60-year-old Prince Charles made an anti-GM speech to Navdanya, the Indian organization supporting local farmers and fighting genetic engineering and 'biopiracy.'Citing suicides of tens of thousands of Indian farmers Prince Charles said that
"any GM crop will inevitably contaminate neighbouring fields", making it impossible to maintain the integrity of organic and conventional crops. For the first time in history this would lead to "one man's system of farming effectively destroying the choice of another man's" and "turn the whole issue into a global moral question."
He quoted Mahatma Gandhi who condemned "commerce without morality" and "science without humanity". He added: "One must surely ask the question whether – if only from a precautionary point of view – it might be wise to keep some areas of the world free from GM-based agriculture. . .
The Prince attacked the contention that "GM food is now essential to feed the world", saying that the evidence showed that modified crops' yields were "generally lower than their conventional counterparts". He called them "a wrong turning on the route to feeding the world in a sustainable or durable manner" and "a risky and expensive distraction, diverting attention and resources away from those real, long-term solutions such as crop varieties which respond well to low input systems that, in turn, do not rely on fossil fuels." There was substantial evidence "to show that a growing world population can be fed most successfully in the long term by agricultural systems that manage the land within environmental limits".
13 comments:
Ruth, I think you'd be interested in watching The Future of Food if you haven't seen it. You can get it through Netflix.
Thanks, Sharon. I just saved "The Future of Food" (it's not available yet, although I could watch it live if my laptop and wireless card would let me) at Netflix. I also have "The Corporation" on my queue, heard about over at John Ackerson's.
I'm not a purist on GM, but I think Prince Charles focused on the most important point (well, along with the issue of genetic diversity vs. monocrops) - since even the best efforts can't restrict GM crops to one area, even those farmers who wish to grow organic can't do so because of the spread from field to field. That makes it come down to a denial of personal choice issue, a very strong one.
Loring i got your point, never thought of that.
Ruth, its David and Goliath. All the stories in the Bible tell us how the truth triumphs in the end. But they are just stories designed to guide us, in reality its a different story. The truth never triumphs and its the giant who wins always.
There is no doubt that some of the efforts of GM are meant to improve lives of the world's poor. For instance, my university and Monsanto, along with USAID, developed "Golden Mustard" for oil to contain Vitamin A to be grown in India because of the Vitamin A deficiency in children. Biotech is big at my university, unfortuately, and it's hard to resist the massive corporate efforts of a Monsanto when they say it's for the betterment of the world's poor. You can read about it here
I don't think that link 'took.' Here's the URL:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-07-2000/0001381974&EDATE=
I'm gonna try one more time, for practice. Here.
Well, I'm impressed, I can do the single-letter HTML tags for italics or bolding, but tagging for a URL, unless it's done automatically in Blogger posts, screws me up!
Well you see that it took a little effort and failure.
Greed and materialism, so pervasive in the society today, manifesting in so many ways, it is almost suffocating. It is interesting to see people around the country noticing various aspects of this, and raising their voices.
Greed in financial services "industry", and in executives of companies is only one of the very visible forms.
Food is another area - GM crops is just one aspect. Vegetables are big without taste, flowers are big without fragrance. Full of chemicals, hormones, and not even God knows what else. Result - health issues like obesity, diabetes, heart problems starting from childhood.
Pharmaceuticals - get drugs out in the market without fully testing, "convincing" doctors to prescribe medications in the name of aggressive treatment. Even kids are getting health issues caused by bad food habits, poor quality food - let's give them more medicines.
Insurance - collect premiums as much as possible, deny coverage as much as they can get away with. At the slightest excuse, raise the premiums as much as possible. Whether it is auto insurance or medical insurance, the story isn't much different.
All this is not happening just at a macro level - it is happening very much at a micro level too. People so caught up in the frenzy of buying, and living beyond their means. Buy now, pay later mentality can't just be blamed on credit card companies or sellers. Individuals who are stretching themselves beyond their own limits share the same amount of blame, if not more.
Complete lack of contentment and satisfaction that is programmed into us right from the childhood. Kids love to go to McDonald's for the toys more than the taste or quality of food, and then slowly get addicted to the junk food.
Pendulum has swung quite a bit to one side. With all the chaos around, hopefully it is time for us all to get back to the basics.
Thank you, Anonymous, you are right to lay the responsibility at the door of every individual. We've been convinced that we are innately consumers, and when the economy starts tanking, we recognize how much it relies on our spending. Have you seen the "Story of Stuff" on my sidebar? It's a good summary of the impact of our greed for more more more stuff, and the impact that has on the world.
Thank you so much for your good comment.
I have followed all these comments with interest. The lack of power one has and one doesn't.
We buy organic, but of course, seeds fly, pesticides fly.
We will be buying a greenhouse (the soil is too sandy here) and will grow some of our own veg. Even then: are the seeds we will use really organic?
I am hoping for a return to the basics, too. It has all happened in such short time (less than one century?). Horrifying... But can WE rescue others?
Take good care of yourselves!
Hi, Jo! (Are you Stiggy's Jo??)
I've come to a point where I know we are consuming crap. We can only do the best we can, and sometimes we don't even do that, we get lazy. Don and I are moving more and more toward growing our own veggies and meat, but we're going slowly because we're afraid if we go too fast, we'll give up. It's a lot of work. And as you point out, even doing it all ourselves we can't get purely organic or pesticide-free anything. Even our soil. Although I believe the mycelium below the surface cleans up a lot of bad stuff over time.
Maybe we can't rescue everyone, but hopefully they can be educated to do right themselves.
Thanks very much, Jo! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
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