Designer Talong
He is still trying to fully make up his mind over the issue. But thus far thinking about it, he wonders if its high time liberals cleaned up house. Sure, the conservatives have a lot to do to pull themselves out of the morass of the George W. Bush years. But there’s also a lot that needs to be done where the cause of liberalism is concerned.
First off, the liberal-conservative dichotomy is problematic as would be expected with anything dogmatic. Certainly, we have come to a time when those labels have become so insufficient they lead ultimately to greater confusion. Though we have come to a greater awareness of global politics we find it harder now to immediately formulate our personal stands regarding issues that affect us. Especially where issues of the environment are concerned. As in the case of the GMO Monsanto eggplants.
To recall, the Philippine courts recently ruled to stop ongoing experimentation with growing the plants here. A review of the case reveals that all this results primarily from a 90 day research done by Greenpeace which found toxicity in the liver of mice exposed to the GMO eggplant.
Greenpeace has of course an excellent record defending whales and other endangered organisms from extinction. He surely loves Greenpeace for that. And yet, he cannot help wondering if liberals have not opened themselves to too much knee-jerk reactions especially where new technology is concerned. He cannot help wondering if liberals have positioned themselves along simplistic dogma like: All things GMO are evil. All things GMO threaten diversity. All things GMO must be banned.
He worries because such manners of thinking have come to be expected from mainstream and institutional conservatives like American Republicans, and established religious institutions such as the Catholic church. He has always been dismayed by their inflexibility and their disinclination to look at the world from a “disinterested” perspective. Even to look at the world with a sensitivity to what can be scientifically determined, their fear of everything new.
Reading reports from the Net he cannot help immediately wondering if 90 days of research is enough to determine the ultimate dangers of the GMO Monsanto eggplants. When this issue is mixed with the other issue of diversity of eggplant species here and the long-term impact to the environment 90 days seems such a short time.
And just because GMO Monsanto is banned in other countries does not really form sufficient grounds to ban it here. There would be many countries out there who do not have as difficult a time feeding their own people as we do.
Sure, the issue of the environment is important. But its protection must be done within reason resulting from scientific experimentation as much as from dogmatic knee-jerk. Ecology is all very well. But food is always the more immediate and more humane issue. And certainly we must wonder what drives the logic of putting talong diversity above the issue of feeding the hungry in our midst.
By all means we should love the whales and everything that’s endangered in the environment including the native talong. But some people here are just as endangered. They are endangered from having not enough to put on their tables so their children do not grow malnourished. Liberals should visit the countryside some time if only to give rest to their urban, recyclable, armchairs. For shame if we should protect talong diversity as if talong was more important than people and their right to eat.Who looks after people? Who puts them into the debate over GMO Monsanto?
To be sure, GMO Monsanto is not blameless either. The talong organism they “designed” is programmed to weaken after a few generations of planting. Thus, ensuring that farmers will become dependent on sourcing GMO seeds from them in the future. They could have designed the plant another way so they would truly feed the hungry instead of maximizing their potential to profit from their patents. And they should certainly be condemned for this.
But to say no to all experimentation with GMO is to say no to all new technology, akin to saying no to CD because they will wipe out the cassette tape. What if at an earlier time in history we banned pig-raising on the grounds that they threatened the diversity of the wild-pig population in our islands. Where would we be now?
The fact of liberals putting themselves in the way of new technology and new ideas seems simply such a tragic ironic twist.
