Why Don’t GM-Crop Growers Strike Back?
In regard to your recent story about organic farmers suing Monsanto (“Patently Problematic,” Aug. 2): on the whole, things are going pretty well with GM technology. As you note, adoption is spreading in much of the world. The encouragement you take from Jeffrey Smith’s Genetic Roulette should be tempered by the devastating criticism the book has received (see http://academicsreview.org/reviewed-content/genetic-roulette/ for a point-by-point response based on peer-reviewed science). And I continue to be puzzled why GM farmers going about their legitimate business of growing various approved GM crops have so far shown such remarkable restraint in not taking legal action against those seeking to curtail those activities in various arbitrary fashions for their own perceived interests. But the worm will turn, the giant will awaken or whatever other simile you prefer: there are very many GM farmers and their patience is not inexhaustible.
Valentine Dyall
Via email
[Editor’s Note: An online search for Valentine Dyall turned up, in addition to a number of entries about the late British character actor of the same name, a slew of similar comments appended to articles about food, GMOs and organic farming. The “devastating criticism” aimed at Jeffrey Smith’s Genetic Roulette comes from Academics Review, which was, according to its website, “founded by two independent professors of food-related microbiology, nutritional, and safety issues on opposite ends of the planet: in rural central Illinois, and in urban Melbourne, Australia. Bruce M. Chassy, Ph.D., and David Tribe, Ph.D., are two of the most widely recognized experts in the world on how plants grow, and the resulting effects plants, as foods, can have on human health.” An online search for Chassy and Tribe yield few results beyond their criticism of Jeffrey Smith and other GMO detractors.]
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Guns for Civilians
I write in regard to last month’s shootings in a Colorado movie theater: the second amendment of the United States Constitution states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Obviously the need for a state militia has been replaced by the National Guard and Coast Guard whereby trained military personnel are entrusted with the defense of this country against domestic enemies. Their weapons are tightly controlled and safeguarded.
The only two reasons for a citizen to own a firearm are for hunting or defense of the household from intruders. In either case, ownership of a handgun, shotgun or rifle is more than adequate to satisfy these purposes. There is absolutely no need for any U.S. civilian to own any weapon more powerful or sophisticated than these. Accordingly, all handguns, shotguns and rifles must be licensed and registered to the degree necessary to match weapon to owner at the click of a computer key. Furthermore, if we had prevented the purchase of more sophisticated weapons several innocent victims would not have died or been harmed at shopping malls, college campuses and Congressional meetings; and now at a movie theater.
It goes without saying that people kill people whether it is with a gun, automobile or by some other means. This incident involving James Holmes appears to be the random act of someone who just plain snapped. We may never learn his true motives but now are only left to grieve the results of such a mindless act.
Joe Bialek
Via email
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Dirty Harry Likes Romney
Clint Eastwood just “made my day” by endorsing Mitt Romney for president.
It’s nice to see that there are still some “beautiful people” left in decadent Hollywood that have not been totally taken in by the charlatan Barack Obama and his Godless, anti-life agenda that includes the world-wide advancement of such moral evils as abortion, homosexuality and embryonic stem cell research.
Hopefully other big shot movie stars and starlets will take the hint and leave their egos at the door long enough to become a “Magnum Force” for Romney to take the White House this November.
Paul Kokoski
Via email
