From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Dec 19 1999 - 10:38:58 MST
On Sat, 18 Dec 1999 hal@finney.org wrote:
> Greg wrote:
> > 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.
>
Greg, I'm inclined to second Hal's perspective on this. Nature had
an agri-bio discussion in the Nov. 25th issue (p 341-345). The
section topics are interesting:
"Access issues may determine whether agri-biotech will help the
world's poor"
"To turn a blind eye to 40,000 people starving to death every day is
a moral outrage."
"India intends to reap the full commercial benefits"
"Licensing problems are slowing the adoption of GM crops in India"
"Smugglers aim to circumvent GM court ban in Brazil"
"Brazilian farmers are fighting back against legal barriers to GM crops".
The bottom line is the Green's will lose the moral high ground when
it is perceived that their position is denying better nutrition for
those who need it and/or causing food to be more expensive for those
who are starving.
One can argue that making U.S. foods cheaper may actually not be
a good idea, since it may hurt markets in 3rd world countries where
people are more dependent on small farms for income. The real trick
is getting the engineers to focus on solving problems for crops in
third world countries and making those improvments available to farmers
in those areas. They are the ones who will be driven by simple economics
and will be unlikely to care as much for the biodiversity, insecticide,
etc. arguments.
You didn't notice a large marjority of the people in New York up in arms
about getting insecticide dropped all over Queens in response to the Nile
Fever encephalitis outbreak this fall. Why? Because their lives were
potentially on the line.
If you think about this and put good nutrition for your child up against
monarch butterflies, I'm going to bet the butterfly loses.
Robert
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