Genetic Engineering:
The antithesis of consumer knowledge
G.E. not for me!

BURN!!!!


Genetic engineering is a hot topic at the moment, and it will continue to be for some time in the future. The most unfortunate thing is that we are being force fed altered foods all the time without knowing it. We are told that it has been happening for a long time now in fact. We were being fed these things without our knowledge or consent. One of the causes of market failure is consumer ignorance, and we were most certainly ignorant to the fact that were have been eating altered genes. Does this justify it? No. Yet may pro-GE supporters believe it does. To them, the only argument against GE foods is possible health side effects. I see this as only one minor problem with this issue. I see the possibility of damage to the environment as a much more serious threat then the health threat. I see the tactics being used by the major corporations involved in GE to be a major threat to society, much more a threat then the harmless protesters, that have uprooted the crops of these companies, such as the major Monsanto.

The companies are fighting back with dirty tactics. As always, the opposition is being blamed for emotive arguments, while the supporters realise propaganda on how the introduction of GE foods will end famines around the world. A very emotive argument if I ever heard one. In fact, a brochure that I picked up at my local supermarket claimed that we actually need genetically engineered foods for the survival of our economy, and our species. What utter crap.

First the famine argument. It is a lie that we will feed the world with genetic engineering. This is because of a simple fact, we live in a capitalist society. This means that the economy does not act in a way that will ever distribute goods to certain people. The fact is that we have the food at present to feed the world. And if we gave up the meat industry, we would have all the grains and crops fed to the cows, as well as the land used to graze the cows, to produce much more food to feed the world. We do not have a shortage of resources to feed the world. If we truly wanted to, we could do it now. We do not need G.E. foods to feed everyone. This is a great lie. The flaw is not in the food, it is in the distribution of it, because of the make up of capitalism. And anyway, if we have had G.E. for some time now, why are there still hungery people in the world. IT is very clear that we do not need genetic engineering, not now, not before, and most likely, not in the future.

The distribution problem, some believe, would be fixed by genetic engineering, by making plants that are easier to grow in areas of high famine. However, we have already seen the flaw in this. First of all, there is still problems with distribution of goods in these third world countries. The crops grown would most likely not be distributed fairly. Then there is the unlikely hood that the seeds would reach the people who need them, in order to grow crops. Even if the seeds were available, there is still another more serious problem. This was shown by the ethics of Monsanto when dealing with the thrid world farmers.

You see, the farmers are very poor. They cannot afford to by new seeds every year, so they have a common practice of keeping a large quantity of crops from one year, to take the seed from the crops, and planting them to grow food for the next year. This can only carry on for a while, until degeneration sets in, and they must go back for more seeds. In this way, they can conserve their money, and still feed their families, friends and villages. However, Monsanto has played an evil trick on the people. They have offered them free seeds for one season. This may seem nice enough on it's own, however, these seeds have one big difference. Aside from the other modications done, Monsanto has insured that the crops produced by these seeds will not produce their own seeds. This means that the farmers are forced to buy a large quantity of seeds the next year. And Monsanto being the giant it is, has almost pushed out the competition all together. This means that the farmers are being forced to buy Monsanto's seeds every year. This is causing much more problems for the people then ever before, as they are not making enough money to continue on with this practice.

The argument that the New Zealand economy will fail without genetically engineered food is flawed as well. It has already been shown that the world is making a stance against G.E. foods. If we try to base our economy on it, we will surely fall. New Zealand relies on plant based goods for 50% of it's income from exports. If the world makes a stand against G.E. goods, we will lose a huge market. Also, it has been shown that there is a hugely growing market for organic foods. The incomes from this market has grown hugely over the last 5 years, from less then $NZ1 million a year, to a much higher $NZ24 million for last year. Profits are expected to rise to $NZ64 million by 2001, and growing continuely for some time. This is a market which cannot be ignored. It is much more profitable for New Zealand to become a truly green country, and switch to organice foods, then to throw it's image of a clean country away, just to please the multi-nationals who would profit from our support of genetic engineering.

Monsanto has done one more tricky thing that is worth acknowledging before I finnish. Monsanto also owns Round-up, a weed killer. The patent on this recipe will be running out soon, meaning others will be able to copy it. Monsanto has come up with a brilliant way around this dilema, it has created seeds which produce plants, which will not die when exposed to thsi herbicide. This means that if you want to use Round-up effectively, you must have the seeds that go along with it. IN this way, Monsanto has still kept the market for themselves, without worrying about the side effects of this. It is also for this reason that the third world countries are slaves to Monsanto. They must buy the seeds which they can use with the round-up, otherwise, their crops will be destroyed. And so the circle has widened for the third world farmers. They must buy Monsanto seeds every year, because they need to use round-up to kill the weeds, and they do not have reserve seeds left after the harvest, and so must go back to Monsanto for seeds and chemicals.

This is jsut a few examples to show that there is no real reason to support the claim that we NEED G.E. foods. Apart from this there are many other arguments why we should not have them at all, but you can find these out for yourself on the internet. I may write about them later.


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