From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue Jul 09 2002 - 04:20:28 MDT
On Tuesday, July 9, 2002, at 02:04 am, John K Clark wrote:
> "Harvey Newstrom" <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com>
>
>> You have changed the subject. Nobody is questioning
>> whether golden rice is good or not. The question is
>> whether it should be labeled differently than regular rice.
>
> You said yourself the rice looks different so there is no big secret
> that
> it's not the same as regular rice, but if you force people to brand the
> label with some sort of a scarlet letter saying the product was made
> with
> Frankenstein technology then the golden rice project will fail, it's as
> simple as that. And then millions will continue to die and go blind
> who need not have.
>
What are you talking about? I don't want to label it as "Frankenstein"
technology. I want to label it as "golden rice" so people can tell the
difference from regular rice. Why would anybody want to force people to
buy opaque bags or boxes of rice and have to guess which kind they are
getting? Why not label them so people can choose?
Your only argument is that people will choose wrong, so you want to take
away their ability to choose. Hiding information or taking away choice
is an unextropian way to force product success. A free-market approach
would be full disclosure and letting the customer decide.
I am appalled that so-called free market people are willing to throw
away freedoms and competition when it comes to their pet products. If
you products can't gain customer support, then they deserve to fail. If
people don't want your product, then that's they way the free market
chooses. There are lots of products that "should" have prevailed, yet
customers chose otherwise. Too bad, so sad. But tampering with the
free-market, removing choice, or deceiving customers is not the way to
force uncompetitive products to prevail over people's old-time
favorites. Clearly, the benefits of GM food aren't good enough to get
the consumer public to switch. They need better advertising, education,
and better products. This is basic free-market stuff. How could any
extropian be against that?
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> Principal Security Consultant <www.Newstaff.com>
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