Re: CTHD: Truth in Labelling Campaign

From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 11:03:43 MDT


It's your group so you can do what you want, but...

...I don't see why, of all the threats facing us in the world today,
organic foods are high on the list! Why beat up on people who just want
to eat healthy?

And I don't think the argument you are implicitly making is valid.
Specifically you are saying, in effect, that modern genetic engineering
is not fundamentally different from the techniques of hybridization and
cross-breeding used in the past. But the obvious difference is that
modern techniques have increased the scope of possible genetic mixings
by many orders of magnitude.

In the past you might be able to cross one grass with another. Now,
you can cross that grass with a legume, or a tree, or a bacterium, or
for that matter with a human being. A technology with such an expanded
scope is really a totally different technology.

Oh, well, as I said you can do what you want...

Hal

P.S. While you're at it why don't you say that the food gets its energy
from nuclear reactions? Or that it contains substances known to be toxic?



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:13:44 MST