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TechnoratiThe Seeds of Discontent
Genetically modified crops got the thumbs up from the NSW and Victorian governments last week.
Future generations are expected to endorse the move by giving several thumbs up with each hand, as well as nodding vigorously with both heads and making a weird slapping sound as they bash their webbed fingers against each other in a clapping motion.
Fears that GM food carries health risks have been dismissed by biotech companies such as Monsanto. The multinational says its genetically modified bank account has never been in better shape and is expected to stay in rude health for years to come.
NSW and Victoria lifted a ban on GM canola that had been in place for four years. Leaders in other states and territories, concerned that their non-GM crops would be contaminated, had their minds put at rest by Victorian Premier John Brumby.
"Farmers and consumers will get choice," Brumby said. "Farmers will have their choice as to whether they wish to grow a GM canola or whether they wish to grow a non-GM canola."
Officials believe birds, animals and the wind will do the right thing and hand in the mutated seed in at fruit and vegetable border patrols, especially if threatened with a fine and a stern telling-off.
GM crops are not expected to leap from one paddock to another, as the grass is unlikely to be greener on the other side. On the GM side it will be amazingly green, having been modified with genes from green M&Ms. The cows are going to stack on the weight with all that chocolate in the middle.
Despite a poll in The Land newspaper finding that more than half of Australia's farmers don't believe GM crops should be grown here, the NSW Farmers Association welcomed the move.
GM crops are injected with proteins from other life forms that change their characteristics, just like Tour de France cyclists. A common modification is for plants to be made resistant to specific herbicides such as Roundup, which can then be sprayed about like champagne on a winner's podium killing weeds without fear of damaging the crop.
Biotech manufacturers of GM crops say herbicide and pesticide use goes down when GM crops are used. However, should the use of chemicals increase for any reason, the companies will be on hand to help. Roundup is manufactured by Monsanto.
GM crops produce better yields, say advocates, and may be the answer to food shortages in the Third World.
Monsanto has previously shown its concern for the world's poor by selling seeds containing a terminator gene, making plants sterile. That meant that instead of having to perform the tedious task of collecting seeds from plants to sow the following year, African farmers could simply buy more seed from Monsanto and enjoy more leisure time, perhaps spending their days off lounging around in humpies, eating gruel and squeezing water from old rags.
The terminator gene is no longer used. Now it's the patenting of seeds that prevents farmers saving and sharing them.
As Neil from The Young Ones said: "First we sow the seed, nature grows the seed and then we eat the seed. Then we buy more seed. Then we buy the Roundup. Then we ... oh man, this is getting really heavy!"
Critics of GM food say it reduces biodiversity by contaminating other crops, leads to the emergence of pesticide-resistant superweeds, encourages high-input, environmentally damaging farming methods, makes poor countries grow crops for export rather than food for their people and has unknown short- and long-term effects on animal and human health.
Genes have been shown to jump from one species to another. If you find yourself standing on one spot for long periods, waving in the wind and causing the death of all insects that fly close, you should see a doctor.
GM food may be responsible for the massive increase in food allergies in recent years, as people produce antibodies to fight off proteins that weren't previously in the food chain. Twenty-two of 33 proteins incorporated into GM food have similarities to known allergens, says Greenpeace. Soy allergies in the UK doubled in one year - 1999 - shortly after the introduction of GM soy food products. UK supermarkets have been GM free ever since. And here, Coles spokesman Chris Mara recently told a parliamentary forum in Victoria: "Coles listens to our customers and over 90per cent do not want GM ingredients in their food."
With sales of organic produce booming and people increasingly concerned about local, healthy food production and the adoption of sustainable farming, the NSW Government has yet again shown that policy will not be dictated by public opinion. The opinion of big business is far more important.
--Simon Webster
Copyright © 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald
45 Comments so far
Show AllUm, why genetically engineer an oil eating bacteria when lot of fungi, including the very prevalent Pleurotus ostreatus, can do the job very well with no research money needed on engineering?
nice
War=Peace
I thought you were concerned about land use and conventional farming, sorry my mistake.
On the issue of biotechnology and it's application, even from a policy standpoint it is the most unethical practice I've encountered. It pretty much violates every standard of precautionary practices. You should read some of the links posted in this tread. Or, search and read some of the patent requests. I bet you one glow-n-the-dark monkey fish it well expand your concept of what is fair and balanced.
Treefrog- it's a fine question to ask…all I suggest is that you ask yourself the same question..
My point is that everyone want to be the teacher nobody wants to be the student.
Farmer guy is no more or less accountable than anyone else.
The mentality that parrots FOX news, can parrot progressive jabber as well.
I'm uncomfortable watching "progressives" act the same as those who watch FOX news.
The farmer has a point of view that not many people have… and to see people espousing the same bullet points we debated in college and not considering for a second that maybe just maybe the science behind genetic modification is not totally bad, and can be a benefit to human kind. But no everybody already knows everything, happily agreeing with each other, meanwhile they'er missing an opportunity to expand, grow whatever. ..peace
Greg R.
I agree with you in principle, that good soil management is vital for plant health. Earthworms are very beneficial in that process.
War=Peace
I think it is a fair question for anyone to ask a century farmer or anyone else for that matter. I've visited budhist farms where they took non-productive agricultural land and turned it into organic farms. Where I live there are organic farms and conventional farms right across the road for each other. I myself have worked conventional farm land to organic and I know how much work and how long it takes to rehabilitate abused land. I have to remember though that where I live is the most productive land in the U.S. This area produces a quarter of all food consumed in the U.S. and my grandparents were farmers.
treefrog- First and foremost: don't let the soil erode. Nothing comes close to this in importance. Second, try to maintain and build organic matter. No-til and leaving the crop stover on the surface is an excellent environment for earthworms and bacteria.
Its easy to have an opinion on something you read about but on the web.
And its not really fair to put Farmer Guy on the spot. Their first hand experience is insightful, if people can avoid the knee jerk.
Sure we should have the right to grow what and how we want. But before we get all high and mighty as far as what these people do for a living, reflect back.
What do you do for a living? What are the things you make allowances for, because it's how you and your kids eat.
Your not on the spot with people all over the country exercising their critical minds by forming opinions on how green your livelihood is.
"Each shovel of soil holds more living things than all the human beings ever born. Lots of species are still waiting for scientists to identify and name them."
So Greg R. what exactly do you do for your soil to promote a living soil and balanced ecology?
beyondempire-I'm butting in here wih my two cents. I'm not far from you (SE Minn). First, we farmers have to make a living just like everyone else. Idealism and utopia sometimes come in second. The best way to stay in business is the gm route. Yes, there are a lot of niche forms of farming that work, but there are only just so many niches available. In the past I've been a no-til/minimum til farmer and now I'm basically no-til. I live on a century farm and I have no intention of leaving the soil destroyed or my soul in the dust. Sadly, some organic farmers allow their soils to be destoyed by erosion from too much tillage. Another benefit of my operation is low fuel usage.
Kernel:
I understand the temptation to take the easy way out, but to differ with you on a few points. The GM seeds and the ways they control pests by introducing non-plant based genetic material into the plants or placing a gene to resist roundup into the genetic makeup is not a step forward for farmers. In the long run it will lead to and is already leading to more roundup resistant weeds.
Weed and insect control can be greatly enhanced by proper soil maintenance and crop rotation on a four or five year cycle. The reason insects become a problem is because commodities farming using only a two year rotation of corn and soybeans or only cotton in some areas has caused an abnormal cyle that proliferates the insects that attack these crops. Experiments to control these insects such as the asian ladybeetle introduced in the south to control cotton pests have led to misery here in the midwest as these insects have moved north.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. GM crops have created a dangerous monoculture while stopping the hybridization of crops that farmers themselves used to engage in and was responsible for crop specialization to local environments.
Unfortunately, many young farmers have been indoctrinated into the GM culture by universities funded by the very companies that hope to take advantage of them in the future to buy their seeds, their insecticides and the farming programs that lead to a farming monoculture these corporations can most take advantage of.
On the plus side, their are many young farmers, especially in my area of NE Iowa who are rejecting this "dumbing down" of the American farmer and are moving back into practices that lead to better soil and pest management techniques as well as saving seeds and developing heirloom varieties that fight disease and insects the old fashioned way, by genuine ingenuity and creative techniques rather than by the easy fix of monoculture cropping. It's time the agricultural universities start focusing on these techniques and stop accepting funds and programs from the multi-national corporations that are leading us into a very insecure food market. I am very happy to see Iowa State University for one taking on this issue and doing a great deal of research in this area through their Leopold Center. If you haven't heard of the Leopold Center at ISU, I invite you to tour their website.
Sorry for the soapbox Kernel but an "old farmer" like you should be the very voice of reason and teacher we all need you to be rather than one who supports the unsustainable system currently in place. A farmer is one who is responsible for proper stewardship of the land and seeks above all to leave the land in a condition at least as good as he found it. The practices that go along with GM farming are antithesis to this and the industrial agri-terrorits and those who buy into this system are not "farmers" in any real sense but just businessmen who reap whatever can be coaxed from the land and leave the soil destroyed and their souls in the dust.
Interesting pertinent story - bear with me. A few years ago in a conversation with a scientifically aware friend, he mentioned something about Monsanto and their clever use of Roundup on canola. By the end of our discussion, something triggered a connection in my mind between that information and my debilitating headaches.
Every time I visited my mother I returned home with a booming headache. She's a nice person, so it wouldn't likely be personal. However, she's a great cook, and she loves to lavish her goodies on me. On a hunch, I mentioned my new info to my mom, who said she did indeed use canola oil in her famously delicious dinner rolls. She suggested that next time she would use olive oil instead.
Haven't had a headache from her rolls since. Scientific research about "half-life" of stuff in GM canola sprayed with Roundup apparently 'proves' my experience is imaginative. I prefer to go with the absence of headaches.
Oh the joys of industry science. Another hunch - they're feeding us more than GM canola laced with deadly chemicals...
Did I tell you that dementia is listed as an occupational hazard in industrialized farming.
I think scientists should go to a planet like mars and take all thier experimental projects and apply them in an environment that really needs thier help. Once they have demonstrated that they understand the concepts of nature then they could try some of them on a limited basis on a planet that does not need their help. They can take all the disgusting factory farms and create one big linear mono-culture with chemical spaying mechanical insects and build the world they invision. This one is not for sale.
beyondempire___ I have been a farmer for 50 years and have seen many ideas and practices come and go. I am also concerned that things may be developing a little too fast, and do not like dangerous products either. However, the GM seeds have shown such improvement in controlling disease and pests that they are now used on the great majority of farmland. Even most foreign countries have dropped their resistance to these crops being used. It is wise to keep alert to any problems that may develope, but short of a disastrous event, I believe they are here to stay. The younger farmers are much faster to adopt new methods than we older ones were and are very much into using all the new technology.
There is no such thing as pure science any longer,
as (almost all of it) is co-opted, directed, and paid for
by corpoFASCISTs for pure profit motive. It's really
more like what used to be called applied technology, so
you needn't be so hard on all of the scientists, as they're
just trying to make a living
Kem Patrick- I believe most animal die-offs are from climate change. Genetic engineering, while scary, has great promise: oil-eating bacteria for oil spills, for instance. This genie will not get put back in the bottle. It is good and right to continue to clammer for regulation and oversight.
I appreciate what scientists have accomplisher KERNAL, George Washington Carver, Edison, Costeau, and so many many others. I don't appreciate it when they attempt to play God with nature, cloning, splitting the atom, genetic and DNA alterations are going too far.
The dying off of our ocean's phytoplankton is one very good example of what man can do in a most negative way, with forever lasting chemical and atomic pollution.
When the inscets and birds die off suddenly and in alarming numbers, it is an obvious clue we have created a major problem in nature. That old saying that it is a mistake to piss off a woman is good advice, and nature is referred to as Mom, ___ a woman.
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Newsletter/Apr-May06Geneticallyengineeredcrop/index.cfm
Already the Ecoli they use to introduce herbicide resistant genes into plants, looks like it has already started spreading to the Ecoli in ours and other animals digestive tracks!
According to the "experts" this was NEVER supposed to happen, yet it is happening.
How many times in human history do are we gonna IGNORE the warning signs that indicate that we are on a path to trouble?
Kernel-The only nasty consequence of gm crops that has definitely affected me is the contamination of potash with roundup ready canola. I now have to remain dilligent for the cute little yellow-flowered menace. I hope farmers are aware of this and keep an eye out. One uncleaned hopper trailer is all it takes.
It use to be give me spots on my apples and give me the birds and the bees. Now it is going to be give me a new kidney and who knows what else. Fuck biotechnology!
Kem___We enjoy the veggies from our garden also and recommend it to anyone. I guess I have not noticed any great difference in what we need to buy but I am not an expert on food. It seems to blame Monsanto for furnishing products farmers are asking for to make their operations more productive is like blaming the computer and telephone companies for the tremendous surplus of cell phones and gadgets that we used to get along without and were probably happier that way. At any rate, it is about impossible to turn the clock back on so called progress, no matter how much we would like to, so we have to cope as best we can with all of it. This is not the first time and will not be the last time that we have had some kind of food scare and most have been accepted and forgotten.
The best thing you can say about this science is that it is dishonest. It takes public funds for private interests with impunity. Remember when it was the answer to world hunger. It has done nothing for world hunger except futher the concentration of wealth in biotech private industry in the form of patented genes. Not only do you not know the risks of what you are eating it robs you of any certainty about your very existance. Don't worry science will explain it to you, in this case as others when it is too late to do anything about it.
The absolutely most terrifying thing about all this is that, just as you can't be a little bit pregnant, you can't be a country that is a little bit GM. Already nonsense is being talked (by politicians and farmer's organisations) about exclusion zones and buffer zones. Anyone who has seen canola (to take just one example) growing wild along roads and in rail freight yards knows that once you have GM crops you have the potential for this alien DNA to spread (http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/11572/Something_fishy.html for a view of what was happening 3 years ago when Monsanto began its pressure). And yet the public is powerless, it seems, to get in the way of Monsanto's plan to remould the Earth for their profit.
I dunno KERNEL, that old fashioned food sure did taste a hell of a lot better. The vegetables from our garden have real flavor, not at all like the dull store veggies.
The thought of altered genes don't bother you? Why does it bother so many highly trained doctors and scientists?
this is very sad...GM crops and Monsanto corporation, in my view, epitomize a sort of arrogance that ignores common sense and seeks it's own monetary gain regardless of consequences or potential consequences.
I so hope that politicians will be elected that will respect life in ways that so many officials and business leaders today seem incapable of doing.
These are great suggestions about stopping the use of GM seeds and while we are at it all chemicals too. Then it would follow that we also stop being allowed to own and drive a vehicle as it pollutes the air and uses up the oil resources. Also water should be strictly rationed to all households as US citizens use three or four times more than other countries and it is getting scarce. Modern machinery should be prohibited for the same reasons and it also reduces job opportunities. That will of course mean half of the population will need to move out in the country again to raise healthy, organic food or we will all be hungry as it yields much less than modern methods produce. Just think how happy all the city folk will be to get out of those stuffy offices and get some fresh air out raising those good old-fashioned dryland, weedy, pest infested crops the way we used to do it.
Sometimes I almost can't wait for Armaggedon.
Acutally- although I recognize Greg R.'s sentiment- lets not forget- that at the moment - we have a singular love of self-importance and exception.
We 'say' exploding atomic bombs have no 'real'efects on people - after all - lets look at Japan-aren't they they happiest lapdog of the United States in all of Asia.
Obviously nature - must follow- this confounding principle - that the more you abuse it - the more it will bend to your whim or priority or desire. After all we have the Phillipnes as proof positive of this!!
Unfortunately- we do not have the one luxury that nature does - time -- Nature has such a vast expanse of time from minutes for certain life form, days and finally millenia.
Despite false ascertations of so-caed pax-Romana or Britannica - what we have seen is that was neither Pax, nor Roman nor Brittanica and like the deluded person in Ibsen's Doll house - it apppears we have no clue --- yet again.
Obviously respect for things beyond our abilities or full comprehension is something that most of the human race is willing to and purposely obliviate for thier time in the manufactured sushine of self praise.
The law of consequence has been establised in physics, biology and chemistry in different forms but - obviously it doesn't apply to US (double entendre intended).
I wonder if the bees have any problems with the crops we now have growing from the geneticlly altered seeds?
Jeesh. C'mon everybody, take a deep breath and relax a minute. First, frank1569, Roundup and agent orange have no relationship to each other. Anytime we try to move forward scientifically there are risks. A lot is done to protect the public and the environment although technically FUBAR is a possiblity. Realistically, we're humans and we must take some risks. I've grown genetically modified crops for a lot of years. I use less chemicals and less nasty chemicals. The best new gm seeds can take a lot of environmental hazards and come through green and growing. I handle this stuff and eat it and I think I have reamed intelligence and have suffered know ill effects, other than the occasional metal laps. (just kidding with last sentence)
Life is a gift and our first obligation is to live it the best we can. We cannot do that if we assume the yoke of the worlds problems. I believe that if each of us respects all life as the American Indians do, then a good path out of this moras will present itself. It is a belief in Spirit.
"Terminator" seeds were pulled not because of public outcry, but for - surprise! - a better way to enhance the bottom line:
"Zombie" GM crops - so called because farmers will have to pay biotech companies to bring seeds back from the dead - are being developed with British taxpayers' money." Yup - the seeds hibernate until reactivated with tasty new chemicals.
And just in case anyone is considering, maybe, destroying GMO crops before they evolve and mutate in unpredictable yet sure to be fatal ways, remember that our FBI considers "ecoterrorists" the NUMBER ONE TERRORIST THREAT to the "homeland." What, you thought al Qaeda was scary or something? We're talkin hippies pulling plants here, man! And everyone knows that's the gateway to flying planes into buildings!
Side note: SW forgot to mention Monsanto also produces Roundup, the stronger version of which used to be called Agent Orange. And now they are being, er, trusted with the introduction of mutant organisms into the food chain. How can that not go really well?
Ain't life grand? We can eat all those delicious meals, trying not to think about all the unseen stuff we may be eating with every bite. Then sit back comfortably while our food digests, and give thanks when there's no sudden, or not so sudden nasty reaction - this time; while we push thoughts of a possible long-term reaction from our mind.
But KEM, these quesadillas are to die for!
;o)
I ain't coming, I'd rather go fishing and wait for the end.
Celebrity,
Be sure to invite me to the party. I'll bring pesto feta cyanide quesadillas.
And maybe a fruit cocktail.
Anyone else?
Hang on there Ezeflyer, It will arrive next April, when Bush declares martial law or bombs Iran, ____ or both.
Maybe we should get it over with and all just do a "Jim Jones Party" and let the plants and animals have their planet back.
Is there any chance at all, that GM is exceedingly profitable for someone?
Altering genes is not a good idea in humans, as that may alter DNA and you can end up with horribly deformed babies. Altering genes in seeds would be just as dangerous over time.
Can we genetically engineer Monsanto to not be greedy, deceitful, destructive asshats? I'll take a non-asshat gene any day. Come on Greenpeace, fight GMO with GMO.
rabble rabble rabble
Wow Monsanto I believe you about yer seeds and crops being safe,Hmmm wasn't that the same line of crap spewed by Dow and DuPont about Agent Orange. and whats this I read about, that if yer mutant seeds get into the neighbors crop you sue because they are using yer product, dont matter if the wind ,birds or animals spread that diseased seed, come on tell the truth you lot just want to be the supplier for all the seeds in the world, like control the crops control the people
Be very careful of what you say. The idea of exploding grapes my be appealing to the Pentagon and Congress will surely fund it. It's a kind of Epicurian death token lethal to progressives.
When I became a vegetarian/vegan in 88, I didnt know that they fed cattle to cattle, manure and garbage to livestock slaves. I still cannot believe that people can hear that and not at the very least be grossed out on a selfish personal level if they dont care about morality and wasting water and land, or the unnecessary suffering and death of innocents. How on earth can you justify eating something saturated with manure and urine?
This doesnt bode well for the future of how GM foods are received.
But beyond this--we really need to reexamine out attitudes towards science and scientists. Most science is anti-Nature--the goal is to break nature down and examine it for control.
We dont need science to tell us that we shouldnt pollute our water supply-common sense tells us that---then again, humans are very stupid animals. Even a fly washes itself via instinct, humans have to be taught to do the same.
As long as their stock keeps going up, even a little, GM doesn't care what it does to the food supply, even if what it is doing causes sickness and death and is irreverseable.
Kernel:
While I respect your opinion, I think you too would agree with most of us that rather than bring new products to market before enough is known about them is unwise. Much better to err on the side of caution and have corporations and scientists prove beyond reasonable doubt that these products can not harm the environment before they are placed into a ecosystem that links all plants and creatures, including us, in a balance so fragile.
If only this small change in practice were to take place perhaps many of the environmental disasters we have seen in the past as well as those looming on the horizon may not have occurred. Science can be a wonderful thing but slowing down the process and looking more toward "natural processes" to help us solve our problems with a little more emphasis on creativity rather than technology would help us not only save our environment but possibly stimulate our minds as well.
We must not view ourselves as masters of nature to use any means necessary to redefine its laws to better serve our desires but rather to redifine our desires to bring ourselves in harmony with the laws of nature.
It's not the farmers who requested more technology to make them more productive. Real farmers had always been working on that by themselves and doing it without chemicals, or genetic crops. The chemical herbicides and insecticides were born of the chemical weapons industry following the war. The chemical companies had made so much of these killing products they needed an outlet to dispose of it. We are still eating our way out of WWII.
The push for more productivity didn't come from the farmers it came from those who wished to commodify agricultural products to acheive higher profits while freezing the farmers themselves out of those profits. Farm policy has been on the side of those interests ever since. Go see Joel Salatin if you want to know what a real farmer thinks.
We all need to slow down a little. "Progess" is not a one-way street and true progress comes not from constantly pushing ahead without regard for the consequences or the lessons of history but from taking a step back from time to time and redefining our values.