RE: Benefit of BT Corn

Roberto Verzola (rverzola@phil.gn.apc.org)
21 Oct 99 11:17:01

>> 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

For GMOs, once they are out, it is extremely difficult to recall them.
Risk/benefit analysis may work with chemicals or nuclear power, which
have half-lifes, but GMOs have doubling-times, and the risks double as
the GMO population doubles. Given enough doubling-times, even
infinitisimally-small risks will eventually approach near-certainty.

Roberto

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