I don't know how philosophical my point will become, but I wanted to bring up a discussion about biological pollution. Why can't humans learn patience from years and years of past experience/mistakes? It seems to me that the New Leaf Potato, with Bt toxin inherent in ever part of its body, is just as dangerous as DDT has proven to be over the past 50 years. Although Monsanto shrugs off possible problems by calling this a "Biological Revolution", it is clear that some environmental damage is apt to occur; no one ever promised complete harmlessness, especially from a registered pesticide. I understand that less work makes the power of control a more fulfilling concept, but are we willing to sacrifice our health and those of our children and animals to a creations such as the New Leaf Potato that may only be helpful for the next 30 years? Silent Spring was once touted as an amazing breakthrough in public knowledge of scientific agendas, and yet we still see effects from continued pesticide usage of the exact chemicals Rachel Carson studied.
DDT was not only used as an agricultural pesticide but also as an aerial spray to kill mosquitoes for malaria eradication. It was later found to be stored in the adrenals, testes, thyroid, liver, or kidneys, and caused health problems by disintegrating liver cells and inhibiting cardiac muscle enzymes, causing breakdown and necrosis. Pollan also mentions organophosphates in this chapter. These were originally used as nerve gases in war, and can cause irreversible damage to the nervous system, leading to seizures, comas, and even death from prolonged exposure. Long-term consequences of these pesticides are still being discovered today. Chemical residues can stay dormant in the human body for years, building up in mammary glands, and then be released to our infant children through milk. I don't understand how information such as this doesn't somehow keep us from continuing to create destructive, potentially harmful insecticides that we really no NOTHING about.
I suppose I may be lumped in with others who distrust technology, but I agree with the saying "you are what you eat". To me, cultivating and consuming a plant that is perfectly designed to destroy other life, is an atrocious step in the wrong direction for science, technology, philosophy, everything.
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I agree with this. I think that what was said in class about "people will pay a dollar more for food that is better for them" is completely false. Most people are unaware of the damage that pesticides can do. What was also said in class that I agree with is that we rarely think about the future, because why? We're going to be dead anyway. We need to stop and realize what we are eating and putting into our bodies today and how it will affect us personally in the future or the ones we leave behind when we go.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I see this whole idea of constantly finding new ways to modify nature as a problem. Like you said processes that were hailed as amazing in the past ended up being major problems in the future. In general people don't want to learn from this and continue to try and find new ways to engineer nature, and as the saying goes those who don't learn from nature are doomed to repeat it. This is where I believe we stand today with this new leaf potato, history is repeating itself just in a new fashion.
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