It is very difficult to understand why the GMO issue is so black and white for some individuals. I can understand why people are apprehensive about the motives of large multinational companies. Especially since Obama has given them total protection against lawsuits pertaining to any GMO issues that individuals might want to litigate.
However, let us look at some of the positives. Cotton was the most sprayed crop ever grown by man. Now thanks to GMOs, sprays have been reduced by 60 to 80 per cent, a huge reduction of hundreds of thousands of gallons of pesticide not being dumped on the earth, surely this is an environmental gain.
The papaya fruit was on the verge of extinction due to the uncontrollable papaya ringspot virus. Thank GMOs for the save. Sometimes a crop’s continued survival depends on transgenesis.
I was a member of the American Association of Cereal Chemists for 31 years and chose to join the biotechnology division, basically because of curiosity.
I met a lot of the world’s top cereal biotechnologists. These superstars of science have only the best intentions; feed the world, reduce pesticide and herbicide use, and improve the problems inherent in all agriculture. They had no intention of creating Franken foods and global disaster. Now mankind is smart enough to change one gene at a time, instead of helter skelter cross breeding, which moves hundreds or more genes. This technological gain must be celebrated.
When the GMO science finally turns off the allergy gene in the peanut, no gene switches or genes added, just turn it off, could we all be on board for that?
Put down your sticks with signs. After all, you drove to your protest with an automobile, a wonderful invention by man that has killed more people than any other innovation, maybe even more than the gun.
Progress is good. If not, stop using the wheel and fire.
GMOs have not been proven to even cause a rash or a sore throat in spite of 20 years of consumption.
It is Mr. Harper’s job to protect us from highly vocal radicals motivated by emotion, rather than fact.
Rudy Bergen
Vernon
