Category: Commentary

Ethical and Practical Issues of GMOs

Jim Martin-Schramm, an Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, wrote a fully inclusive investigation of the role that genetically engineered crops may or may not play in Sub-Saharan Africa that may easily be extrapolated into the role of biotechnology in other situations. I’ve read a lot of articles and case studies that tried to summarize the GMO debate but none have come close to this one, particularly when it comes to neutrality and allowing readers to make conclusions on their own. The document is written as a case study, which seems to be is a really effective way to get the information across. While it is from December 2003, little if anything has changed.

I urge everyone who has ever had a question about the risks, benefits, ethics, or science of GMOs to read this. As always, I welcome readers to comment on the subject at hand so that all participants may better understand the issues.

Commentary

Rotten corn

The National Corn Growers Association is an important trade group. Their mission is to advocate and lobby on behalf of corn growers, or as they say “to create and increase opportunities for corn growers”. At the Maize Genetics Conference, I got to listen to their Chair of the Research and Business Development Action Team, Pam Johnson (you can find my summary of her remarks in my post Research and the Recession). She was a little overenthusiastic, but generally made sense, advocating for better cooperation between government and industry to produce more useful research. I hate to say it, but, was all that just for show?

Commentary

In defense of corn

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan tells us: Read the ingredients on the label of any processed food and, provided you know the chemical names it travels under, corn is what you will find. For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic…

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Commentary

Shameful Shiva

Every time I read something Vandana Shiva has written, I become more convinced that she is either 1) willfully ignorant on the subject of farming or 2) willfully ignoring a whole swath of problems in order to focus on a pet peeve. She is another sad example of a self-styled celebrity who plays games with…

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Commentary

Big Island Transgenics

By the year 2050, the Earth’s population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the environmental cost will be immeasurable. Clearly, the world needs a better way to meet the demand for increased food production. To…

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Commentary

Something tastes bad…

When I first read reports of mercury in corn syrup, I was first shocked, then concerned, then skeptical. Janet (qualifications unknown) at Ethicurean described the source of the mercury (in fact, she was picked up by Huffington Post): How did the heavy metal get in there? In making HFCS — that “natural” sweetener, as the…

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Commentary