In article ,
Frank wrote:
The wikipedia page on transgenic corn is "interesting".
After reading that, I don't think the issue of labeling is relevant.
Corn producing BT toxins doesn't sound safe at all.
I can't see any justification for allowing that trait into crops.
Actually, first line of defense for plants is chemical warfare.
Think about it.
Common use of Bt corn will lead to insect resistance to the toxin.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dile...als/dp/0143038
583/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206815576&sr=1-1
(Available at better libraries near you)
BIG ORGANIC * p. 180
The reason (theory) plants produce these compounds (polyphenols) in the
first place is to defend themselves against pests and diseases; the more
pressure from pathogens, the more polyphenols a plant will produce.
**These compounds, then, are the products of natural selection and,
more specifically, the coevolutionary relationship between plants and
the species that prey on them. Who would have guessed that humans
evolved to profit from a diet of these plant pesticides?**
Or that we would invent an agriculture that then deprived us of them?
The Davis authors hypothesize that plants being defended by man-made
pesticides donšt need to work as hard to make their own polyphenol
pesticides. Coddled by us and our chemicals, the plants see no reason to
invest their sources in mounting a strong defense. (Sort of like
European nations during the cold war.)
The point to the above is that organically grown food typically has more
polyphenols than non-organically grown crops.
--
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.* Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw