Flax 2

[Fransisco]

Back to the "ethics" question.

Parsley bristles at the thought of being part of a global science experiment. Well they are going on all the time and often we don't even notice. Why? Because there are few problems and almost always the positives outweigh the negatives.

Let me give one example <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine">vaccines. </a> And let me get even more specific, this year the most well known global experiment will be the <a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/story_print.html?id=1905048&sponsor=">H1N1 flu vaccine.</a>

Developed by profit motivated multi-nationals over a very short period of time , tested for only a short period of time and multiplied in chicken eggs. Some of the most vulnerable people in society will be injected with it first, pregnant women, health-care workers, children and people with chronic conditions such as diabetes or asthma.

Now it seems to me Parsley that you would be opposed to this on a number of fronts. We just don't know what the long term consequences of this vaccine are going to be, furthermore your organic chicken eggs are now at a theoretical risk of being contaminated with genetic material you don't want in them. Is this not a bigger deal than the detection of .05% of GM DNA in a muffin?

Are you opposed to this new vaccine because it gives you the heebie geebees?

I myself am quite comfortable with this "global experiment". I'd much rather have the vaccine around than not. And believe that it would be unethical to deny people this treatment based on what we don't know.

[parsley]

No. I wasn't in favor of banning coke either, even though coke machines were installed in schools. Some even insisted coke was good for kids.

Actually fran, I tend to think every generation is more educated and is more more communicative so they chose to look at the merits of children drinking soft drinks every day.

Parents today often buy natural fruit drinks for their children, hence the food and beverage trade responded in kind with little unsweetened fruit drinks most receptive farmers tote out to the field. I drink them all the time. I also have the odd soft drink.

And the guy who says he has big enough kahoonas to drink 20 cokes a day won't hurt him, will continue to drink them. Actually, I encourage it as it facilitates natural selection......

[parsley]

"Parsley bristles at the thought of being part of a global science experiment. Well they are going on all the time and often we don't even notice. Why?"

Because alterations are slipped into the food we eat without our knowledge.

A lot of people want to know what they eat. Such an old fashoioned idea.

Perhaps targeting one specific starving region of the world, with continuous shipments of altered food enhanced with fertility-termination modification, pillared upon a stated altruistic (tic) intent to "eliminate some of the world's most recognizable social financial burden," would be considered "safe", as well as an acceptable "part of a global science experiment"

Food.
Food for thought.

Pars

[jensend]

two points:

1. science evolves and what seems like a logical concluwsion might, a few years later, be one hundred eighty degrees from reality.

2. this triffid situation is an indicator that traceability and identification of point of origin is coming. grain producers will be mandated to verify their practices, just like cattle producers in their quality assurance program. the more instances of cheating that are found out will just increase the pressure for accountability.

[parsley]

"grain producers will be mandated to verify their practices"

I agree.

And a verification system is costly.

Who pays?

Should farmers who have absolutely nothing to do with modified crops be paying for proving they do not?

Now there is a nimble dowloading trick if I ever saw one in the planning.

And that is why farmers and their organizations need to anticipate that paying for the governmental imposed audit system yet to inevitablty come, will be downloaded on farmers unless we intercept it.

Your future 'license to farm' will be burdened with audit trail costs that are invented and recorded by government union employees.

Sour milk for your morning coffee.

Pars

[Fransisco]

"Because alterations are slipped into the food we eat without our knowledge."

I was wondering how long it was going to take before we'd see a conspiracy theory argument. The evil corporations are secretly slipping things into our food in order to create the ape,cricket,giraffe cross that will be difficult for parsley to get into her apartment.

This certainly is one of the more pressing moral issues of our time. LOL

[parsley]

fran, I thought you'd enjoy a little verbal treat when you were sweating it out on the combine. Hope it went well.

But, I must admit, even I was surprised by the list of novel food that has been approved in Canada:
<p></p><p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong><p></p><p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong><a href=" http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/gmf-agm/appro/index-eng.php ">("Damn it! Eat your government approved novel food, kids, or no dessert!")</a></strong></p><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></strong></p>

[parsley]

I didn't know I was eating all this. Did you? Be honest.

[FarmRanger]

Parsley,
Exerpt from the Safety Assessment of Potatoes Resistant
to the Colorado Potato Beetle from the website you linked to:

"One gene produces a protein derived fromBacillus thuringiensis (Bt) subspeciestenebrionis which provides the protection

from CPB to these potato plants. The Bt family of insecticidal proteins are naturally occurring proteins which are included as the active insecticidal agent in certain commercial pest control products. These have been used safely for more than 30 years to control insect pests by home gardeners, organic growers and other farmers.

A second gene produces an enzyme, a biological marker, that allows researchers to identify the modified plants."

Does that really sound all that bad?
Why the paranoia with GMOs?

[parsley]

I know that the following video addresses Bt, click on vimeo, and you only have to go a short way into it to catch the Bt comments:

<p></p>
<p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong><a href="http://www.seedsofdeception.com/GMFree/MediaCenter/VideoandAudioInterviews/EverythingAboutGMOsVideo/index.cfm">(Jeffrey M. Smith)</a></strong></p>

This is a long video, and I havent watched it all, but plan to. You can U-tube him for other videos, which I have not watched. I've spent most time reading court cases, where GM testing evidence has been submitted by the modifiers, and it's heavy going.

farmranger, maybe I'll have to think about the "paranoia" adjective you've pinned on me for a day or two, about wanting to source and eat natural food, which is, for many, impractical and behind the times. A lot of families don't even sit down together for meals, anymore.

I don't belong to Greenpeace, and never have, and haven't burned a ship or my bra.

I'm usually not on a hardcore rant, but the Triffid-spill ticked me off.

There's a tone out there that dismisses food, that farmers are there merely to supply a cheap commodity for the EU, for the trade, for important things like deckchair backing, and the less questions asked the better, and the farmers role and say and influence is expected to end when the truck empties, that it is none of your business when your grain or even, get this, your information is put at risk, either

I have to admit I love to eat. There are things out there going on with food that I don't like. And the more I read, the less I like it. A doctor friend brought southeast Saskatchewan cancer trends to my attention years ago, to my then "wait and see" eyes.

But, farmranger, I also realize there is nothing worse than enduring a pissy parsley moment. lol Friends, like fran,lol, take it in stride, and accept me for what I think, just as my antagonists like rockpile did, with my ranting over the CWB issue. lol

I say spend money on two things...a comfortable bed and good food. You spend eight hours every day in one, and eat the other three times every day. For the rest of your life.

Ask questions about your food. Pars