[Imc] Re: [Sdas] thwarting of go-GMOs talk?

[John Martirano]

over monday and tuesday there was a conference at the Union (Environmental
Horizons 2000) at which there were multiple talks on GMOs and VERY few
people questioning the risks or anything that was said.  (One speaker
suggested the populous should not be BURDENED with the knowledge of 
GM production and content in their food as they could never really 
understand it , the director for the UI center for biotech, bruce chassey?)

The major argument for the necessity of GMOs is to feed the needs of a
growing population (reaching 9 billion sometime this century) so their
major challenge is to raise the level of food production by 50% over the
next 15 years or so.  They see this as feasable yet a challenge.  They
claim that because we've run out of new area to plant crops, that 
maximizing existing crops is the only way to meet this need.

****
****
However, they never evaluate alternative wayws to reach these goals/ solve
the problems given the constraints at hand.  In light of the fact that 
90% of agricultural land area is devoted to growing animal feed, 
a 50% raise in food production could be acheived by lowering the 
populaces taste for meat by just 5 or so %.  Even if the producers
claims about the safety of GMs were true, this alternative would be
cheaper and technically possible immediately and contains NO RISK.
Ask any GM producer/scientist if they can guarantee NO RISK.
****

There are many valid criticisms of GMO production but It is important to 
evaluate/research your own criticisms before expressing them, as i've heard 
MANY MANY unfounded ones.  The result is that the scientific community tunes 
into the rediculous criticisms and writes off the lot of activists as 
ignorant. 

Part of your aim should be to communicate with those scientists/advocates.  
You can't really expect a "moratorium" on GMOs (without some major disaster 
first). However the activist community allready serves to slow the
introduction of GMOs into the population (meanwhile the producers get 
more accurate results and forecasts, laws are passed, public awareness 
raised etc).  As well as slowing the producers efforts, the activist 
community has the opportunity & potential to guide help guide them.  
But to do that you have to understand their justifications and your
own criticisms.

im not trying to discourage the theatrical/artistic 
side that is so inspirational, just trying to
evaluate how to improve communication...

john martirano

> 
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> Tomorrow night at 7pm there is a presentation "to educate people about
> GMOs" at some office of the Farm Bureau's in Champaign. The farm bureau is
> explicitly pro-GMO. They will have several speakers who are supposed to
> "educate" people concerned about GMOs. 
> 
> I'm interested in organizing people to go creatively and with-humor-ly
> subversify (he he) the Farm Bureau's "education" night about GMOs...we
> could do a little "educating" of our own.  Maybe Paul
> Kotheimer could come and we could sing some of his songs about food, maybe
> Susan could come and play accordion? There's a GM tomato costume (it's a
> big cloth tomato with a cardboard fish's head, keeps you nice'n'toasty)
> and a big box with a Frankenfood corn face on the side. We could do some
> skit-ing between the tomato and the frankenfood...we could be garden
> advocates and bring gardening tools and seed packets and/ or pretend to be
> plants worrying about/taking action against/lamenting being Genetically
> changed. Something to non-doom-and-gloomily counter the farm bureau's
> "educating" about GMOs. 
> 
>   I'm also interested in the IMC covering the event. I can write up my
> experience for the webpage, and also maybe someone else could do
> written/audio/VIDEO (ooh!nice!) coverage. 
> 
>  Who's interested in doing  doing the action? Who's interested in covering
> for the IMC? Who wants directions?
>   You can call me or reply to this email, my phone number is 344-2394.
> Please let me know. 
> 
>   No GMOs!
> 
>  sehvilla
> 
> _______________________
> 
> "...Monsanto's own tests showed increased levels of mastitis, a painful
> udder infection, in cows injected with rBGH. According to food safety
> experts, increased levels of mastitis would force farmers to use more
> antibiotics, which would be more likely to contaminate the cows' milk.  
> rBGH milk would also spoil faster because it contains more bacteria and
> has a higher "somatic cell count" (translated into layman's language, this
> means that the milk contains "more pus")."
>                             from "Toxic Sludge is Good For You"
> 
> 
> 
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