as one illustration of non-thinking people pushing us into deep trouble. There
are plenty more: the Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, etc.

I know many of you people are gizmo-heads and think technology is *the* answer for
everything, but big-time messing with the environment can cause trouble that may
be impossible to back out of---emergency government funding to the contrary.

Look back up at the snippet above and see if you can visualize the CEO's of those
big GMO companies drooling over the profits from increased pesticide/herbicide
sales. I'm a bit of a techno-head myself, but I'm also a non-toxic farmer and my
studies have revealed *nothing* that the GMO companies are doing that can help the
land. No, it's quite the contrary. GMOs should be tested to see what they will
bungle. And, I'm sorry to say, that testing may need to be for much longer
periods of time than you're thinking---perhaps for generations.

BTW, I think it was Bonnie who broached the subject of animal/human
communication. Did anyone bring up Monty Roberts? If he and his horses are not
communicating, I honestly don't know the meaning of the word.
http://dharma-haven.org/five-havens/listens.htm

Regards,
Rex Harrill



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