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  • From: Marty Kraft <martyk AT allspecies.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] A Gene Revolution
  • Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 09:00:08 -0500

When nature brings out a genetic modification she brings it out gradually
over tens of thousands of years with millions or billions of trial and error
tests run in all possible conditions available. The changes that nature
makes are well integrated into the already existing community of plants by
the time their numbers are large enough to influence the community. The
other plants have also had tens of thousands of years to adjust as well.

At Monsanto, with the crippled wisdom of what will make a profit for
stockholders next quarter, wishing to find a way to overcome justified
skepticism for their frankenfoods, seize on the idea of linking their
product with world hunger. That should quiet the critics down. Monsanto
probably cares about the communities they inject their genetic wonders into
as Walmart did about what would happen to small town America.

Am I cynical? You bet. These folks with a thimble full of brains and a oil
tanker full of greed are using their well financed propaganda machines night
and day to seduce us all. I seriously doubt that Monsanto wants to
facilitate the growth of truck farms and small markets growing heirloom
varieties or local foods that make sense locally.

Don¹t have time to research the green revolution but I heard that it wasn¹t
so green and moved lots of farmers out of farming and control of the land.

You got me goin.

I choose the wisdom of nature over human greed every time.

Marty Kraft


> From: "Joe Kames" <farfish AT francomm.com>
> Reply-To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 00:15:04 -0400
> To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: [Market-farming] A Gene Revolution
>
> This is an interesting perspective from an editorial in yesterday's New York
> Times.
>
> A Call for a Gene Revolution
>
> Published: May 24, 2004
>
>
> New scientific developments have provoked more shouting than genetically
> modified foods. Plenty of people, especially in Europe, call them
> Frankenfoods and argue that we do not know if they cause cancer or fatal
> allergy. Genetically modified crops, which carry transplanted genes from
> other species to make them easier to grow or more nutritious, should indeed
> be the subject of intense debate - just not this debate.
> Are these foods safe to eat? The evidence is overwhelming that they are, a
> conclusion endorsed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
> last week in its 2004 annual report. The report's main contribution is that
> it focuses on the real problem with genetically modified crops: they are not
> aimed at helping the world's hungry.
> The F.A.O.'s laudable message is that farmers in Africa struggling with a
> patch of millet, cowpeas or cassava - armed only with a hoe and a prayer -
> need crops engineered to resist drought or local pests. Agriculture is the
> livelihood of 70 percent of the world's poor, a population that is growing
> considerably, even as soil and water are becoming depleted. Billions are
> already malnourished because their staple crops supply few nutrients.
> Genetic engineering can help on both counts.
> The poor need a "gene revolution" to follow the 1960's "green revolution,"
> which helped hundreds of millions by increasing the yields of wheat, rice
> and other crops. But so far, there's only been a gene revolution for
> agribusiness. The genetically engineered food industry is controlled by a
> few corporations, such as Monsanto and DuPont. They have little incentive to
> work on crops poor people grow, or to share their licensed technology. To
> allow widespread research on poor-country crops, these companies must
> release the technology for humanitarian use.
> Many poor countries, in addition, are suspicious of genetic engineering. The
> F.A.O. urges them to realize its potential and welcome engineered products.
> Wealthy countries must sponsor research, while critics of modified foods,
> especially in Europe, need to realize that their opposition is harming the
> developing world. They should be working not to ban these foods, but to put
> them in the mouths of the world's hungry.
>
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