I typically like - and agree with Stossel. But, on this one....
Let's use wheat as but ONE example - and talk about the potentials here. ( Fasten your seat belts please
)
I believe MOST technologies are flawed. Imperfect.. I am not a Luddite - and I do believe in using technology - but, the flaws in my computer's operating system do not affect my personal health
( other than blood pressure...
) Things are flawed because we are flawed/ imperfect...Fair assessment?
GMO's are not new. Not even relatively new if we consider that wheat was one of man's first hybrid/GMO projects. Estimate range from 6 to 10,000 years ago wheat has been theorized as as a crossing of wheat grass and goose grass - doubling the number of chromosomes. This also caused the wheat grains to be larger and more robust.Industrial man has continued to cross and hybridize wheat such that it barely resembles - genetically, or via physical examination - the original wheat grass.
Here is where it gets bumpy.....
Is it a food allergy?....Or is it that our bodies were NOT designed to recognize, break down and use the artificially "enhanced" grain of current hybridized wheat. It may be analogous to eating styrofoam: Yes there may be some components that purl on an in organic chemistry examination - could be considered nutritional. But - the combination of those with the other constituents int he styrofoam make it either immediately toxic - or more insidiously....slowly depressive to immune system response, or any number of other negative health effects.
Science as a whole has become omnipotent. It has - as a community - studied "global warming" for 40 odd years - and now predicted our end via models that are admittedly flawed. ( Not one scientist could predict the 17 year lull in the warming trend that we are now experiencing
)
So - my summation is this: Use sound judgement when considering the "food safety" of consumables that promise bigger, prettier production. Isn't the actual nutrition what we are looking for?
One last example: We ALL love red meat. We - as "modern man" domesticated oxen into what we now recognize as domesticated cattle. We are told about the cholesterol, and fats issues in red meats, and warned by our doctors - right?
Yet - nature has within it - without man's manipulation - animals such as bison, and all species of venison that have little to zero cholesterol, and the fats contain Omega 3's on the order of consuming equivalent amounts of wild caught salmon!
Yes, we need science. And - Indeed- science has done great things for us - that is irrefutably true. What I am suggesting is that perhaps due to the need to keep up with a growing population - that "agribusiness" has become so focused on feeding everyone that the compromises have created grave consequences for many. Justifiable? Perhaps if you are a stockholder in any of the big food products companies. Probably not - if you or a loved one has health problem that are linked to our "Modern American Diet"
***End Sermon***
(rock and GMO tomato chuckin' begins now )
