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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsClimate change denial? Creationism? Bad. Anti-GMO hysterics? Good.
At least according to the anti-GMO luddites...
How I Got Converted to G.M.O. Food
By MARK LYNASAPRIL 24, 2015
NAIROBI, Kenya Mohammed Rahman doesnt know it yet, but his small farm in central Bangladesh is globally significant. Mr. Rahman, a smallholder farmer in Krishnapur, about 60 miles northwest of the capital, Dhaka, grows eggplant on his meager acre of waterlogged land.
As we squatted in the muddy field, examining the lush green foliage and shiny purple fruits, he explained how, for the first time this season, he had been able to stop using pesticides. This was thanks to a new pest-resistant variety of eggplant supplied by the government-run Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute.
Despite a recent hailstorm, the weather had been kind, and the new crop flourished. Productivity nearly doubled. Mr. Rahman had already harvested the small plot 10 times, he said, and sold the brinjal (eggplants name in the region) labeled insecticide free at a small premium in the local market. Now, with increased profits, he looked forward to being able to lift his family further out of poverty. I could see why this was so urgent: Half a dozen shirtless kids gathered around, clamoring for attention. They all looked stunted by malnutrition.
In a rational world, Mr. Rahman would be receiving support from all sides. He is improving the environment and tackling poverty. Yet the visit was rushed, and my escorts from the research institute were nervous about permitting me to speak with him at all.
The new variety had been subjected to incendiary coverage in the local press, and campaign groups based in Dhaka were suing to have the pest-resistant eggplant banned. Activists had visited some of the fields and tried to pressure the farmers to uproot their crops. Our guides from the institute warned that there was a continuing threat of violence and they were clearly keen to leave.
Why was there such controversy? Because Mr. Rahmans pest-resistant eggplant was produced using genetic modification. A gene transferred from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (more commonly known by the abbreviation Bt), produces a protein that kills the Fruit and Shoot Borer, a species of moth whose larvae feed on the eggplant, without the need for pesticide sprays. (The protein is entirely nontoxic to other insects and indeed humans.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/opinion/sunday/how-i-got-converted-to-gmo-food.html?ref=topics&_r=0
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)Just stop. Let people judge for themselves what to eat. Get the hell out of their lives.
You burn incense to science but that doesn't make you more enlightened.
mindem
(1,580 posts)people have a right to draw a line in the sand and say no - and they don't need any reason why. Anyone who doesn't question the motives of corporations and corporate "science" has a few screws loose. Thalidomide and DDT were good science too at one point.
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)There is overwhelming, cross discipline scientific evidence supporting evolution and global warming.
There is scant, industry funded science claiming many of these modifications are safe to introduce into the food supply. Some may very well be safe. We should have the same testing regimen for any modified food that we have for prescription drugs before they are allowed to be marketed. We should also have labeling that allows people to choose whether they want to consume such products. That is hardly hysterics.