Re: IS ORGANIC FOOD SAFE? NOT ANY MORE!!
Oheye4get (newsgate.duke.edu!solaris.cc.vt.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!ais.net!news.maxwelOheye4get)
1 Mar 1997 09:51:22 GMT
Hello folks, I'm new to the net, but have been a gardener since I was old
enough to play in the dirt. I came across the eloqution of Joe
Toth's(jtoth@fairfeild.com) severe resentment for for bio-tech changes to
our food sources and was moved to respond. I feel I should be directing
this exclusively toward Joe, but I would like the group's feedback as
well.
I have held an interest in bio-tech since I first heard of it as a
child (now 27). It facinated me that science could alter plants to make
them grow in formerly inareable land, and make them produce crops that
were better, more porductive, better resistant to disease, and had other
marvelous traits. I have always considered bio-tech a boon to organic
agriculture. I have always thought that if we could make the plants better
soldiers, we wouldn't have to use pesticides et. al. to fight for them. I
have never really considered the risks of genetically altered food.
Now that I concider it, I can see the wide margin for risks of various
sorts; more over, risks with no accountability associated with them. Take
a look at the problems of kudzu. Who introduced it to the US? Now that it
has become a problem crop in areas, shouldn't those who made the mess have
to clean it up? If your dog where to attack a small child, you could be
held liable. If the seed companies release a plant that causes sewer
clogging, methane build-up or other problems, shouldn't they be held
liable?
In regards to Joe's viament distain for genetically altered plants;
being that Gia is a living dynamic system, the organisms w/in her are
always under going genetic alteration, some arrive to be useful to our
specices, others are not. I feel the processes of science, and genetic
alteration, merely expedite the processes started by God. If those
processes accidentally arrive at a detrimental consequence, such is our
fate. We became by accident, we may end by accident; its the stresses of
evolution, just that with petro and inorganics we have confidently
concluded that the stresses induced are detrimental to our continued
evolution (resulting in devolution?). Bio-tech offers the chance to
expidite the processes of evolution. I am though unaware of the scale of
the risks. More Info would be much appreciated.
As an aside: I have 500+ pages (in WordPerfect) of organic gardening info
I would love to share. Just need to learn the net better. Any suggestions
in this regard would be appreciated as well.
Oheye4get@AOL.com