Ooops! I missed the Friday theme last week, and it was my suggestion! Yeah, I know, it’s probably the biggest silence in the history of Beautiful Monsters. There have been a few concerned emails. But, my friends, I am able to assure you that I’m ok. Well, there have been definite moments of not-OK-ness, but on the whole, things have been good. Just very very busy. Hey, last night I handed in two folios! Two down, one to go.
Yeah. The moratorium. Toni wrote that “So if you were determined to get it extended, then you needed to get in MONTHS ago,” and she’s right. And I did. I’ve been part of the GE free campaign for about four years. But I still cried when I read the news last week. Yeah, I knew it was going to happen. But I still clung to tiny shreds of hope. And I still will, until the moratorium actually lifts, until the first release. I’ll still join the protests, and I know, some people will think it’s too late, but I can’t just stop now. For the past four years I have invested so much time, energy, money… I’ve organised meetings and protests, whipped articles for Salient and letters to the newspaper, gone on a GE free tour around the North Island, graffitied billboards and stencilled the streets during the election build up, designed posters, even had GE free shaved in the back of my hair. After all that I’ve given I can’t just give up, walk away.
You really want to know the reasons why? It's been a long time since I've actually tried to explain.
Well for a start, ignore any ethical or spiritual qualms about the actual act of genetic engineering itself, and look at the way the industry is going about it. Filling the supermarkets with GE food before it's been subjected to adequate long-term testing. Pushing it on people even against public opinion. Making it difficult to know which foods are GE and which aren't. Conducting experiments on the lands of indigenous peoples without their consent. Releasing GE organisms into the environment before we know what the affects will be. The Canadian farmers being sued because GE crops cross-pollinated with their own. Need I go on? Oh ok...
The first industrial revolution did enough damage. Loss of genetic diversity, erosion, pollution, etc etc etc. Add GE to the mix, and... well, I don't want to get apocalyptic, but... GE is claimed to cut down on chemical use. Hah! What's the point of "Round-Up Ready" crops? They can be blitzed with huge amounts of chemicals. GE is supposed to "Feed the World." But there's enough food in the world already. The problem is one of unequal distribution, debt repayments, First World greed.
Then there's the actual technology. Oh boy, where do I start? Well, there's the fact that we know so little about how genes actually work. One group of scientists were using GE to alter the levels of lignin in trees. The wood of the trees went red, and none of the scientists had a clue why. But the company thought, yay, red wood, we can make money from this. Fine, red wood isn't exactly dangerous. But the dangerous part is that the scientists didn't know why it had happened. They used GE do one thing, and it had unexpected and unpredictable side effects.
Know anything about seed banks? There used to be hundreds of different varieties of rice, now there's only a handful sold by the big seed companies. Less genetic diversity means less resistance to pests, diseases and climate changes. GE means less diversity - within one species, but also overall. Think about what happens if a GE crop is resistant to chemicals. The whole area gets sprayed, and everything else dies off. The "weeds." The tiny insects that feed on the weeds. The birds that feed on the tiny insects... the loss of those species isn't going to go unnoticed in the long run.
Most GE free campaigning is based on scientific concerns, like the ones I've just mentioned. In fact, often we're apologetic about anything less than scientific evidence. But personally, I think there's more to life than what we can prove in a laboratory. Wairua, mauri, whakapapa, kaitiakitanga... I can't explain these things with science, but I believe in them. And I believe that GE upsets a delicate balance that shouldn't be tampered with. I believe that everything in life is interconnected, and we cannot damage one part of an ecosystem without affecting all others. When a new gene is inserted into an organism, it interrelates with that organism, and then, in tern, impacts on the environment around it. I believe we have to work with the earth, not against it. GE is a scientific solution, but it won't solve cultural, spiritual, ethical, political, social or economic problems. In fact, in my opinion, it will make them worse.
Yeah, part of me is worried about us "playing God." But an even bigger part of me is worried about a small group of scientists making decisions that will affect all of us. All people, all animals, all plants, the very earth we are a part of. And that scares me. A lot.
Posted by Fionnaigh at October 25, 2003 11:30 AM