Re: [pf] Risks, imposed or chosen

by Betsy Barnum

18 December 2000 16:27 UTC

David A wrote:

> Fitzsimmons, Diane wrote:
> > When we have ways to produce perfectly fine food without genetic
> > modification -- why bother with using genetic modification?
>
> We rich, fat Americans do. Other countries don't.

They would, ifn the rich, fat American corporations would let them alone
to do it. American meddling in the poor areas of the world has created
much more hungerthan it has solved. The much-hyped Green Revolution
succeeded in nothing so much as creating dependence on petrochemicals
and input-intensive forms of agriculture *for export*, and driving
people off the land to fill the city slums and compete with each other
for low-paying factory jobs, ensuring perpetual hunger in their
households.

Genetic modification, especially the patenting of seed and the
development of second-generation sterile seed and seed with genetic
factors that switch on and off depending on whether the farmer applies
that company's specific chemicals, will continue this process. Third
World countries don't need our "help" to feed themselves. They need us
to get the hell out of their countries, stop forcing them into export
economies and let them use the wisdom of ages of subsistence agriculture
to feed themselves.

Betsy