"Charles Hawtrey" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 19:01:23 +0000, Marcus Williamson
wrote:


Erm... They're not "forging full speed ahead" anywhere except the US
and Canada, where consumers are finally waking up to the fact that
their food is contaminated with untested, unlabelling GM
ingredients...

There are legitimate reasons for skepticism regarding GM crops, but
please lose the "untested" contention. That's false, and you know
it's false, but you keep saying it anyway. You're doing a disservice
to those of us with real concerns about GM by continuing to make
statements that are obviously wrong. Such statements unfortunately
are used as ammunition by those who would paint all GM skeptics as
ignorant luddites. One wonders if you're actually a pro-GM agent
provocateur out to make GM skeptics look bad.

Keep GM crops out of the rest of the world. I don't want to have to compete
with India and Africa if they can bring their yields up to world norms.
Improving the cotton yields in India alone to the world average represents
more than the entire US cotton crop. GM cotton is worth about 50 bucks an
acre to me. But to a third world farmer that has heavy boll worm pressure it
can double or triple his crop and cut his pesticide use substantially. In
some cases completely. Although in tropical counties you usualy have
something that gives you trouble unless it is very dry and there is only a
little irrigation.

I don't take that stance. I think that GM seed are the quickest way to get
improved technology to 3d world farmers. It works, It is had to screw up and
they come back for more. It will develop a trust to bring the high protien
cavas vitiman forified rice's and other crops that they can't see the dollar
value of so clearly.

With out good seed you can't have good agriculture. The land races need to
be growing on small plots to see if they have any thing that might be useful
when a disease hits but as production crop many will barley feed the family
that grows them.

Only China, the USA and Cuba spend any money to speak of on auricular
research. And only two are increasing their budge. You have two guess and
the US isn't one of them. Even in wheat a crop that is historically bread by
land grant universities they are not replacing the old breeders when the
retire or what ever. We are becoming dependent on commercial seed growers
because we handed to them on a platter and said, "why, thank you sir for
lighting our load".

We need to spend much much more money on both basic and applied research.
Basic research is going begging and they don't have much to sell and they
don't know how to do it. We have all the sugar daddies bled to the point
that we don't dare take much more or the will swat us like the biting flies
we are. The basic science guys are 50 years behind in fund raising methods.

If you don't like cooperate penetration into agriculture fund an alternative
you local ag schools. We still have the infra structure to get it going but
15 years from now it will take 25 year to get back to were we are today.

The operations didn't take over we served it up on a golden platter.




Gordon Couger
Stillwater, OK
www.couger.com/gcouger

I am going to vote green in the next election to try and make sure that they
get enough votes to get federal matching funds for presidential races. It
was Ralph Nader put George Bush in the White House. Oklahoma is not going to
vote for a democrat so I might as well use my vote to do as much damage to
the democrats as I can.

The appears to be no winning strategy in taking the EU to the WTO over GM
foods. The EU reports are all more or less positive to GM but the France and
Germany and some others are dead set against it. If we did win the battle we
would loose the war as we did on hormone beef and there are bigger fish to
fry at the movement in the middle east and there is no point in ****ing of
the UK and EU over an issue we loose either way right now.

Those that are making a stand against modern agriculture seem to be falling
on their own swords well enough that they can be allowed to continue to make
fools of them selves as people are actually becoming educated on the issue
and not listing to the drivel that they repeat mindlessly. In the face of
facts that prove the wrong over and over. In ten years noting they predict
has come to pass.

The environment is better for it the farmers healthier and every one that
uses the water that runs off the fields far better off than using
conventional or organic methods.

The next two weeks will be intersting to see how things shake out in world
politics. It is one of the biggest showdowns in my life. Every one is going
to have a chance to put their money where their mouth is with out some
unforeseen removal of Sadam Hussein.

It could trigger a new age of political alliances almost over night if every
one does what they say they are going to do. But I seriously think they
will.

But we live in intersting times and I wish I was 25 years younger with the
digital camera, laptop and satellite linkage I would be there taking
pictures and writing stories and keeping my head and butt down. Not with the
US press corps. Of course at 35 I might not be so willing to risk my life
either.