Re: Food for thought

**"MARGARET LAUTERBACH" m*@msn.com**

What will put a screeching halt to GM foods (over 3,000 currently on American grocery shelves, allegedly none on Euro shelves) will be something as bad as Thalidomide problems.  It won't show up for years, because now infants are being fed genetically modified soy products, and if it results in shrunken brains or damaged livers or testicles, we won't know it for years.  The seed company officials (the seed companies are owned by the giant international pharmaceutical companies) say "trust us."  FDA says "it's not my table."  Seed company people say they can solve vitamin A deficiencies by inserting correct genes into rice.  Yes, but the amount of rice one would have to ingest each day and get the MDR of vitamin A would preclude their eating other necessary nutrients.  As long as they're secretive, only supplying part of the story, I think the public has a right to fear or question this technology.  Yes, that genie is out of the bottle. It's the red sports car for the male men
 opausal men in agricultural colleges.  They're not going to get promoted or extra pay for "experimental" work unless they're doing genetic modification.  Alas.  Pogo was certainly right.  Margaret L
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: eczekalski<e*@gaias-gift.com> 
  To: 'Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum'<g*@lists.ibiblio.org> 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:28 AM
  Subject: Re: [GWL] Food for thought

  Grave danger??  So is the Internet, to name a technology related danger.  So
  is rain in the right context.  

  I don't believe that we can put the genie back in the bottle, with this any
  more than any other of the really scary responsibilities that we inherit
  along with technological breakthroughs.  We can control the forces that give
  and take life more in this age than in any other and that's not a trend
  that's going away.  

  I believe that the best course of action is to try to truly understand the
  risks and decide on courses of actions that control them appropriately and
  ethically.  Some genetic modifications may have little risk and others may
  be insane to introduce into the wild.  Using technology ethically is damn
  hard but technology is not all bad or all good.  To me, with genetic
  modification of food crops, that means more testing, more accurate and
  careful interpretation of the results and careful representation of what is
  known and what is not to the public.  

  Our job, should we choose to accept it. 

  Esther Czekalski
  -----Original Message-----
  From: gardenwriters-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org<g*@lists.ibiblio.org>
  [g*@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Miranda Smith
  Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 8:39 AM
  To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum
  Subject: Re: [GWL] Food for thought

  Terminator seeds are clearly a grave danger to all of us--I can't 
  imagine any other opinion.

  Miranda Smith
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