Just to address one of the many grandiose and bizarre points in that vastly self-indulgent post, the so-called Luddite European opposition to bio-engineered foods is not merely skeptical of GMF science, it's about economics.
Right now about 75% of all genetically modified food is owned or controlled by 4 US companies. They claim that it's not only safe to eat but safe to grow and economical because of higher yields, pest-resistance, yada, yada.
Here's the downside:
1. Since they require anyone using their seed to sign a contract promising to buy the seed for the next crop from them, they effectively now own the business of anyone growing their crop. Your beloved small family farm is not only squeezed on the front-end by having to buy new seed every year instead of using seed they produce themselves, but they are squeezed on the back end by the sheer monopolistic power of the giant agricultural buyers who game the system to keep prices down the same way Enron gamed the system to keep the prices of power up.
2. The purity of some essential corn strains grown only in Mexico has been destroyed by errant genetically modified material in the past year. This has been a truly shocking development that has been verified by numerous labs including the(notoriously leftist) USDA. This was an accident, but the consequences will be potentially disastrous. We are not talking about an endangered species here that you will never miss. We are talking about our basic food supply. The purity of those strains, which are necessary to recover from natural disasters around the world, can never be recovered.
3. The claims of higher yields by GM corn are not being born out as originally expected.
4. Pollen from GM corn can travel as far as six miles. Contaminated corn with genetic modifications is ruining the crops of farmers who choose to grow and advertise their product as organic. The genes in question are definitely foreign because they are biologically tagged and can be specifically identified.
5. The European resistance to GMF is not so much about unfounded fears, which may not prove to be so unfounded after all, but also resisting being steamrolled into turning over control of their food supply to the suits at Monsanto and ConAgra.
I feel so much better now. But I also know this is wasted on a blowhard such as yourself. |
