Re: Fighting the wrong enemy

James Kotcon (jkotcon@wvu.edu)
Fri, 10 Sep 1999 08:42:11 -0400

Jere Hitchcock alleges that opposition to GM crops is driven by
religious/spiritual concerns. An artice in Science magazine (16 July, 1999,
Vol 285:384-387) reports a scientific survey of attitudes and reaches a
similar conclusion: "...respondents with concerns about gene technology
tended to think principally in terms of moral acceptability rather than
risk-a significant difference from the way in which experts nrmally judge
the acceptability of new technologies." The article further notes that
those who find GM crops to be morally acceptable in principle, but too risky
in practice, account for less than 3 % of the population.
Given recent reports documenting ecological risks, I would expect
this proportion to grow. These reports appear to strengthen the need for
more ecological impact research to better quantify and understand these risks.
Nevertheless, I believe the real insight is the distinction between
those who assess risks in a technical sense, versus those whose decisions
are reached based on moral/ethical grounds. This gap cannot be bridged by
more research alone, because one side presents more and more scientific
research they believe is convincing, while the other side presents a moral
argument that they believe is convincing, and neither side addresses the
other's concerns.

James Kotcon

At 10:59 PM 9/9/99 -0400, you wrote:
>First let me say that I am not an Monsanto fan.
>
>Following the debate on GM foods on sagnet has left me with the impression
that the people who are repelled by the genetic changes in corn and soy for
example are driven by religious/spiritual (as the most recent debates
herein) or that only "God" can create or alter life theme or variation
thereof, or some fanatical concerns that the one in 60,000 genes (their
number not mine) in a Brazil or peanut nut will be added to corn or soy and
would destroy their lives. The anti-group prides itself in trampling test
crops in foreign lands. Folks, you have the wrong enemy... Let the GM
groups explore the potential benefits of such work (if any) and be
responsible for their mistakes.
>
>If you anti GM folks want to do a service for mankind, why don't 'you all'
come to Georgia and stomp out the some 35,000 acres of tobacco crop which is
a "KNOWN" carcinogenic. We don't even have to guess about this one. This
is a "no brainer."
>
>
>Jere B. Hitchcock
>www.jcranch.com
>
><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
><HTML>
><HEAD>
>
><META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1
http-equiv=Content-Type><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
><META content='"MSHTML 4.72.3110.7"' name=GENERATOR>
></HEAD>
><BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>First let me say that I am not an Monsanto
>fan.&nbsp; </FONT></DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Following the debate on GM foods on sagnet has
>left me with the impression that the people who are repelled by the genetic
>changes in corn and soy for example are driven by religious/spiritual (as the
>most recent debates herein) or that only &quot;God&quot; can create or alter
>life theme or variation thereof, or some fanatical concerns that the one in
>60,000 genes (their number not mine) in a Brazil or peanut nut will be
added to
>corn or soy and would destroy their lives.&nbsp; The anti-group prides
itself in
>trampling test crops in foreign lands.&nbsp; Folks, you have the wrong
enemy...
>Let the GM groups explore the potential benefits of such work (if any) and be
>responsible for their mistakes.&nbsp;</FONT></DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>If you anti GM folks want to do a service for
>mankind, why don't 'you all' come to Georgia and stomp out the some 35,000
acres
>of tobacco crop which is a &quot;KNOWN&quot; carcinogenic.&nbsp; We don't even
>have to guess about this one.&nbsp; This is a &quot;no
>brainer.&quot;</FONT></DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Jere B. Hitchcock<BR><A
>href="http://www.jcranch.com">www.jcranch.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></
HTML>
>

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