CLICK IT: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/inquiring-minds-steven-novella-gmo
At this website, you can read a great article and listen to an even greater podcast.
This bulk of this podcast by Inquiring Minds is an interview with Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale University.
Listen to the podcast.
It is TOTALLY WORTH the time.
Maybe even while you shower or get ready or make breakfast. You can multitask. But just listen, it’s worth it I promise and then you can talk to me about it (see that nifty comment box? Yay good.)
Here’s my raw response:
The heart of this interview is addressing the myths related to genetically modified foods.
A quote from the host Indre Viskontas that summarizes their conclusion: “The product itself is not evil, just how we use it.”
Steven Novella (also find him here: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/) discusses how there’s nothing inherently “natural” about an organism and that there is more much evidence that GM foods are safe for human health than any study hinting that they might be harmful.
What’s really interesting is when he gets to the sustainability aspect. He says that GM foods are a powerful tool that we shouldn’t just throw out, but we also have to be careful how we use it. The real problem is…. (dun dun dun)
monoculture!
the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop or plant species over a wide area and for a large number of consecutive years. (from wikipedia, haha)
I’m of the impression that some of the corporate policy and patent laws not only encourage but essentially mandate monoculture, and that’s something to be considered. GM also plays a role in the trend of growing less nutritious food, since we’re more concerned with shelf life having identical perfect looking produce. With GM, the thing itself isn’t bad, but all the stuff that bubbles up around it is.
After listening to this, I am reaffirmed in my decisions to eat locally grown food whenever I can (shout out to White Rock Local Market and SMU’s own Oasis Express).
Locally grown food from small farmers may or may not be GM, but it isn’t grown as huge monocultures. There’s also community and integrity about it, that maybe doesn’t need a scientific reason to support it’s awesomeness 🙂
If you’re concerned about our agricultural system, GM’s might just be the red herring, distracting us from the real problems.
Love global ❤ live local
Jewel Lipps is a junior Environmental Science w/ Biology emphasis and Chemistry double major. She has personally genetically modified bacteria and taken Genetics class. At the time of writing this article is enrolled in Dr. Vogel’s Bio/Nanotechnology class. This is to say she likes learning about this stuff. She also really really likes plants and gardening.
SMU Environmental Society 