Biotechnology and Labels in Farming

I am easily confused. For a generation there are those who wanted farmers to use fewer farm chemicals. Biotechnology was created where we can keep our fields cleaner of bugs and weeds and the same people criticize that. They do not mind biotechnology in pharmaceuticals, but use the same technology on the farm and they start screaming about "Frankenfoods".

Here's a radio script from two years ago-

Labels
by Paul H. Betancourt
copyright May 2012

                  Do you remember Prop 65? The Nanny-government folks wanted labels on every building that contained cancer causing chemicals. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? What was the result? Nearly every commercial building in California  has a Prop 65 label on it. Do all those labels make us safer? I don’t think so.

                  Now the folks who want to scare you about your food are at it again. There will probably be a ballot measure in November to put labels on GMO food. GMO’s use the same technology used to create new medicines and splice genes in to seeds to kill bad bugs or make plants herbicide resistant. Now I am very happy people are concerned about the food we eat. That’s a good thing.

                  Here’s the irony as I see it- for a generation activists have wanted farmers to use less pesticides. We come up with a technology to that meets their demand they protest that. I don’t know where to go from there. I have seen zero evidence that says GMO’s are any threat to us.

                  I suspect the ballot proposition will pass. We will have new labels on our food that we will ignore and nothing will be accomplished except scaring people unnecessarily about their food. This proposition will not do anything about real food issues like getting excess fats and salts out of our diets.

That ballot proposition did fail. It was so poorly written it did not really address the issue of biotechnology on the farm. I am sure there will be another effort to label GMO's before too long. If they write a good enough proposition I may even support it. I do not think another label is going to matter at this point. It will get lost in the blur. But, my question will still remain-how can biotechnology be good in medicine and bad on the farm?

   Please understand, I want you to have full confidence in the safety of the food we grow for you. I just hate to see us lose a great tool when there are more people to feed and fewer farmers.

I hope you all have a great week!

P