Daddy, Please Pass the Genetically Modified Rice
…from Greenpeace.
Rice is daily food for half of the world’s population. Genetically modified (GM) rice, on the other hand, is a threat to our agriculture, our biodiversity and a possible risk to our health.
At present, GM rice is not grown commercially anywhere in the world. But Bayer, the German chemical giant, has genetically manipulated rice to withstand higher doses of a toxic pesticide called glufosinate, which is considered to be so dangerous to humans and the environment that it will soon be banned from Europe.
Check out this video.
In just a few weeks, the European Union will decide whether or not this GM rice can enter EU countries, appear on supermarket shelves and end up on our dinner plates. If the EU approves the import of Bayer GM rice, farmers in the US and elsewhere may soon start planting it.
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Catherine Durkin Robinson
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Food has been “genetically engineered” for centuries… so much so that every bit you take has been engineered.
GM can increase the production, increase the size, increase resistence to pests, shorten the growing time, etc…
Why would you oppose these things and prove that Malthus is right?
Malthus? Dude had some interesting ideas, and some wacky ones. But I don’t know that they are relevant here.
Bottom line is, I don’t want food that is resistant to toxins we shouldn’t be using anyway. The benefits for Bayer are clear. Not so much for the rest of us.
But thanks for playing, cutie patootie!
Okay, so are you upset about genetically modified foods or are you upset about a pesticide, because the two are different issues.
You may have a point about the unwise action of increasing a pesticide, even though there is no scientific reason to believe this will cause any harm to those eating GM rice that has been exposed to higher levels of glufosinate.
However, GM foods in general potentially provide as big a revolution in world well-being as fetal-stem-cell research. I am confused as to why you support one but not the other and, further, that the one you don’t support actually has more supportive science and real-world examples.
Fundamentally, Jim is absolutely right. No crop currently grown anywhere in the world in meaningful quantity is “pure”. They’ve all been subjected to years of selective crossbreeding which, at base, is genetic modification. To throw up your hands at this point and say, “Don’t touch my sugar beet’s genes,” is, at best, naive and at worst cherry picking science.
In any event, if you choose to go all Luddite regarding GM crops, feel free to not buy them. For many, however, the choice may very soon be not be between, “Do I get the organic tomato or the tomato bigger than my head,” but instead, “Do I eat or don’t I?” Even if not faced with such stark choices, it concerns me that a certain element feels we shouldn’t even be given the option in the first place. The last time I checked, the US was, at least nominally, a Democracy and we were exporting war in order to protect our freedoms, one of which is the pursuit of happiness. If it makes you happy to not buy GM food, it should certainly be your right to not do so (provided you can find such as it should also be a farmer’s right to plant whatever they choose on their own land). However, your right should not supersede my right to purchase and eat FrankenRice should I choose to. If Europe wants to willingly return to the dark ages and be afraid of scientific advancement, then that’s their choice and I hope they find some nice rocks to hurl at the big, scary moon.
But there’s that word again. Choice. Why are you trying to take mine away?
And, really, Sweden? We’re taking our agriculture cues from them now? Really?
You know what QJ – I’m upset about so many goddamn things it’s hard to separate them.
I don’t want unsafe food on our shelves. That’s not really a choice, if it’s cheap enough, people will eat it. And so I’m concerned about that issue more than anything.
But “If Europe wants to willingly return to the dark ages and be afraid of scientific advancement, then that’s their choice and I hope they find some nice rocks to hurl at the big, scary moon.” made me erupt into giggles during what has been a seriously unfunny week.
So thanks for that, toots.
You’re welcome, Kate, and you know I only harangue your GM-food aversion out of love. Well, love and a healthy dose of misplaced aggression and self-righteous indignation, but love’s definitely firs…erm, seco…in the top three.