Re: More on BST
Jonathan Haskett (jhaskett@asrr.arsusda.gov)
Fri, 26 Aug 94 09:43:43 +0100
[Description of rBST lit review deleted]
>
>Forgive me if I'm the last
>to realize this, but I think it's because rBST is a Symbol of
>Progress, and of the added speeding up of the agricultural
>treadmill that biotechnology is sure to bring. Industrialists
>call this sort of thinking Ludditeism (or something like that),
>but I don't see anything wrong with it. Societies have always
>acted to slow down or speed up progress (remember uncolored
>margarine? car makers' resistance to air bags?), and there
>are lots of mechanisms for this.
>
>Steve Verhey
>Crop & Soil Sciences
>Washington State University
>Pullman, WA 99164-6420
>
The term "Ludditeism" used in this way is a misnomer. The Luddites were
not in fact anti-technology, they were trying to preserve some portion
of their economic status and way of life. In a time when unions or
"combinations" of workers were illegal and weavers who had been driven
from a relatively comfortable existance (as self-employed crafters) to
marginal starvation-wage factory work, smashing machinery or burning
factories was one of the few ways extracting concessions from mill owners.
There was an excellent article about the real history of the Luddites
in the Whole Earth Review earlier this year.
Jonathan Haskett