Monsanto vs. Whole Foods

The WSJ (subscription required) reported that aversion to genetically modified foods have fallen by the wayside as food prices around the globe have sky-rocketed. This is a pleasing trend since the fear of GMO’s is highly politicized and in my opinion, highly irrational. There is absolutely no evidence that genetically modified foods are harmful to humans despite all the ravings of environmentalists. Genetically modified foods are safe, cheaper, and will yield more staple crops needed by the world’s poor and hungry. Note that organic food providers haven’t fared very well as food prices have climbed; this goes to show that at this point, organic foods are essentially a luxury item for rich societies.

Food crisis softens resistance to genetically modified food

From CSM: Opposition to genetically modified (GM) foods, still strongest in Europe, is starting to erode in the face of the global food crisis.

But the pressure for change, so far, is more economic than political.

Partly this is because genetically modified crops are not regarded as an immediate answer to farming problems in poor regions; partly it is because genetic alteration remains controversial. Europe bans most of the use and growth of crops whose seeds have been modified with genes of other organisms to make them more resilient.

Yet the economics of the food crisis may already be forcing changes in Europe, and in smaller farm nations, experts say. For the first time, Japan and Korea are allowing snack and drink manufacturers to quietly start using GM corn, after prices for non-GM corn doubled last year.

Comment: It’s terrible that hungry people would rather reject Genetically Modified food than to accept it and therefore feed themselves. But these are the times we live in, where people reject immunizations because of the fear that their children will contract autism, or that somehow technology and civilization should be rejected for a world ideal in which all should revert to a time and place that was fresh, pure, and unmolested by science. Was there ever such a time? And is it possible to be part of a society and not have the inventiveness that affords us civilization? I seriously doubt it. It's ironic that environmental advocates that oppose GM foods are also inhibiting the process of creating more disease resistant varieties of crops that would allow less use of pesticides on farms. Less pesticide use on farms means less pesticide run-off into rivers. I have found that irony and competing interests are the norm with advocates against GM foods--foods that could possibly feed millions of hungry people.