From: hal@finney.org
Date: Tue Jun 26 2001 - 13:10:17 MDT
J Hughes forwards,
> http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/webfeatures/2001/06/mooney-c-06-22.html
>
> Libertarians are Right!
>
> When It Comes to Promising Technologies Like Genetically Modified Foods,
> Liberals Need Stranger Bedfellows
> Chris Mooney
This seems to be a good article, from a genuinely left-leaning magazine.
I notice that their site has a number of articles taking the opposite
view on globalism and such. They may have published this more as an
attempt to stir up controversy rather than a sign that they are convinced
by the arguments. But still it makes some very good points.
> The Nation is hardly the only example of a left-leaning magazine with
> technophobic tendencies; Mother Jones has struck a similar note on
> genetically modified foods on many occasions. But good industry critics in
> particular need to disassociate themselves from such views, especially from
> radical activists who oppose genetically modified food on the spooky but
> illogical grounds that it's "unnatural." Some are already doing so: Michael
> Jacobson, head of the consumer food-watch group Center for Science in the
> Public Interest, has leaped to the defense of biotechnology, which he
> described in the Wall Street Journal last January as, "a powerful tool to
> increase food production, protect the environment, improve the
> healthfulness of foods, and produce valuable pharmaceuticals."
It is encouraging to see some of the more respectable liberal
organizations taking this position. I hope that with time, more will
come to see the inconsistency with so-called progressive organizations
adopting reactionary Luddite policies.
According to reports I read in the L.A. Times, the biotech meeting this
past weekend in San Diego was attended by only 500-1000 protestors,
considerably fewer than had been expected. The conference did a good job
of focussing on golden rice (rice augmented with vitamin A) and similar
technologies that are hard to argue against. The protestors are left
advocating malnutrition, a hard point to sell.
Hal
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