Re: CONFESSIONS

Fred Thompson wrote:
> 
> Sorry to hear that you have a population that uses pesticides
> indiscriminately. All our Master Gardeners recommend IPM to home gardeners,
> and commercial growers are bound by very strict rules. Do you have these
> problems because people cannot read labels?

Hi Fred
I think you are living in a rosy haze if you really think the majority
of gardeners on any country where over-the-counter pesticides are freely
available always apply them strictly according to instructions on the
label. I correspond with many people in the USA and a majority of these
have neighbours who certainly don't seem to show this sort of
responsible behaviour. In this I admit they are also joined by a fair
number of New Zealanders --- and Australians and inhabitamts of many
Europen countries etc etc. It is not a question of inability to read
labels, but of an inability to grasp that they are handling dangerous
products, often due to a lack of any scientific background. Those who
enjoy cooking doubtless often follow recipes in a sketchy fashion
without ill-effects and seem to imagine they can do the same when
treating their plants with chemicals. One nothern European country
(Germany I think) having perceived the danger, is in the process of
legislating against the selling of pesticides to the general gardening
public. I have an idea such ideas are also taking root in one or more of
the Scandinavian countries.

I am pleased to hear you have so many sensible friends who are willing
to follow the advice given them by such people as Master Gardeners. I
think the MGs are peculiar to the US, as I have never heard of them
elsewhere. I probably fill a similar role in my local scene, but without
official designation.
> 
> As to genetically modified food, ALL the food that you consume has been
> genetically modified. Almost none of that food would exist in nature if
> uncultivated by man. This food has been genetically manipulated for thousands
> of years by man. This elementary fact seems to have eluded you. Are these
> problems due to your educational system?

Well Fred, some people may not read labels exactly, but you have
apparently misread my letter in which I explained the difference between
genetically-modified and genetically engineered plants. I entirely agree
that virtually every cultivated plant has undegone some sort of upgrade
by breeding  (ie has been genetically modified) and with this I have no
quarrel at all.
> 
> As to "genetically modified" crops being dangerous, I would say that if the
> processed "GM" product (however defined) is chemically and biologically
> indistinguishable from the unGM product, then there is no issue. 

And I would go along with you here. However it is already becoming
obvious that some of the genetically-ENGINEERED crops which have been
launched on the market in the last few years are NOT exactly equivalent
to their normally-bred counterparts. The most striking of these is the
GE soya. In Britain the introduction of this coincided with a very
marked increase in soya allergies which was reported by a monitoring
agency of international standing (if you want references or more
details, I can supply them).... And something more anecdotal. When
cattle in the USA were turned in to graze on GE corn (I think because
the farmer was unable to market it) they actually pushed through the
stand to get to normally-bred corn growing beyond. It would seem that
some GE crops at least are definitely different.

> It is good that you are using no-till and other modern agricultural methods to
> grow things in your yard. Our farmers have been using these techniques for
> years insofar as they reduce costs and increase productivity. Thank goodness
> for our farmers! On average, each one of them grows food and fiber for
> hundreds of people like you and me.

I doubt whether no-till methods are as widespread in US farming as you
suggest, even though the demise of the mouldboard plough was urged by
such writers as Edward Faulkner way back in the 1930s. At that time he
was a real "voice crying in the wilderness" and it was many years after
the war bfore the general farming community began to discover that he
might be right.

While no-till methods are easy  in an ordinary garden, they are much
more difficult to apply on a larger scale and farmers generally are
really only just coming to terms with this idea and working out
efficient ways of getting their seed or plants into the ground under the
new regime. In fact truely  no-till farming is almost impossible where
annual crops are grown. The best that can be managed still requires some
level of disturbance.
> 
> In the USA we have colleges and universities with renown agricultural research
> departments. I would venture a guess that 90% of the faculties of these
> institutions are very much in favor of research into improving agricultural
> productivity and genotypes. The Coalition of Concerned Scientists is but one
> example of academics and practitioners advocating biotechnology research. All
> the scientists that I know at U.C. Davis and U.C. Riverside favor continuing
> research. We have billions of people to feed on this planet, and most of them
> could use a more plentiful and nutritious diet such as we enjoy.

There is, I agree a great deal of valuable agricultural and
horticultural research coming out of your country's universities, which
I follow with great interest. However the development of marketable _GE_
crops has been undertaken as far as I know solely by commercially-backed
laboratories, working for such firms as Monsanto, whose major stated aim
has been to push through the breeding and get the modified seed on to
the market as quickly as possible to maximize profits. What concerns
many major scientists is that this has been done with a minimum of
testing so that the impact of such crops on the consumers and the
environment is only very sketchily known, as is obvous from problems
already reported, epecially from Europe. I doubt that at their present
state of development such crops are really going to be all that much
help in improving the planet's food supplies. 

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand. (on the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
Lat. 41:16S Long. 174:58E. Climate: Mediterranean/Temperate
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