RE: Benefit of BT Corn

mmiller@pcsia.com
Tue, 19 Oct 1999 23:46:40 -0500

Dale, I agree that public dialog is needed to understand and assess these
issues. We all have to take that long hard look to understand the benefits
and costs of any new technology. This article points to what I think could
be a positive secondary benefit of BT corn. But then I have to ask myself
what are the costs and are there other ways to accomplish the same goals.
This is the source of the musings about dairy cows. Do we even have to
feed dairy cows corn at all? When I was young and would visit my aunt's
farm during the summers, I seem to recall that she fed the milk cows oats
at least during milking. ( I could be all wet on this as that was a long
time ago and in a galaxy far away.)

As for the food safety aspect of mycotoxin-containing corn, I suspect this
problem has been around a long time. What did we do to address this before
BT corn? I know that new pests are being introduced due to global
travel/trade and this maybe the case here but this particular aspect of the
report seems to me to be a "solution" looking for a "problem".

I am still concerned about the rapid development of BT resistant pests from
large scale planting of BT crops. Evolution is still going on with no
respect to our current political/religious thought. We will have to
disagree on the importance of this one.

Your reaction to my "coffee anyone" comment shows how important this type
of dialogue is. There was no hidden meaning intended. I just wished to
suggest that we should give this (and other) topics thoughtful
consideration which I sometime do over a cup of coffee. Mike, riding a new
bike, Miller (I can identify with your Comprehending Engineers post)

>To: MMiller
>From: WILSONDO@phibred.com
>Date: 19 Oct 99 14:28:16 -0600
>Subject: RE: Benefit of BT Corn
>
>
>Mike,
>
>> I wonder how we can do an honest "risk/benefit assessment" of
>> the existence of other non-target species? How much is a
>> monarch worth? Who gets to play God?
>
>As difficult as it is, public debate on GMO use, and other agricultural
>issues is essential in order to formulate public policy. It is necessary to
>come to some decision about how much monarch butterflies, etc. are worth.
>There is no technical answer about the value of a butterfly. But technical
>information can facilitate decisions by providing, for example, estimates of
>monarch death rates under various scenarios.
>
>> Aren't there alternatives like in the cow's milk benefit to
>> feeding milk cows contaminated corn in the first place?
>
>Everything has a cost, and to avoid feeding mycotoxin-containing corn
>requires, first, testing it, and if contaminated, selling the corn at a
>reduced price. To make informed decisions about these things, we require
>technical information, such as expected increase in milk price to control
>the risk versus cost of genetic solutions.
>
>> And the biggie question, how long will it take with the
>> widespread dispersal of the BT's toxin thoughout the
>> environment for this to become ineffective throught the
>> evolution of resistant pest?
>
>I think for most people, this is not an important question compared to
>issues of food safety.
>
>> Coffee anyone?
>
>Are you alluding to the risks of drinking coffee ;-) or pooh-poohing the
>idea of risk-benefit analysis?
>
>Dale
>

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail