Seeds of ignorance: Safety concerns about GMOs

[nosmokes]

original-gristmill

Eco-Farm: Seeds of ignorance

Investigative journalist reveals serious safety concerns about GM food
Posted by Tom Philpott at 2:05 PM on 25 Jan 2008
Read more about: food | agriculture | industrial ag | GMOs | health
Tools: print | email | + digg | + del.icio.us | + reddit | + stumbleupon

Note: For the next few days I'll be reporting from Eco-Farm, the annual conference held by the Ecological Farming Association of California. At Eco-Farm, some 1,400-1,500 organic farmers, Big Organic marketers, and sundry sustainable-ag enthusiasts pack into a rustic, beautiful seaside conference hall an hour-and-a-half south of San Francisco to talk farming amid the dunes.

I've been writing about genetically modified food since I first took up food-politics writing back in 2005. My lens has always been corporate power and biodiversity. I saw GM seeds as yet one more way corporations siphon profit out of the food system, brazenly claiming ownership of a broad chunk of humanity's seed heritage.

I also saw the explosion of a few GM seed varieties -- particularly for cotton, corn and soy -- as a reckless narrowing of the already razor-thin genetic basis of modern agriculture.

In short, I've been portraying the GM phenomenon as an intensification of an industrialization process that began a century or so ago; but I haven't written much about the radical break with the past the technology represents -- and in particular, its health implications.
~snip~
.
.
.
complete article here