Some thoughts on the war on Monsanto:
Monsanto is just too perfect an issue for a certain class of urbane lefty already inclined to food snobbery and to activism. It harmonizes with his inherent mistrust of corporations, confirms him in the superiority of his lifestyle choices, and accords with the deep strain of Rousseauian anti-modernism that runs through him. Never mind that a world without GMOs would be a hungrier world, a world in which the poor would have to pay something closer to the prices he happily bears for the peace of mind that comes from the politically correct consumption of roughage. As for the rest, well, let them eat cake. Locally sourced, sustainably produced, certified organic cake.
I did note on someone’s FB page the other day that the GMO hysteria is the modern version of “Let them eat cake.” I don’t want to hear one more word about the “Republican” “war on science.” These nutjobs probably think that Norman Borlaug committed crimes against humanity.
They’re not concerned with humanity. Borlaug, in their view, committed crimes against *Gaia*, and that’s much worse…for some reason.
I can understand greens who claim we need to care for the Earth because we live here and shouldn’t foul our own nest, but those who make a religion of preserving nature drive me up the wall. Apparently they don’t see the naturalistic fallacy as a fallacy at all.
It’s funny how some liberals claim to love humanity but in fact they hate people.
Yep. There are some Deep Greens who would like to crucify Borlaug and all like him, since they think the “proper” carrying capacity of the Earth is only 500 million people. Note that they never volunteer to be part of the 6.5 billion people who would have to die to get us there.
It doesn’t help that Monsanto has had occasion to be overly aggressive in asserting patent “rights”. But government shares fault there in supporting excessively expansive patent claims with faulty standards.
When? I often ask this question and get nothing but propaganda with no factual backing. Apparently farmers never lie about where they get seed (“it must have blown over the fence!”) and seed cleaners are not required to ensure their customers have the legal right to have their seed cleaned.
This my preferred Soy milk:
http://www.aussiehealthproducts.com.au/milk-products.php?id=66777
“Pure Harvest Organic Malt Free Soy Milk” boasts that it is GMO Free and has a nice little spiel on the box about how they don’t think sufficient research has been done on the effect of GMO foods on human health and the environment. Why do I buy this hippie science-hating product? Because it has the lowest sugar content of all the available soy milk products. I would much prefer a GMO-happy product with lower price and even less sugar, please.
Stop and think about it for a moment:
Every bite of food you eat today is a GMO, and has been for centuries. The corn we eat does not have the same DNA as the maize eaten by pre-Columbian Indians because the West has been selectively breeding it since before Mendel formally recognized the concept of inherited traits. The same is true of wine, wheat, vegetables, meat of all types, (did you think that guernsey cows gave milk during the Roman Empire?) and pretty much everything else you can think of.
The issue today seems to be not whether a particular product is genetically modified, but how that modification was achieved. It seems to be acceptable to the modern Luddite if a botanist deliberately inteferes with the reproductive processes of a plant, but not if a geneticist does the same thing.
cgage – The difference is that 20th-century corn hadn’t had genes from completely different species inserted into it. (I said “20th century” because for all I know, 21st century corn has had the Frankenstein treatment.)
Mr. Fleming – Nobody has to die in any unnatural manner to reduce the number of humans. After all, about 300,000 people die every day – mostly of natural causes.
BTW, if GMO is so wonderful why has Monsanto attempted to have the use of the term “GMO-free” effectively banned, by mounting lawsuits alleging some sort of implied defamation?
I thought freedom of choice was the idea. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to exercise that freedom when one is not allowed to be told whether the food you are about to buy has in it ingredients you don’t want to consume, or not.
Hello Fletcher. Actually, gene transferes between species are pretty common. In plants, closely related species can transfer genes sexually. Even unrelated species can have gene transferes via virus infections. Humans apparently have some bird and pig genes, I have read recently, brought in from the flu. Plants swap genes a lot more easily than animals.
Fletcher, hybridization, cross-breeding, and active non-direct-genetic manipulations managed pretty wide variations. Including cross-species.
Here’s a snippet off of “Golden Delicious” – which is itself an unexplained mutant.
Descendent cultivars
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Arlet (Golden Delicious × Idared)
Bohemia (Lord Lambourne × Golden Delicious)
Chantecler (Golden Delicious × Reinette Clochard)
Delbarestivale delcorf (Golden Delicious × Stark Jonagrimes)
Elstar (Ingrid Marie × Golden Delicious)
Jonagold (Golden Delicious × Jonathan)
Pinova (Clivia × Golden Delicious)
Tentation delblush (Grifer (Blushing Golden) × Golden Delicious)
Cripps Pink (Lady Williams × Golden Delicious)
Mutsu (apple) (Indo apple × Golden Delicious)
Opal (apple) (Topaz × Golden Delicious)
And each one of those is “playing with fire”. The combinations exceed ten to the 285-millionth power.
So, Fletcher — if you set the birthrate to ZERO (which is completely impossible, short of a Stalinist dream dystopia with enforced mass sterilizations and mandatory abortions), it would only take SIXTY YEARS of the current death rate to get humanity to 500,000,000 people. Does that sound like an interesting solution to you? Or maybe we should consider other options? #DoTheMath
The left are firm believers in the 5 minute hate.
Monsanto, Exxon, Kochs, Fox, Limbaugh, Palin, Christians.
Everyone gets to be hated to keep the emo children focused.