3 thoughts on “The Life of Grass.”

  1. A decent article, but it omits two very important points:

    1. A not insignificant portion of Third World (and First World small farmer) apprehension over GM crops is economic, not environmental, over the issue of seed sterility. Many of these GM Frankenfoods are “programmed” not to produce viable seeds, which means that the farmer is now merely renting his crops from Monsanto et al, and on top of that is unable to use traditional principles of selective breeding to tailor a crop to his individual needs and innovate on his own. It is remarkable that the Atlantic author failed to address this issue, which in some areas of resistance is the ONLY issue that matters (the greens are just convenient straw men for the opposition).

    2. There are legitimate theological and philosophical objections to the combination of disparate species’ DNA. For instance, how much of the porcine genome would render an otherwise kosher or halal organism unclean? What about fruits and vegetables with sequences of animal DNA – can a strict vegetarian eat such GM food? And there are a lot of us out there who would object on a visceral level to the human genome being cut and pasted throughout our various flora and fauna. At the very least, there should be laws requiring the disclosure of such inclusion; the fact that being a cannibal isn’t going to harm you physically isn’t really the issue here (!).

    Overall I agree that GMOs have great potential, but we are done a grave disservice if the only dissenting voices we get to hear in the media about this issue are from the lunatic fringe. And by trying to bully their way past such legitimate concerns, companies like Monsanto are alienating many middle-of-the-roaders such as myself, who see nothing but a naked grab for all of the marbles on the table and not an honest concern for the very real needs of human agriculture in the 3rd millennium.

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