Saturday, March 30, 2013

"On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero"

My problem with the anti-GMO folks and other movements similar to them is that they just don't grasp the big picture. When you're a one issue idealist, you operate with blinders on, regardless of whether you're left, right or other. I see this with Republicans who cling to the idea that they have to stop abortions and the notion that they're going to have their guns taken away. I see this on the left with those who think that by working with moderate Libertarians or Republicans on one issue, that they'll lose their high ground on others.

The recent "Monsanto Protection Act" hoopla has shown me just how prone to overreaction and fear-mongering people really are. We certainly should be concerned about foods that aren't natural and what they could do to us. I personally stick to a semi-Paleo diet, avoid processed foods and eat organic as much as possible. The problem is that when you subscribe to a particular religion, diet or ideology, you'll believe anything that comes along, and there's plenty of people who want to capitalize on that. For example, I'm gluten intolerant. I've gone searching across the internet for sources that can help me with that issue and there's been a number of them that have provided some useful information, and many more who want me to believe that by only buying their product, only then could I be safe.

When ideology meets an opportunity for profit, paranoia begins to resemble a runaway train. If we were to believe half the stuff that I run across in order to maintain my health, we'd never leave our houses, gyms, or health food stores. As the saying goes, "On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero". What does that mean? It means that no matter how healthy you eat, how much you exercise, or whatever precautions you take, you're gonna die one day.

This isn't to say that we should get all nihilistic, start our days off with a bottle of whiskey and a pack of smokes with our coffee. We should be cautious, we should make good choices and avoid dangerous things. However, we shouldn't allow fear to dominate our lives and instead of blindly believing things that you see on the internet, do some research with a healthy dose of skepticism, and then make a decision on how you want to go forward.

7 comments:

  1. I try to eat foods as close to the farm as I can get them. This is not always possible, and there are a few food choices I make just because I can't make them or don't have the time to make them. I worry about the future of our food - have you tasted a free-range chicken thigh lately? I didn't know what chicken was until I started buying from a local small operation. There are too many factory farms, where profit reigns over product, and the result is less than tasty food. Most folks don't realize the crap they buy in the store has very little going for it. Yeah, I'm gonna die someday, and those cigarettes I smoke on occasion are putting me that much closer to the grave anyway, but when it comes to food, I say we all make a little effort to support our local growers whenever possible, and discover what real food is supposed to taste like.

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  2. My wife has a wheat allergy--you can imagine how fun that is. What gets me about the whole genetically-modified paranoia is that the regular wheat and corn, and everything else that is farmed, has been modified by human behavior. Corn started out as a grass with a low yield; yet over the course of human history, we selectly choose to plant seeds that resulted in our current corn on the cob. The difference is that we did not do it in a lab over a short decade, instead we took thousands of years to do it--nevertheless, we modified the genetics of the current corn plant long before we understood genetics.

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  3. Selective breeding isn't in the same ballpark as genetic modification.

    And what people were upset about with the Monsanto protection rider was, it effectively makes the company legally immune to any sort of lawsuit, now and forever. This kind of thing should never be attached to a must-pass budget bill.

    Call it paranoia if you like, but biotech companies are just not really careful enough. For one example, see http://www.cracked.com/article_18503_how-biotech-company-almost-killed-world-with-booze.html

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  4. Wow. What an uninformed opinion. GMO's are like playing with fire. we have no idea really what we are doing or what the unintended consequences may be. Furthermore, the real story is the strategy of Monsanto to corner the food market with patented GMO's and their legal bullying of anyone who dares to stand up to them.

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  5. While Monsanto needs to be shut down, I agree that we cannot live our lives in fear all the time. Hopefully this will show us that information on the Internet can be incorrect.

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  6. One thing that hasn't been taken into account here is the population factor. GMO foods were designed with this in mind. Feed the most amount of people with food that can be grown anywhere. For the record, I'm not pro-GMO. But like Whiskey subscribe to eating what's good for me along with what's not. Enjoying life is a primary staple of mine.

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  7. They are learning that it doesn't grow more food. That the bugs are becoming resistant. Over time, while you build the soil. Organic not only produces more, but it more resistant to disease and drought. Search Polyface farm. It is how it should be done.

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