Scot Stevenson linked to Genetically Engineered Crops Are Safe, Analysis Finds and I left a comment on Google+.
Genetically Engineered Crops Are Safe, Analysis Finds
My take is that the situation is similar to nuclear power plants. The core technology may be safe, I just don’t trust the people and business practices around them.
In terms of GMOs, my main problem is that they encourage monoculture because they *enable* monoculture. But, like the use of antibiotics in raising animals, that’s just a single round in the ever turning wheel of resistances pathogens, parasites and weeds acquire. Antibiotics pose an addition risk because the animals pee them into soil, and so the resistances spread. I don’t think that’s a problem with GMOs, or at least, not that I know of. But monoculture is a problem. Once a parasite discovers a way around the defense we engineered, all of our crops are at risk. The result is a system that is very brittle and prone to catastrophic failures. Sadly, the natural defenses against this result in less profits: diversification of crops, smaller patches of land per crop.
In addition to the problem of monoculture and resistances are the problems of single supplier dependencies (Monsanto), the uncertain status of glyphosate (does it cause cancer or not?), and the adverse effect on our intellectual property systems when big corporations depend on tighter regulation. Big pharma is strengthening the patent system all over the world and big agro is following in their footsteps – here I am, wanting to reduce the reach of patents.
#GMO #Patents