From: hal@finney.org
Date: Sat Dec 18 1999 - 23:41:19 MST
Greg Burch, GBurch1@aol.com, writes:
> I pass this along as an example of the kind of organizing that the Greens
> have achieved in the "anti-GM foods" campaign. At this point I believe that
> there is a better than even chance that the agbio genengineering industry as
> it existed at the beginning of 1999 will be essentially gone by the end of
> 2000. This is not to say that the use of genetic engineering in ag research
> will cease, but that the commercial sale of crop plants created with
> recombinant technology could become a minor aspect of the industry's activity.
This may happen, but I think it will be only a temporary victory by
the Greens, and reflects more the disorganized and unprepared state of
the opposition than the attractiveness of the dogmatic environmentalist
position. The problem is that no consumer is wildly enthusiastic about
eating foods which have been engineered to produce harmful chemicals
like pesticides.
This is the great blunder of the genetic engineering industry, that the
initial products are all oriented around greater agricultural productivity
without regard to the sensibilities of the final consumers. Granted, it
may be a forgivable mistake simply because no one could have anticipated
the groundswell of opposition. But it is not a mistake they should make
again.
There are many products on which the bio industry can focus their efforts
which will benefit end users by increasing the health value, flavor and
palatability of foods. The next wave of genetically engineered crops
must be designed to improve crops from the perspective of the end user
rather than the farmer. The Greens will be greatly hampered in their
scaremongering when they are seen as depriving people of nutrients rather
than protecting them from poisons.
> Even if it can declare "victory" against "GM foods", the political machine
> created by the Greens in this process will still exist, and it will be
> looking for targets ...
These kinds of battles are never over. Even though the Greens have the
momentum now, there is plenty of time and opportunity for the tide to
turn. In the long run the manifold benefits of genetic engineering will
overwhelm the reactionary opposition.
Hal
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