RE: [pf] Risks, imposed or chosen

by Fitzsimmons, Diane

18 December 2000 15:36 UTC

I am no paragon of virtue when it comes to my food intake.  But I find that
my gut instinct tells me that simpler is better when it comes to food.  It
seems to me that food-borne illnesses increase as the eater gets farther
away from the producer.

When we have ways to produce perfectly fine food without genetic
modification -- why bother with using genetic modification?  Some would say,
I guess, that we don't have ways to produce perfectly fine food.  I say that
those problems are usually not of agriculture but ones of economics or
politics or injustice.

To me, it's like using a nuclear bomb instead of a mousetrap.

I admit I'm not much of a scientist.  My worldview is very different from
theirs.  I also admit that I've been the beneficiary of the work of many
great scientists.  But I usually like my science to arise from a need (e.g.,
polio vaccine), rather than for science to create a need (e.g., Terminator
seed).

Diane Fitzsimmons
Norman, Okla.