An Urban's Rural View

Thanks Dale, for simply voicing a middle ground of common sense and reason.

I remember talking to some off the old timers years ago, I am in that catagory myself now, and some were complaining about how all the corn was being crossed with different varieties back then adn you cold not get purebred corn any more. People should stop messing with nature. To some degree, this was dna manipulation in its early stages. Is the work some of these seed companies is doing just speeding up the inevitable? I do not understand the thought of the "buffer zone" for some of these crops to ensure pests have a spot to eat without the new plant technology affecting them. To me, this sounds like we wnat to expose them just a little and then when it upset their tummy, they can go get a better meal next door. Doctor's tell you that when you take meds, make sure you take them for the entire time prescribed, not just until you feel better, to ensure you kill al the bacteria and do not let soem escape as they will then build an imunity to the meds the next time. There are some Biotech changes that make me uneasy and others that I have no problem with. Roundup Ready means they will live through poisons but Triple stacks mean they will kill things that eat them; which would I rather dine on or feed to my livestock? I am not syaing one is definitely better than the other but it does raise questions in my mind. I do agree that it should not hurt to put on the label that a product may contain more than 1 or 2% of a GMO component but I agree that the money to fight these proposals woudl be much better spent on additional testing and education.

(1) There Is something wrong, but Biotech won't "suck up" and deal with it. The Patents currently used have been merely added onto since their deployment in the 90's. The Science and Tech used, noting the change to a Bacteriologic carrier versus the old "Gene Gun" as the way to place the traits[but then, what does the Seed RNA make of the notably unstable RNA/DNA of the host Phage?] is 30 years old. Science AND Technology have changed, as has our understanding of Cellular Processes. Doing Genetic "Engineering" without understanding and addressing the Quantum Mechanics of it will never create a stable end product. If the sequence in current products were mapped and compared with the Patent Gene map-WHAT would we find? The idea is currently being challenged in court. (2) Labeling is done in 61+ Countries. Some people will read the labels, many more won't-they'll shop with their pocketbooks until something truly drastic affects them personally with the products they buy...sounds cynical, but you know it's the truth. As American, it makes no sense to buy a mattress which the law mandates must retain a label until purchased, and not be able to see what I'm paying MY MONEY for at the Grocery Store. (kind of a moot point, as I already KNOW who the GMO usual suspects are and don't buy them...what Monsanto and Bayer, did you think Consumers couldn't find a way around your efforts to "protect us from ourselves"?) (3) While certainly some of the "Research" on both sides of the GM issue are from "Suspect" to plainly bad, not ALL of it is. Noting the rise of nearly 40 species of weed mutations wherein the traits have genetically jumped species (does that REALLY happen in Nature?), mutant bacteria, worms, etc., could there reasonably be a possibility there is an actual problem? (4) I have already suggested (the USDA recently echoed the idea) that the soil has some serious deficiencies that should be analyzed and fixed-the integrity of the host seeds in biotech applications have deteriorated-standard identity preservation and hybridization should be cultivated to make a better vectoring seed for traits. Take (5) year, fix the soil, upgrade the vector seeds, and then REALLY test the new products, and we might have Biotech that delivers without taking away. Monsanto and Bayer would be Global Heroes, not to mention have expanded Market Hegemony. It would be all good.