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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Revealed: how seed market is controlled by Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow & DuPont

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  • From: Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Revealed: how seed market is controlled by Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow & DuPont
  • Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:49:27 -0400

The reason that case has so much emotional resonance is that it could be
true. And it is simply wrong that your neighbor can contaminate your plants
such that it becomes illegal for you to save your own seed.

I don't have any problems with the idea of genetically modified plants, and
if I knew in college what I know now, I'd be developing my own GMOs, not
pushing numbers around in spreadsheets. But I do have problems with how the
patents play out, and I also have problems with the lack of testing before
letting this stuff into the food supply. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I have the
impression that the FDA has basically taken the position that a genetically
modified food is just like the original food. Now, if they've simply taken a
gene from a close wild relative and tucked it into the genome, that might be
true. But they don't have that much control, and often the target genes are
very foreign to the organism. So there's all sorts of random other changes,
and you may end up with a salmon gene in a tomato or something. And that
might be problematic to a salad-lover who is allergic to salmon.

I'd like to see GMO foods labeled, just like food coloring is labeled. I
don't worry about food coloring, and I don't worry about GMOs, but the
information should be available. And with modern tracking, I don't think the
cost would be prohibitive to do that. Round-up ready soy would still be
cheaper than traditional soy.

Just my 2 cents.

Ginda

On Oct 13, 2010, at 5:18 PM, Dr. Lucky Pittman wrote:

> mIEKAL,
> I've followed the Percy Schmeiser deal for years, and have seen arguments on
> both sides of the issue, and we'll probably never know the whole truth -
> from either side - but for all intents and purposes, he lost the case and
> subsequent appeals, and there has been more than a little evidence to
> suggest that while he'll continue to maintain that he didn't 'know' he had
> RR canola, that he actually did 'pirate' those seeds and the technology that
> Monsanto had patented.
> I know he's viewed as the Rosa Parks of the anti-GMO crowd, but there's been
> a lot of emotion and not much substance, from those groups, in supporting
> his claims.
>
> You and I will probably never come to agreement on this topic, but there's
> plenty on which we do concur.
>
> Mark,
> I'm certain you understood my example of BT corn as just a case in point and
> not my whole argument, but for any who may not have...
> GMOs are not inherently bad - and all may not be good - but there is a very
> vocal oppositional force which largely fosters emotional arguments against
> them, disregarding the potential benefits gained either directly(less
> mycotoxin in BT corn) or indirectly(less pesticide use, less soil erosion,
> less use of more dangerous persistent herbicides, etc.).
> The genetically-modified 'Golden Rice', with increased amounts of
> beta-carotene(precursor to Vitamin A) in its endosperm, has the potential to
> significantly improve the health of children and stave off blindness in
> underdeveloped countries where rice is a dietary staple, yet some anti-GMO
> groups oppose its cultivation as "part of a package of globalised
> agriculture which is creating malnutrition". They're 'agin' it, 'cause it's
> GMO, regardless of the potential benefits.
>
> Lucky
>
>
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