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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (97897)	5/11/2003 5:24:34 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Don't Pester Europe on Genetically Modified Food> Both the US and the EU spend over $100B/y each, on agricultural subsidies. Both constantly engage in thinly veiled trade restraints, to protect local producers at the expense of foreigners. And both give lip service to free trade and a level playing field. The losers here, are farmers in poor countries, who have no powerful wealthy governments to back up their interests. I don't quite understand why French housewives are so worried about feeding their babies FrankenFood. There is a big danger here, that genetic technology, could go the way of nuclear power technology. It could get such a bad reputation, that there is a broad consensus against even considering the technology. The French are against genetically modified corn, but don't mind having nuclear plants in their back yards. Americans have the opposite attitudes on those two technologies. It would be interesting, to try and figure out why these two populations have come to their different beliefs. The facts available are the same to all.

To: LindyBill who wrote (97897)	5/11/2003 5:33:19 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 281500

Don't Pester Europe on Genetically Modified Food Thanks for posting this reprinted op-ed piece, I agree that it provides food for thought. But more seriously, having lived in Europe and seen cultural attitudes and the development of the mad cow scare, as well as other public health scandals, this is one time that, among the customary stereotypes about other countries, I see something really on target. For example this sound bite : That experience was all the more searing because food is to European culture what free speech is to American culture. In France, I'd say this is actually true ! And it's not a joking matter. There's no point in making enemies over stuff like this with the important issues now before us.