When ideology gets in the way of feeding people, everybody needs to start shouting “Stop the Madness”. Try it, it’s cathartic.
Mega-philanthropist Bill Gates is no longer busy with Microsoft. Instead, he’s one of the key people spearheading the largest and best funded effort in history to bring better health to hundreds of millions in the developing world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already saved over a *million people* with their international health efforts and they are on track to save tens of millions more.
Speaking at a Food Prize conference last week Gates observed that misguided environmentalism – specifically the fight to ban genetically modified foods – threatens to thwart some very innovative food programs.
I cannot agree more emphatically although I have to be less diplomatic than Gates, because it’s imperative that we stop paying so much attention to the incoherent rantings of those who oppose such innovations on the basis of their non-hunger-focused principles rather than because they have studied the science and the cost benefit relationships that often make this type of agriculture so compelling.
Too many who claim to be promoting environmentalism are busy with agendas that are often at odds with basic human needs. The concept of “sustainability” is invoked far too often now as an excuse to disparage business practices and promote questionable actions rather than address the real and optimized long term needs of planet earth and the human race.
Genetically Modified Food: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food
Gates on this issue: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1530051720091015
The importance of the Green Revolution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution
Joe Duck 
Hi Joe,
I don’t see many comments on the Savage Rapids Dam. Has there been much to say about it? I might not be looking in the right place.
Bob
Bob I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to that – maybe at the Mail Tribune forums?
Two lessons to be learned from this…
1) Private charitable foundations are far more effective than any government. Reason: they actually want to solve the problem and not manipulate an important issue for their own power and egos and profit.
2) The environmental movement is more about population control than it is saving human life. Literally every issue championed by the environmental whackos have its roots in population reduction – it is the underlying theme of their ideology. It is a clever ruse to leverage a concept that people would have a hard time being against so they can promote their agenda of murdering millions.
All you have to do is have an open mind and review the comments made by many of the people in this current administration and under the guise of environmentalism they have two primary goals:
1) Population reduction
2) Redistribution of US wealth to 3rd world countries
We are about to see a massive increase in government control and massive new taxes to rape and pillage our country all in the name in environmentalism and in a few years we will still be facing the same problems…
And of course it will switch back to the forthcoming ice age that is going to destroy the planet…
Hello McFly…
>bring better health to millions in the developing world …
Yeah, with the cost of assault rifles and grenade launchers so low, the primary expense for all those waring factions engaged in trbal warfare is for 12 year old soldiers, so you need some gullable rich American to fund their health care.
I don’t think that everyone who objects to GM stands in the way of preventing hunger, or promotes environmentalism at the expense of humans. GM hasn’t been a complete success. There are other issues which Chairman Bill may be overlooking. Some economists question whether food shortages are that problematic. In many areas of the world the problems relate to distribution of resources, to water, to poverty as a whole.
GM crops are a big business as well, as Chairman Bill realizes–very profitable to industry scientists who obtain patents on some GM crop as well. Not to say Gates could be shilling for GM agribusinesses, but that might be a factor to consider.
Patents are a major problem Horatiox for GM crops. The entire patent system needs to be scrapped anyway it does far more harm than good.
Look at the damage Monsanto has caused in this country with its predatory practices all in the name of protecting their IP. It is a horrible and shameful story plaguing the American farmers.
One the GM patent holder gets into an area the can literally force out ALL competition because as soon as the GM seed (or gene) is tranferred via natural forces no farmer in the area can claim they are not using the Monsanto product legally, etc…
Before 1996 I saved my own seed and the crop was much better as it was adapted to my climate and soil type.They are not helping the problem
Pete,
Isn’t it nearly impossible to save and clean your own seed now? What happens to a farmer that tries to do that?
Monsanto takes them to court bankrupts them. Right?
Glenn That is why I stopped saving my own seed!NO farmer can afford to fight them, big or small they will try bankrupt them all!!!
Pete from what I have heard it costs about 500k just to settle with them.
This kind of stuff really drives me nuts and no one wonders in this country what is happening to our farmers and what that is going to mean in the future for our own control of our food supply.
All this globalization is immensley naive there are just too many bad people in power and in the UN to ever make it right.
their agenda of murdering millions
Huh? NO. Misguided isn’t murderous! Sheesh.
The issues of patents, seed recycling, farmer control are important but I see them as a separate debate.
Question 1. Do we encourage the development of drought resistance and other genetically advantageous crop characteristics? OF COURSE WE DO. We’ve been doing this for thousands of years at a slow pace. Gene splicing lets us accelerate the process. Sure there are a handful of risks but the advantages are potentially huge and risks fairly low. Note that GMOs have been around for decades and the silly concerns that we’d have global epidemics of weird GMO problems have NOT materialized. This debate began back in my botany days at UW Madison. Even if you think we should “ban GMOs” it’s not going to happen, so the only relevant issue is how we move forward with them.
2. Corporate controls and marketing. Agree with some concerns here and I am NOT a fan of the way companies often use marketing and patents to manipulate and control farming and food practices, and agree this is an area where governments (or better yet, farmer or consumer groups) should play a powerful role protecting the public interests. Gates is doing that by adjusting the patent process so it does not get in the way of distribution of drought resistant corn.
I think we need to improve our ability to grow food, etc…through whatever safe science means available including GMO.
However we have to be more careful the impacts of efficiency downline including the feeding beeves GMO corn and accidentally increasing the amount of naturally occurring ecoli because cows don’t digest corn very well, they are much better at digesting grass but we continue the process with corn because it is cheaper to produce as a result of the process.
The other impact is what is happening to the American farmer because of the horrible business practices of companies that are basically forcing a monopoly with their patent enforcement and they are being artificially protected by the government.
One side note…the coalescing of the meat packing industry has had some definite affects on the overall quality of our beef supply in this country – this is a good example of where an efficiency hasn’t necessarly lead to a better or safer product.
Great Summary of GMO Controversies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies
Millions of people have eaten them (including YOU) with no adverse health effects.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BtCottonKillsSoilandFarmers.php It has been vary well hid but there is a lot more problems with GMO’S than the general public will ever know. I have been a diary farmer all my life and I seen things happen when I feed gmo’s I had never seen before!!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=1 That’s DAIRY FARMER sorry i type 4 words per min.
Chairman Bill’s just the front, Duck. GMO’s are part of a techno-corporate-industrialist plot, led by the David Rockefeller, and Illuminati operatives (aka shapeshifters).
The effects of the GMO are not immediately known–but after a few years of eating that super-hybrid-corn, mondo-tomatoes, or bread containing the time-released viral-enzymes, the effects … manifest themselves. Soon, the scales appear on the skin. Gill-like appendages emerge on the neck; fingers sprout long claws instead of nails. The eyes turn….reptilian. And then, one day Jr. wakes up as a….. SHAPESHIFTER.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40