[LINK] The Main Problem With GM Food Is The Patent, Not The GM

[Janet Hawtin]

On 10 January 2013 10:57, Jim Birch <planetjim at gmail.com> wrote:

> Despite a few decades of GM none of the imagined dangers have eventuated.
> Most of them indicate a essentialist take on biology and genetics rather
> than a modern scientific understanding.  It's a medieval way of looking at
> the world.  However, people in rich countries have the ability to indulge
> their whims and can eat more-or-less what they like. People living in poor
> regions with limited arable land of the world have a right to adequate good
> food too.

I think the numbers of Indian farmer suicides is a striking outcome of
GM and corporate control of seed. It is not rocket science to figure
out that if a company can make a grain which is sterile and controlled
by themselves it is in their own interests that all other varieties
become hard to get. that makes good business sense perhaps but makes
very poor food security sense and no ecological sense at all. Perhaps
that is not science but economic logic but the basic tensions are
obvious and there is no transparency or accountability to act as a
control in the public/ecological interest.

j