Hey folks-
I will be on a local one hour radio show later today (7 p.m.) on KOPN here
in Columbia, MO talking about genetic engineering and I have a couple of
hundred questions. I will limit them to just a few:
Does anyone have a good list of biotech employees that have gone into the
regulatory agencies? And did they go back to their former jobs when they
got done?
I am working on a list of companies/countries/agencies/groups that have
passed anti-GMO decisions, does one already exist, or the pieces of one?
I am also trying to make a list of GMO ingredients in our food supply, does
one, or the pieces of one, already exist?
I am working on the question from the perspective of arguments used by
apologists of the technology and why they are fallacious. Here are some of
the ones I am working on:
GMO foods are not significantly different than hybrids.
Difference in kind, not in degree
Not enough to regulate, but enough to patent
GMO foods are safe.
To non-GMO farmers
Genetic drift
Increased prolificacy and promiscuousness of GMO's
Superweeds/superbugs
Genie out of the bottle problem
To humans
Concerns about increased food allergies
Unanticipated problems due to novel combinations
Ethical and religious concerns
Loss of antibiotics due to use of such as gene markers
To the rest of the environment
Terminator/Traitor technology
Monarch Butterfly/Green Lacewing studies
Concerns about damage to bird populations
The difference between not proven unsafe and precautionary
principle
GMO foods are well regulated.
By whom? Revolving door problem
Agencies caught between regulating/promoting technologies
(witness
USDA's collusion in creation of Terminator)
Regulation divided among different scientists in different
departments
of different agencies whose agendas are not always in synch.
We need GMO's to:
Feed the world
Reduce the use of toxic chemicals
Those who resist the expansion of GMO's are:
Tree hugging environmentalist/Luddites
Foreign protectionists
Irrational
So what am I missing? Please help. I will be at the farm most of tomorrow
picking for my CSA delivery/Wed. market.
Namaste',
Guy Clark
