On the October 14 Wake Up Call host Rick Moore talks to Professor Dr. Manuel Lerdau of the UVa Department of Environmental Sciences and nutrition specialist and certified Wellcoach Wendy Vigdor-Hess about genetically modified foods, fact versus fiction on them, and any health risks or benefits.
Good one, Rick! I loved the “God natural” phrase 1) ’cause there ain’t nothing that fits that definition in GM foods and 2) because it gets at the reason GMOs are most problematic to me.
They are an intervention that allows us to exceed, to leap-frog over “God’s ecology” a.k.a. nature. Nature(God?) abhors a monoculture; it loves diversity. Our industrial food system is based on making nature run on man’s time clock.
Economies of scale in production, distribution, for the maximization of profit and “efficiency”–all these DEPEND on monoculture. Monoculture is inherently unnatural–unGodlike if you will. Monocultures are subject to disease, to pests, to weeds. Most GMOs trials are not about people–they’re are about permitting MONOCULTURES to survive.
Let’s put an insecticidal gene in corn–cuz yay! it kills corn borer worms. Oh wait, it also kills bees and butterflies and everything else that comes in contact with the corn. Let’s put an herbicide resistant gene in soybeans–now we can nuke the soybeans with as much Roundup as we like. Does that benefit consumers? Not so sure, but it sure benefits Monsanto which sells Roundup AND Roundup Ready seeds. When will we ever connect the dots?
One question that arose in this conversation is that of the role of science: should scientists have complete and perfect freedom to explore the limits of knowledge in their various fields? I believe in very few absolutes. But here’s as close as I get to one: there must be limits on industry’s ability to determine the aims of scientific research–to finance research on topics favorable to its interests and to block research that it fears may be unflattering to its GM products.
Please do more of these shows. Very interesting.
I failed to ask the guests about how the GM agriculture affects the cows+chickens in our food cycle through the GMO being used as feed. that’s a discussion I’d like to have in the future.