I’ve a busy 2 days ahead, including a road trip. Activity will be very slow here until Sunday, unless one of our guest bloggers has something they’d like to contribute.
Your tips in the comments, as usual.
I’ve a busy 2 days ahead, including a road trip. Activity will be very slow here until Sunday, unless one of our guest bloggers has something they’d like to contribute.
Your tips in the comments, as usual.
Western Canadian cities ‘most dangerous’: report
Of the top-10 most dangerous cities in the country, the first nine are all west of Ontario. Halifax, which took the final spot in the top-10, was the only eastern entry.
The rankings of cities on the most dangerous list:
1. Regina
2. Saskatoon
3. Winnipeg
4. Prince George, B.C.
5. Edmonton
6. New Westminster, B.C.
7. Chilliwack, B.C.
8. Victoria
9. Vancouver
10. Halifax
Despite the often-grisly headlines, both Montreal and Toronto fell well outside the top-ten at 19, and 26, respectively.
The report also broke down the most dangerous cities for specific crime:
* Murder – Arthabaska, Que.
* Auto theft – Winnipeg
* Aggravated assault – Regina
* Sexual assault – Saskatoon
* Robbery – Saskatoon
* Break and enter -Chilliwack, B.C.
The report also listed the safest places in Canada, which were mostly smaller communities in Central Canada.
The top five safest places in Canada:
1. Caledon, Ont
2. Maskoutains, Que.
3. Nottawasaga, Ont
4. Halton Region, Ont
5. York Region, Ont
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080313/dangerous_cities_080313/20080313?hub=TopStories
For anyone interested in a detailed analysis of the last 250 years of global Cooling and Warming, this gentleman is very good:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/tilmari/gwuppsala.htm
There are quite a few graphs (with explanations), which show that the warming we have experienced, doesn’t even begin to recover from the most recent Cooling, back in the 1700s.
I am sure john cross will be pleased to determine that this gentleman is not peered-reviwed, or some such nonsense.
Well, the gun superimposed on the Canadian flag and credit by MacLeans is all I need to flush this piece of crap down the loo.
Hoohaw! Earl the Pearl in the last entry of the previous Readers Tips announced that the Globe and Mail poll asking about the Afghanistan vote reported that 84% (4248 votes) said YES, they were pleasede with the results while 16% (802 votes) said NO. The post was made at 11:29 pm on March 13th.
At 7:00 am on March 14th, the results are…wait for it…
30% YES (4934 votes)
70% NO (11511 votes)
Bwahahahahaha! If lefties can’t win honestly, they’ll win dishonestly! How pathetic!
Gold hit 1,000$ an ounce for the first time ever yesterday. In real terms though, we’re still a long way from the 800$ high of 1980. This guy argues it may go as high as 3,500$:
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/katz122906.html
It’s easy to see why. This is the 1970s all over again, with little real growth coupled with massive inflation in commodities (just look at the oil at 110$). The culprit here is the declining American dollar, which is willfully devalued in an attempt to get out of their debt mess.
Once the Chinese and other large foreign holders of dollar reserves realize their dollars are being inflated to oblivion they’ll jump to gold en masse. It is still time to buy some.
the national post has a poll out wondering if our gunn laws are tough enough ….over 70% said yes so far …go vote.
correction…. the toronto sun… sorry
Brad Wall had better cut Education taxes on property in the budget on Monday. If not, there should be a province wide tax revolt.
Anyone hear about the latest government-funded film extolling the virtues of agrarian socialism? There’s a crockumentary coming out on March 22 courtesy of Global TV called Hijacked Future.
http://www.hijackedfuture.com/
The film’s website trots out the usual socialist tripe such as:
“Aren’t companies developing new seeds all the time? They are — and that’s part of the problem — because who controls the seeds, controls our food. More and more, that control is in the hands of a few multinational corporations whose bottom line is profit for their shareholders not necessarily an abundance of healthy food. Should anybody, the film asks, own seeds?”
“The documentary looks at the increasingly fragile base of our North American industrial food system in order to bring all of us consumers of food to a better understanding of just what’s at stake with our daily bread. It asks us to question the wisdom of a system precariously based on oil and corporate seeds while we’re at the same time witnessing the impact of climate change.”
At the bottom of the website page is a list of the various government agencies that provided funding for this exercise in capitalism bashing.
You may want to bring this to the attention of your local MP.
“Aren’t companies developing new seeds all the time?”
Monsanto came up with the terminator seeds (the seeds will do one crop, but you can’t reseed the produce, and are forced to buy more seed). This in my opinion was a low point of capitalism. The people paid to develop this should hand their heads in shame.
Corporations coming up with despicable schemes as that one are the best promoters of socialism.
Are American voters paying attention , or are they being mesmerised?
Evidence that you can fool some of the people all of the time.
Shotgun blog has a list of Obama’s un-American activities.
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/
Is the torching of cars “fad” coming to our shores?…
From CFCF-12 Montreal,
Cop cars set on fire
Montreal Police arson detectives will investigate criminally set fires behind one of their own stations.
It happened at 3AM on Friday when one or more people torched six police patrol cars in the parking lot of Station 23 at Hochelaga and Bennett.
Police don’t have any suspects yet.
They’re hoping to get some clues from surveillance tapes.
… … …
I’m not saying this is the work of Muslim youths, it could be anyone, but who ever did it was obviously inspired by the success of Muslim youths in places such as France.
GreenNeck,
Hydbrid seeds do much the same thing. Yet they’ve been around for decades and haven’t resulted in economic chaos and mass starvation. In fact, hybrid seeds are in large part responsible for the abundance of food we have today. Terminator seeds and other genetically modified products are not so different from this. So why do they attract so much negative attention?
Sorry for the typo. Should have been “hybrid”, not “hydbrid”.
Thanks for that link, Otter. Worth reviewing in detail.
Here’s a perfect remedy for illness or caffeine underdose:
(Via CSP) Classified U.S. satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base
A secret satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office was launched early Thursday, the NRO and Air Force said.
A 191-foot-tall Atlas 5 rocket carrying the classified payload lifted off from Vandenberg at 3:02 a.m.
Launch video from the Vandenberg AFB website: http://tinyurl.com/29m46c
Greenneck ever heard of a mule, or a splake, how about a liger?
Have you ever grown a tomato from seed?
“Those pricks that sold me this mule never told me she won’t birth out more mules”
Re the ten unsafest municipalities in Canada: what would be the common factor?
I think I know, but I guess one’s not supposed to mention it . . .
greenneck, before you weep in angst about Evil Corporations, a few facts about biology and botany might be useful. Here’s from the ever-ready Wikipedia on hybrids:
“In agriculture and gardening, hybrid seed is seed produced by artificially cross-pollinated plants. Hybrids are bred to improve the characteristics of the resulting plants, such as better yield, greater uniformity, improved color, disease resistance, and so forth. Today, hybrid seed is predominant in agriculture and home gardening, and is one of the main contributing factors to the dramatic rise in agricultural output during the last half of the 20th century. In the US, the commercial market was launched in the 1920s, with the first hybrid maize. Hybrid seed cannot be saved, as the seed from the first generation of hybrid plants does not reliably produce true copies, therefore, new seed must be purchased for each planting.”
Please note the benefits from hybrid seeds. Oh, your anger against Evil Corporations which focuses only on ‘making money for shareholders’ utterly ignores the COSTS of developing the genetic technology for these higher-yield plants.
The costs are for laboratories, salaries and costs of the biologists and botanists and researchers who work to develop those seeds. These can take years to develop. Who funds these costs? The shareholders invest money into these future-oriented endeavours. Yes, they expect to get returns on their investments, just as you expect to get returns on your RRSPs.
The difference between corporate (private) and public investment in, for example, developing new high-yield seeds – is choice. For you. You can choose which area of work you want to invest your money in. Botanical. Medical. New Cars.
If it’s public investment, the govt makes the choice. Not you. Oh – and the govt gets the financial results. Not you.
The other difference between private and public work is that private is far less costly, more efficient and has better results.
Public institutions transform from any focus on work and services, to a focus only on the well-being, benefits, pensions, etc of the employees.
“Corporations coming up with despicable schemes as that one are the best promoters of socialism.
Posted by: GreenNeck at March 14, 2008 9:51 AM ”
Insertion of a patent or commercial claim into the food chain – isn’t simply selling you a twinkie.
Terminator seeds, or and GM (genetically modifed) varietal is pollution. Pure and simple.
Commoditization of seeds – not simply the resultant commodity – represents a large reduction in personal liberties and freedom. Because, one cannot forego tithes to live.
Governments supporting this technology are willfully blind, or ignorantly evil. Likely both.
Dennis — I agree with the Bill that would prevent gratuitous violence and sexual perversions being promoted in publicly funded films, but I don’t agree with refusing to fund films who’s political agenda does not reflect my own. The best way to counter this is with films presenting alternative views. Where are all the film makers with pro-capitalist views?
Don’t you just love it, Justice or former justice or whatever, John Gomery is concerned about concentration of power in the PM’s Office.
Where should it be and who else should have it in a Democracy?
One would think Gomery would be happy to go write a book or something after his stint with the Liberal Inquiry instead of seeking the lime light.
Where the hell was he during Chretien’s tenure?
Where was the power then?
Linda,
A pro-capitalist film maker’s chances of getting government funding are slim to nil.
The boards that allocate government funding are staffed by liberal/socialist types who only fund the kinds of films that reflect their philosophical viewpoint.
The best solution is to get the state out of the film business altogether.
The sign reads: Gas=$3.19 Diesel=$4.10
And along the bottom, some black humour. .
** Try Shock Wave Coffee. **
We worry about gasoline prices, but a recent New York Times article reminds us that it could be worse.
The article talks to truckers about the increase in diesel prices and how it’s impacting them. The Times talked to Ricardo Caraballo, who said that even after spending $500 at the pump, his tank isn’t even half full.
Caraballo also said that not too long ago, “$500 would have kept me rolling for two weeks. … Now, I’ll be lucky to make it three days.” Diesel is impacted more by global demand, the Times explains, and international demand is high.
Diesel prices set a record recently of $3.83 a gallon. Trucking companies are already starting to fail and Chad Beachler, co-owner of Beachler Trucking, puts it bluntly: the price of diesel, he said, is **killing us.**
======================== AutoblogGreen.com
Glad I*m out of the Hauling game. = TG
I have been wondering,if this Cadman controversy is so scandalous,where has the ‘author’ disappeared? I would assume,that if there was anything of concrete nature to slag PMSH with,wouldn’t the cbc/G&M/Tor.Star etc be all over this,as well as the Libranos?I find it interesting as well,that since PMSH made comments about the ‘doctored’ tape,no msm seems to be pursuing this with so-called author.Can it be,that maybe some cooler heads have prevailed,and some actual digging into this,has proven to be a non-issue..it’s only the Libs that don’t seem to get it.
You hear about how journalism is useless and how the mainstream media is bad and whatnot,but I think they’re more than proving their worth today in Tibet.
Thank god they re in there. And thank god they’re telling us about it. Without them, we probably wouldnt know what was going on.
Oh goody.
China has actually gone and published a Human Rights Record of the US.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
And how has George Bush, the great defender of democracy responded?
By removing China from the list of worst human rights offenders.
Am I losing it? Or is something very bizzare going on.
Race, cancer, athletic ability, and, yes, I.Q.:
Jon Entine, Wading Deep into the Genetic-Pool Controversy
Since the horror of the Holocaust, Jews have been at the forefront of those debunking notions that they could be defined by blood ancestry, as a “race.”
The notion of race seemed to be dead as a scientific concept as recently as 2000, when the first sketch of the human genome was unveiled. “We are all, regardless of race, 99.9 percent the same,” President Clinton proclaimed. Then the uncomfortable nuances of science intervened…
Judaism remains a rich tapestry with threads of faith, land and blood ancestry–a genetic as well as a cultural inheritance. The great paradox of biodiversity research is that the only way to understand how similar humans may be is to accept how profoundly we differ.
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Gary J. Schmitt, What France Does Best
Counterterrorism, like espionage and covert action, isn’t a spectator sport. The more a country practices, the better it gets. France has become the most accomplished counterterrorist practitioner in Europe. Whereas September 11, 2001, was a shock to the American counterterrorist establishment, it wasn’t a révolution des mentalités in Paris…
Rick Richman, A Report on the Canary
The State Department yesterday released a report on Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism that, in the words of the press release, not only “documents traditional forms of anti-Semitism . . . but also discusses new manifestations of anti-Semitism, including instances when criticism of Israel and Zionism crosses the line into anti-Semitism.”
An entire chapter is devoted to the United Nations…
For your weekend reading pleasure:
Peter Wehner, Re-Rethinking Iraq: Obama’s War
Commentary Magazine, April 2008
Throughout his dramatic campaign to win his party’s nomination for the presidency, Senator Barack Obama has tended to ignore the specifics of policy in favor of the generalities of emotion, centering his appeal to voters on vague promises of “change” and “unity.” But on one issue, above all others, Obama has remained fixated from the campaign’s first moment, and that is the war in Iraq…
Trudeaupedia marches on…. Canadian terrorist’s rights violated
————-
MONTREAL • The federal government violated a convicted terrorist’s Charter rights when it refused to issue him a Canadian passport on the grounds of protecting national security, a Federal Court judge ruled yesterday.
The decision by Justice Simon Noël strikes down a section of the Canadian Passport Order, introduced in 2004, that empowered the Minister of Foreign Affairs to refuse or revoke a passport if “the Minister is of the opinion that such action is necessary for the national security of Canada or another country.”
[…]
Fateh Kamel, a 47-year-old native of Algeria who obtained Canadian citizenship in 1993, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a French court in 2001 for terrorism-related crimes. An internal Department of Foreign Affairs report submitted to Federal Court says that at the time of his arrest he was “the leader of an international network whose purpose was to plot terrorist attacks and procure arms and passports for terrorists throughout the world.”
A Canadian Security Intelligence Service report quoted by Judge Noël says Mr. Kamel trained in Afghanistan terrorist camps in 1991 and that in Montreal the chief activities of his now dismantled group were stealing money, credit cards and passports and trafficking identity papers to support the jihad. The group included failed millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam.
————-
From today’s National Post online edition
hardboiled – Genetically modified and hybrid seeds are not the same thing.
Both require specialist research and intervention to produce them, but the GM type actually modifies the genome of the plant. The agenda is sometimes to produce disease-resistant plants, but, there are serious concerns about the ecological effects of these GM plants. They do affect other plants.
“The development of hybrid seed had left seed production to seed companies for the practical reason that it is the most economical way to maintain appropriate inbred lines, and seed production can be isolated from the food production areas of open pollinating crops. But it had also prevented farmers from saving and replanting seeds, making it necessary to purchase seeds every season.”
This means that the small farmer in developing countries – IF he wants to use the hybrid better producing seeds, will have to save some of his profit to purchase next year’s seeds. This presumes with justification that his better-producing crop will give him a profit to purchase those seeds.
If he uses his regular seeds, he won’t produce as much and can use some of the seed for the next year’s crop.
So, I don’t think that the argument of ‘the poor farmer’ who can’t afford to purchase hybrids is valid. He’ll make more from hybrids.
I think there are valid arguments against genetic modification, but, we must remember that natural genetic modification goes on all the time in the biological realm. The problem with genetic modification is that it speeds up the process and is done in isolation. The other organisms and plants in the ecological domain can’t adapt to that new specie as rapidly just doing it on their own and they can be in trouble.
A very brief story with a nice chart:
(Via The American) One rule for the rich
THE rule of law is generally held to be not only a political good but also a cause of other good things, notably economic ones. Daniel Kaufmann, head of the World Bank’s World Governance Institute, has looked at the results of three separate studies (one he co-wrote) which consider measures of GDP per person and the rule of law. After putting them on a comparable basis, the causal link is clear. The better a government upholds the rule of law, the more likely its people are to be richer…
Links to the World Bank materials here: http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/
“This means that the small farmer in developing countries – IF he wants to use the hybrid better producing seeds, will have to save some of his profit to purchase next year’s seeds. Posted by: ET at March 14, 2008 12:14 PM
I am aware of the distinction between hybridization and genetic modification. The line you state above sounds like some crap from a UN manual, or a storefront business school. Perhaps we are on different topics.
Farmers used to hybridize their own seeds. Much like spending time selectively breeding and enhancing livestock. Cool. Expansion of efficiency, yada yada.
Commoditization of the seed, versus commoditization of the output, is the distinction. Terminator seeds, or Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ resistant wheat (their herbicide) is not simply vertical integration within the food chain. This ain’t processing. Nor harvesting. Nor even production via growth.
This is acquiring ownership (vis a vis means of production) of food itself.
And an organization arbitrarily inserting itself into the chain is analogous to all potable water being only available from, say, Coca Cola Inc.
One can’t turn on a fawcet, nor find a public fountain, unless funds go to Coke.
Morally equivocate that.
I guess I have let my global ‘sisters’ down..according to columnist/strident feminist Zerbisias,in Tor Star article today ‘How oil keeps women oppressed and isolated’..she wraps up this load of horsedung with “sisters shouldn’t drive SUV’s” Guilty I am ,I guess of all the oppression of women in Saudi etc,as I am owner of my 4th suv.Must run out now and trade it off,I just can’t deal with this shame!
Liz J certainly has a point. Where, indeed, was Gomery during the Martin and Chretien tenures when they made full use of the vast powers allotted to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) by Trudeau?
I’m afraid I can’t give a lot of details, though, again, I know that Gwen Landolt of REAL Women has written about this many times. (Unfortunately, as the REAL Women web site has no Search function, I couldn’t locate details. This web site, BTW, is a gold mine of documentation and intelligent analysis—Landolt’s a savvy lawyer—of the Liberals and their lefty allies’ skullduggery over the last 25 years.)
Via the powers conferred on the PMO by Trudeau, the Prime Minister is able to do a good many things without the scrutiny or consent of Parliament. This is a real threat to democracy under any circumstances, but particularly with an unscrupulous thug, like Chretien, and a dithering idiot, like Martin, in the PMO. I know that the Conservatives said they’d clean this up. Perhaps their Accountability Act has made some headway here. (I know it’s hypocritical of me, but, as long as the Conservatives are under such unfair attack, I hope PMSH will keep and use the powers he has.)
Canadians who think we’re really a democracy should think again. A short list: besides the PMO problems—not caused by the Conservatives—we’ve had or still have courts, which regularly use the Charter to end-run Parliament, hidden funding, via the Liberals, to pay for left-wing lobbying and court cases, and HRCs, which harass, persecute, and punish law abiding citizens in secret hearings.
Oh, Canada!
Good analogy there Harboiled.
** One can’t turn on a fawcet, nor find a public fountain, unless funds go to Coke.**
Monsanto and Cargill would like to set up a toll gate between us and food and set it at *bling-bling* level.
========================
CBC Tar Sands special last night:
I*m sure the Oil boss from Norway promised to work their section of the Tar Sands without removing the trees and natural top growth?
Norway did a great job of working their off-shore oil under careful / clean management.
They also have a multi-Billion$ reserve fund that puts the Alberta Heritage fund to shame.
We need Peter Lougheed helping stelmach with the wise development of our tar sands. = TG
“I*m sure the Oil boss from Norway promised to work their section of the Tar Sands without removing the trees and natural top growth?”
Most in-situ extraction methods will preserve the greater part of the natural layout of the land. Mining has the advantage of being simpler, but has turned much of northern Alberta into Mordor.
lookout – dare I type “1st nations”?
You said it, steve!
The sooner Canada’s apartheid system, including its “soft bigotry of low expectations”, is ended, the better for all of us, most particularly, our Native Peoples. (HOW I HATE such patronizing discrimination, which I’ve seen further damage so many of my already disadvantaged students.)
The Liberals have done so much appalling damage to this country with their wicked ideas and shady dealings, I think I’ll want to leave the country—to go where, though?—if they get back in.
hardboiled, with regard to the hybridization of seeds by farmers? Yes, it’s always been done to produce larger fruit, domestic rather than wild wheat, rice and so on. And there’s NOTHING stopping any farmer in the current era from continuing to do this same process. OK?
We aren’t talking about that type of farming but about hybrids that don’t reproduce, so the seed from that plant won’t, next year, produce the same new result. The seed for that plant has to be made by a company and bought each year. What’s wrong with that? The farmer, on his own, can’t create it.
The new technologies have enabled food production increases that support the six billion on this earth. If we relied simply on non-technological farming, we couldn’t produce enough food.
I don’t see this as ‘arbitrarily forcing itself’. I see technology as necessary. How would you develop farming technologies and plants to feed the world population?
In politics, it is often follow the money that leads one on an interesting trek. At the federal level, the Liberal Government under leader Stephane Dion has repeatedly drawn lines in the sand threatening to bring down the Conservative Government. Then once a critical vote comes up in Parliament, the Liberals have either abstained from voting, or voted with the Conservatives.
The list of issues continues to grow where the Liberals will likely lose traction in a national campaign against the Conservatives. Afghanistan, the environment, the budget are just a few of the issues where the Liberals have lost traction recently.
Interestingly, the latest major point of attack by the Liberals appears to be focused in on former MP Chuck Cadman. For days now in Question Period, both Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff have tried to pound spikes into the Conservatives on this isse.
Considering that the Conservative Prime Minister has threatened legal action over comments posted and not removed from the Liberal’s website, as Warren Kinsella, states, “Given how unusual it is for a Prime Minister to sue a Leader of the Opposition for libel – I don’t know if that has ever happened, in fact – I’d hazard a guess that this isn’t the action of someone who fears a full airing of the facts”.
So what are the real reasons that Stephane Dion, despite media reports that he wants to call an election, has not brought down the Conservatives?
Some are speculating that Dion, who reportedly still owes an estimated $850.000 from his successful leadership campaign is also realizing that if the Liberals do not win the next election, that paying down that debt would be extremely difficult.
Dion’s leadership has not apparently inspired many Liberal members and supporters to contribute heavily to the party, so the idea that he could raise over three quarters of a million dollars to pay down his leadership campaign debt on his own would be even harder. Especially if Dion were not the leader of the Liberal Party.
Perhaps, and I am simply speculating here, Dion’s focus on Chuck Cadman could an effort to head off some in the Liberal Party who might be willing to raise the funds to pay off Dion’s debt in exchange for the Liberal leader stepping down as leader.
“What’s wrong with that? The farmer, on his own, can’t create it.” You answered your own, rhetorical question.
I buy two cows to breed. They can’t reproduce, because they’ve be bred not to. Back to the store again? What if you now have to pay royalties on cows that CAN breed? Ownership is denied, as is the means of production, and an income stream has been attached to food generation, not simply production and processing.
The “new technologies have enabled food production increases” is an urban myth, ignoring pesticide/herbicide use and growth, reformation of agriculture methods, and hybridization.
Genetic modification is the path for insertion of patent and revenue claims into the essence of the food chain, and remove self sufficiency.
For a conservative, you’ve got a short understanding of ownership of production. Here’s a conservative:
“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.” – Samuel Adams
Tell me ET – when you’re paying royalties to acquire seeds, exactly where is the right to property? Is it more akin to leasing land, as opposed to ownership?
Maybe huh?
ET – You should honestly
(
apologies for the multiple posts….still figuring this internet thing out…
Hardboiled,
“when you’re paying royalties to acquire seeds, exactly where is the right to property? Is it more akin to leasing land, as opposed to ownership?”
Where’s the catastrophe here? Patents and royalty payments are an everyday part of life in an industrialized economy. The right to property rests with the person who put the time, effort and money into creating the invention (or seed) in the first place. To place those seeds in the public domain would violate the rights of the people who developed them. Or, more likely, the development and its inherent benefits wouldn’t occur in the first place.
What’s with your preoccupation about leasing versus owning? Lots of business enterprises lease property all the time, including farmers. What’s the problem with this?
Here’s a part of our future:
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/45891/7ba9e370/mocro_s_schoppen_kaalkopjes.html
Watch it before it gets taken down. This comes from Brussels Journal
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3090
and I can’t vouch as to the accuracy of the description, but from a look at the video it seems reasonably clear that some non-Dutch individuals are intimidating, then beat up a couple of Dutch guys, supposedly over the Geert Wilders controversy.
Meanwhile, you can hear some subway rider screaming in the background.
Our future?
Hardboiled,
A further point for you to consider.
“Self-sufficiency” in agriculture was extinguished when the first commercially manufactured steel plow was developed. Farmers willingly traded in the previous methods of plowing with a forked tree branch. Thank heavens for that.
The fact that the plow was likely bought as opposed to being leased is irrelevant.
Farm equipment is no less essential or central to the business of growing food than the seeds themselves. Yet today, equipment is often leased. What’s the big deal with that?
Hybridized and modified seeds are not the problem. In fact they are good because it provides better disease resistance and yields. More choice for growers.
It is specifically the terminator seed that makes me uncomfortable. The possible repercussions of this has the potential to be disastrous. Let say two crops, a terminator and heirloom crop, are grown side by side. What if the terminator seed naturally hybridizes with the heirloom seeds and the heirloom seed becomes sterile? The farmer will no longer have the option to save his own seed. Or what if it is not sterile but the the terminator seed company claims that the natural hybrid infringes on its exclusive patent? Again the farmer loses because they can not afford to fight a well moneyed corporation.
Not only does this have the potential to contaminate heirloom crops but to reduce the seed supply to fewer companies. This has the potential to unfairly reduce competition.
“Where’s the catastrophe here?”
I might not be articulating myself well. Let me try again.
Genetic modification of biological organisms is performed solely to implant a patent (a company’s income stream) into a fundamental, and essential food product. Consumption of food is inevitable. Substitution to corn, say, instead of wheat (maybe simply to another patent) cannot remove (or liberate) the individual from financial support of an organization.
Say me, as Joe Citizen, want to get some land, and go self sufficient. Great idea. Except, that genetically modified terminator seeds and terminator cows are the only products available. I’m stuck. Not simply in terms of reproduction, but now I cannot live. I cannot escape – to any form of self sufficiency. None.
Thus, I am indentured, to Monsanto/Cargill, whoever – for the sole fact that I NEED to eat.
Overstated? Histrionic?
Ask the farmer whose land was polluted by Monsanto, and forced to tithe the company.
Honestly, I am pretty much Libertarian (if you can’t tell :)), and I can see little else in the world that reduces the individual to existing on a feed lot – feeding business a revenue stream for no other reason than I need to eat. Without discretion.
I mean, if that isn’t frightening to any individual that values freedom, liberty, and above all CHOICE of where their resources are directed, bow down and accept the chains.
Like gaining a patent on potable water on the planet, there is no difference, but for appeals to increased production, taste, and perhaps, resistance to pests and climate.
None of these cannot be achieved through hybridization. But at least, the individual still can choose to acquire seeds of their choosing, and hybridization paths of their own choosing, from F1 and primary G1 strains.
Thus, my analogy about leasing. Because unlike ownership, one does not have to pay a stream of income to another, for it’s use.
That’s what GM is intended to do, to ensure that everyone with an appetite is paying to chew that next bite.
And that is amoral. Yet good business.
I don’t believe though, that I need to be dragged along with it, if it is not my choice.