From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Jan 26 2003 - 21:58:48 MST
I'm going to try and put my words into extropic "action".
The GM cows article from New Scientist contained a quote
from "Vanessa Atkinson" of "Greenpeace Australia", to the
effect of:
"The rejection of genetically engineered food is very strong, in countries
like China as well as the West. And if people don't want to eat it, no
one will produce it - we've seen that clearly in Europe," says Vanessa
Atkinson of Greenpeace Australia. It would be important to ensure that
any GM animal ingredient would be labelled, she says."
Now, I would tend to disagree with the assertion that there is strong
resistance to GM foods in China (we are talking about the place where
there is extensive government and VC funding of stem cell research
as documented in my previous comments abstracted from publications
in Nature). Bottom line -- people who are poor or starving will be
happy to consume whatever satisfies their hunger pangs and keeps them
alive. If GM foods contain more protein, are less expensive, etc.
then can anyone *really* believe that people (other than those who
have been "brainwashed" in a religious cult perspective) would reject
consuming them? The assertion is "irrational".
[The suggestions by Vanessa do raise the question of whether much
of Europe has indeed been "brainwashsed".]
*So*, in the vein of "talk less" -- "do more" (and I'm well aware
that "doing" may involve "talking" -- I offer up this URL:
http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/truefood/newsdetail.asp?PRID=345
Which seems to contain some telephone numbers for Vanessa and
her associates.
Some interesting questions that pop into my mind....
- "Are you aware of how many people die from starvation each year?"
The figure is staggering -- 13-18 million people each year [1]
- "Have you done an analysis of how many people will starve to
death due to more expensive food costs as a result of the
policies Greenpeace is promoting?"
- "Do you have any problems going to sleep at night knowing that
your activities may result in the deaths of millions of human lives?"
(The last one is a bit of a stretch since it assumes the "green"
perspective will prevail.)
But I'm sure you get the basic idea. Invent your own questions.
Get creative. Then call Vanessa's office or Vanessa herself.
Be polite. Be "reasonable". But do not be reluctant to
"raise the issues". After all people will live or die based
on how *really* extropic we are willing to be.
Robert
Refs:
1. "Ending Hunger: An idea whose time has come", Praeger, (1985).
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