Today’s Wall Street Journal has a fine article from Norman Borlaug, Nobel Prize winner for his “Green Revolution” work, and a good candidate for the person now alive who has done more to alleviate human suffering than any other. It’s called “Science Vs. Hysteria,” and it takes the European Union (and anti-biotech groups) out in the back yard and beats the dust out of them with a stick.
For the first time in 2 or 3 generations, people are interested in the food they eat — where it comes from, what’s in it, how it got to the market — and they don’t always like what they learn. The food industry has played fast and loose with nutritional information and the effects of chemical additives for too long.
Now the “better living through <fill in the scientific discipline here>” crowd is upset that we won’t just shut up and eat the stuff they’ve cooked up in their labs.
I agree with the premise that a economic and educational equality are worth striving for and that education can lower birthrates, a good thing in the developing world.
What those facts have to do with the handwaving about GM foods escapes me: that evidently makes me a Luddite and an enemy of the poor.
What the GM food industry is really after is a captive market for its products: seedsaving and time-honored thriftiness aren’t good for business, so GM seed crops have been engineered to require ongoing maintenance payments. No payments, no benefits and possibly disastrously low yields — lower than the pre-GMO yields.
I should re-read the Botany of Desire, since it addresses a lot of these issues: perhaps I should send a copy to this starry-eyed fellow.