beautiful monsters

i hate to sound really stupid, but i was wondering if you could brief me on what's going on here. what exactly is GE and the whole ensuing struggle to be free from it? i think it's cool what you're doing, whatever it is, but i'd be even more supportive if i understood what you were talking about. maybe i'm just dumb, but i have no idea what's going on here. thanks for filling in the US kid who's not up on the policy.

Hey, no fair... You wore a shirt underneath the pink bra...

I was hoping to see some skin... (pout)

-V.

GE. Okay I understand you have a beef with it. But why? Then there are your votes and your dollars. Vote people out that voted for it and don't spend money where it is. Is that possible? Finally Heirloom Gardens. If people started raising their own gardens and not purchasing food period then wouldn't that convince the producers to change their ways. Money speaks better than anything else. If you don't think you have the time try Lasagna Gardening and Square Foot Gardening. You will be amazed at how much you can grow in a little space with minimal water. Believe it or not. It just seems like a more proactive thing to do than a reactive thing like protesting. Although I have seen both work to some extent. It is ashame that all the media showed was the negative of your message and not the positive. Doesn't that send a pathetic message about what the news watcher really craves? Or is it the distorted vision of some wacko producer? (I must be going crazy!)

GE = genetic engineering. We don't want genetically modified organisms released in to the NZ environment, for a variety of reasons. It makes commercial sense to remain GE free, because there is a huge worldwide demand for GE free produce, and our geographic isolation gives us a great advantage in keeping GE out of the environment. And there are significant drawbacks to GE. For example, herbicide-resistent crops. These lead to increased use of herbicides, contaminating groundwater and leaving residue on our food etc. And crops genetically engineered to make their own pesticide will lead to pesticide resistent pests, due to the pesticide being present constantly instead of just every now and then. Even the companies that create these GE crops admit that this will happen in a matter of years, even with strict regulations to slow it down. And this will mean that the pesticide can no longer be used to protect non-GE crops. And GE crops will contaminate neighbouring non-GE crops (pollen can travel a long way), making it impossible for GE and GE free crops to coexist. There are plenty of other potential problems too, including things we can't predict at all, because human understanding of genetics and ecology is so limited.

Vote Labour out? I'd like nothing more, but unfortunately too many people seem to have an irrational attachment to the party and vote for it no matter what it does. Part of the point of protesting is to draw attention to how bad the government is and persuade people not to vote for it in future. Growing our own food? Too much effort to get mass participation.