It is written: "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of
them is forgotten before God?
"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on
the ground without your Fataher. But the very hairs of your hear are all
numbered."
"Consider the lilies of the field; how they grow; hey toil not, neither do
they spin, and yet I say unto you. That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these."
mmiller@pcsia.com wrote:
> 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
> >
>
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