GMO- – a Powerful Technology??
Dr. Karpiak, I was dismayed and disappointed by the rhetoric you submitted to the Dispatch recently.
For you to allege that those on the island oppose GMOs for undisclosed reasons is ludicrous and seems disingenuous. I believe there has been much specificity to the concerns and opposition raised. Have you actually listened and read the concerns? And to say that the concerns expressed are anti-science is both deceptive and absurd. Rather, it seems to me these large chemical companies – for that is their foundation rather than agriculture — have manipulated the political and legal systems to circumvent serious scientific scrutiny and caution.
Rather than debate whether GMSs are the saving grace of mankind or its bane, let me suggest a couple of ideas that seem fair and common sense.
One concern raised is about the concurrent use of large amounts of pesticides in the scheme of GMO production and use. I think there is no doubt that this poses at least some degree of risk to the area in proximity of the pesticide use. I would propose that it would be reasonable to require that there be full disclosure of all pesticides used and when and in what quantities they are to be applied. This would be consistent with regulation of controlled substances in other industries.
Secondly, I also believe it would be fair and reasonable to require that foods which contain ingredients made from or containing GMOs be so labeled in the same manner that all other food ingredients and additives are. Let the consumer decide if they want to risk eating these untested “food” products.
Lastly, I think that the whole idea of patenting living things is absurd and little more than another scheme by large corporations to reap increasingly larger profits at the expense of everyone else and this practice should be revoked and banned. Leave that area to God and let the higher power hold the patents to life.
Let’s have an honest frank respectful conversation about this topic! You call GMO research and industry advances. I respectfully beg to differ.
Levie Yamazaki-Gray
4 Comments
The disingenuity that is most prevalent in the anti-GMO arguments is that they avoid talkling about the real reason that some big foundations fund the effort and concentrate on the higher “curb appeal” of fear mongering. I submit that if the anti-GMO folks applied the same burden of proof to non-GMO food products that they want to require of GMO’s, they would all starve to death.
The elephant in the living room with GMOs is not some unprovable risk from eating GMO varieties as opposed to “conventionally” hybridized varieties that we all have been eating since Gregor Mendel first messed with his bean plants. The real issue is the total breakdown of the patent system in the face of rapidly advancing technology and the legal system’s total ignorance of natural processes of plant reproduction.
To hold a neigboring farmer responsible for the predictable drift of GMO’d genetic material into his fields is no different than claiming that you are responsible if the neighbor’s dog jumps the fence into your yard and kills your chickens. Of course this flies in the face of big agribusiness profit models but it is common sense. This is the key to controlling the advance of GMO technology, as it would remove a major financial incentive behind the research. At least it would be intellectually honest as opposed to the current campaign of FUD against GMO products.
this is the end results on gmo test fields near schools an homes….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0X76KVQRgs
Mahalo Ua for that link. I get so tired of hearing accusations of “fear Mongering” anytime someone brings up concerns about GMO’s and pesticide use so close to homes and schools. That’s straight out of the corporate playbooks of manipulating the facts. They don’t ever ADDRESS the facts, they just brush it off with convincing people that concerned citizens are just anti’s and fear mongers. Thankfully though, people are wising up because this strategy that their using isn’t working anymore. Just look at what’s happening in the court system on Kauai! People are finally being heard, and even more people are doing their homework!! In the end the truth always wins out! 🙂
“…patenting living things(?)” Could be a form of slavery, particularly when its human. Would you go as far as to say its “canabilism”? Can man truly own a piece of your body? Sorry for the humor…at my age all you can do is laugh at how some people think we all born stupid!