Tim Blair

I wonder how much force the courts would consider reasonable. If it was one farmer against a giant mob, I would hope the courts would give some leeway.

Am I the only one who see the irony in an anti-GM maniac whining about the impending smoking ban?

Alannah Currie lights a cigarette in the Auckland restaurant where she's agreed to meet The Sunday Age, and bemoans the coming ban on smoking in public places. Exhaling a stream of smoke, she makes a startling claim: "I was never a rock star."

Poor Alannah, age sure hasn't been kind to her.

Ironic how someone so anti-GM, alters her own body cells by ingesting all those nasty cancer causing chemicals.

Forget about Alannah's ridiculous remarks; her enthusiasm is admirable but her plan is counterproductive. I don't hold with ELF inspired vandalism tactics in any event.

However, her concern is valid. The threat of GM crops are real when you consider the their relation to fusarium.

In a recent article titled "GM cotton blamed for disease," the Farm Weekly, an Australian publication, predicted that "up to 90 percent of Australia's cotton belt could be inundated by the soil borne pathogen Fusarium wilt within the next decade" due to Roundup Ready cotton.

Fusarium contamination of cereals, such as the Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in wheat and barley that Dr. Fernandez is studying in Saskatchewan has been responsible for serious crop losses. About a fifth of the wheat crop in Europe every year is lost to FHB and in Michigan during 2002 it was estimated that 30-40% of the crops were destroyed by the infestation. When the mould passes into the food-chain undetected, Fusarium epidemics on cereals can have even worse effects: a Fusarium epidemic of cereals was considered responsible for thousands of deaths in Russia during the 1940s and more recently in 2001, it caused a series of deadly birth defects among tortilla-eating Mexican-Americans in Brownsville, Texas.

I find this a matter of great concern myself. The whole GM model feels very profit-driven and undertested to me.

thinking out loud,

Last One Speaks

I'm in the States, so this might seem pointless to you folks "down under," but...

...did anybody else who grew up in the 80s IMMEDIATELY know who Alannah Currie is, or was it just me? And if you DID know who she was, did you ever wonder how she kept her eyes free of sweat?

Uh, Last One, we usually ignore articles from loonbat websites like Counterpunch. Do you have a more reputable source for this fear-mongery? By "reputable," I mean one that isn't a haven for anti-Western-Civ whining.

As to the peanuts and kiwi fruit thing... I love both and eat both. No allergic reactions have stemmed from either, thankfully, though I am of unmistakeable European descent. Food nannies are equally welcome to keep their hands off my peanut butter and fresh kiwi fruit.

By the way, Last One, I don't know if you have noticed, but there is no need to sign your posts with your name linked to your url, since that already is done in the "posted by" field under your comments. Quit doing it, it's taking up space.

I find this a matter of great concern myself. The whole GM model feels very profit-driven and undertested to me.

I gotta level with you, that's how I feel about all this "organic" food.

Don't be discouraged by them LOS, And the dangers from dihydrogen oxide are just as horric.

Last One Speaks (No One Listens)

FYI Fusarium wilt is naturally occuring soil born fungus first discovered in 1875 in banana plantations in NE Queensland.

Maybe you need to read "Living with Fusarium Wilt - Joe Kochman" to gain a broader understanding of what you're actually talking about, before you start posting links to some left wing cracker factory.

It had very little to do with GM Cotton and more to do with good farming practices.

Rubbish jon! Everyone knows that somehow tinkering with the genetic structure of a crop somehow spontaneously creates diseases!

Don't you know any science?

Quentin George Speaks

I did that for you, Andrea. You know you love it.

Well, since your link doesn't work, I'm having a little trouble feeling the love.

Well, it wasn't a real link anyway. Just hoped you could find a place in you heart for me next to Last One Speaks

Errr, who, pray, is Alannah Currie?

She was the female member of The Thompson Twins.

Brendan,

?

NPH

As the father of a son who has a peanut allergy, my comment to the anti- GM mob is "Nature, ain't it grand".

I sorta dug the Thompson Twins -- one of the few "new wave" bands to have nice songs, melodies, etc.

And it is nice to hear a Flavor of the Month such as the Thompson Twins sold enough records -- 30 million! -- to let them live a decent life where they want to live. Very rare for musicians, even those who had hits.

As for Alannah Currie, let her do what she wishes. Having a sister die from Creutzfeldt Jakob disease is enough to make anybody nervous about the stuff fed to livestock, even if nothing links the death to the Mad Cows. (I spent a sad year working for the Birth Defects project in the California central valley. Nobody is sane after watching their child born with seven heads.)

I saw her on the VH1 thing with her husband (the other Thompson Twin dude, not the one with dreads), and they had a nice little farm on the Kiwi Isle and seemed remarkably normal for pop stars.

Tim, I will kill you.

Not for this ... but for being mean to that one retarded guy who was going to kill your ex-editors. He was ready to get busy!

As for "GM" food, I guess I will go ahead and say, again, that all the crop-type foods we eat were / are GM. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CROPS! THEY ARE WORTH GROWING! TODAY'S CORN DIDN'T EXIST UNTIL MAYAN / AZTEC CROP SCIENTISTS TURNED STUPID-ASS GRASS INTO ACTUAL CORN EARS.

Now and then, you must use all caps.

No kidding, Ken.

Hey, all you GMophobes, see those pretty black and white cows over there, the ones you call Holsteins? Did you know that they are MUTANTS? They genes done been all played with!

Oh, and that cocker spaniel or goldenr retriever you own: MUTANT.

The pretty American Beauty roses you've planted: MUTANTS!

We all know GM food is cheaper, and therefore worse right? And all the money goes to evil American corportations instead of some poor farmers in the country who grows organic foods, surely. It must be so. It said so in the paper.

what a load of nonsense. GM food is cheaper, despite the added cost of patented seeds because you need less pesticides to grow it. The pesticide money, which isn't going to pesticide-making corportations is saved by the consumer tenfolds, which may not mean much in Boston, but it does in, say, Etheiopia. The left's gott'a love it.

Once again, the left proves that the real issue is being anti-whatever, and not pro-environment or even preventing starvation. I used to be a lefty, back when the left still stood for something, the last decade had been rediculous for them.

Personnaly I blame Gegor Mendel, that neo-con SOB

Yup, I love tormenting the organic food crowd by asking them why they support plowing up hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat. Organic farming is less efficient, meaning it produces less per acre, meaning that to produce the same amount of of food you have to plow up non-agricultural land.

I have yet to get a good answer.

From "Last One Speaks",
"...a Fusarium epidemic of cereals was considered responsible for thousands of deaths in Russia during the 1940s."

Right ahead of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

"...more recently in 2001, it caused a series of deadly birth defects among tortilla-eating Mexican-Americans in Brownsville, Texas."

Why didn't it cause birth defects among ALL Texans who eat tortilla's? That's almost the whole damn state.

And how about the Mexican-Mexicans in Mexico? What were they eating? Plastic tortillas?

BC
Houston, Texas

I come over here because I genuinely want the benefit of your knowledge. I don't understand why you find it necessary to mock me instead of responding to an honest question. I really want to know why I shouldn't be concerned.

You didn't like my link? Fine, although I know the author personally and know him to be a meticulous researcher, I have other sources of information that I base my concerns on.

I might point out if you enter -fusarium danger human- into Google, you get over 2000 hits. That aside, here's three that could hardly be classified as left wing alarmists.

TOXIN-PRODUCING MOLDS ON CORN

Media reports have also expressed concern about Fusarium moniliforme, a type of mold commonly found on most corn grown throughout the world and which has been associated with human and animal diseases when present in large
amounts.

American Mold Testing Services, LLC

Several species, notably F. oxysporum, F. solani and F. moniliforme, are recognized as being pathogenic to man and animals.

US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative from their recent National Fusarium Head Blight forum.

I may be scared but I'm not stupid. I know it occurs naturally but from all I've read, the GM seeds are designed to be used in conjunction with the herbicide Round-up and both increase the levels far beyond what would naturally occur.

I farmed for many years and I understand the need for some pesticide application. I don't believe you can feed the world solely on organic farming. I'm not saying that disaster is even imminent but I think ignoring the danger to bio-diversity in this GM scheme is short-sighted.

It will be small comfort to me, if I'm right. We'll all be hungry and so far I don't see any links refuting the potential danger.

random said:

The pesticide money, which isn't going to pesticide-making corportations is saved by the consumer tenfolds,....

Compared to profits going to the executives at Monsanto, (taken out of the pockets of their shareholders btw), the consumer gets a pittance in savings.

Monsanto Co. executives topped the list of St. Louis' most highly paid managers for the third year in a row despite the collapse of a much-ballyhooed merger, lower profits and a sagging stock price.

Nicholas L. Reding, Monsanto's recently retired vice chairman, leapfrogged Chief Executive Robert B. Shapiro to lead the pack with $22.3 million in total pay.

Well, last one, you shouldn't be eating so much corn anyway. It's bad for you, being high-carb and all. Also, lots of people are deathly allergic to corn and all its products. In any case, I am sure that, since so many people know about this fusarium, that there are already safeguards in the works if not being already implemented. But go ahead, sit under your desk chewing on a piece of organically-grown spelt bread if that makes you feel better. I don't really see what this has to do with the inherent evil that supposedly is genetically-modified food. That is why I call the Countercrap article "fear-mongering" -- it shrieks about this mold or whatever it is as if there is some sort of conspiracy to conceal its existence.

As for the blah about Monsanto and shareholders and the Wicked Profit motive driving the former to steal candy from the babies of the latter, yawn.

"Currie's most memorable piece of protest art is the infamous "Cow girl", a beautiful and naked young woman, standing on all fours and sprouting four breasts hooked to the rubber cups of a milking machine, with the letters "GE" (for genetically engineered) stamped on her rump. The image, featured on billboards, hovered like some abused earth goddess over Auckland and Wellington's motorways."

Why does it remind me of a "Hustler" cartoon?

If Last One Speaks was once a farmer, if he didn't understand the need for pesticides he either wasn't a very good farmer and/or he went broke quick. In the late '70s and early '80s I operated a business that included custom-sprayed pesticides. No sane farmer wants to pay for unnecessary pesticides. It cuts into profits. Thus, you spray for known extant problems or for diagnosed intermittent problems. Also, you use just enough chemical for highly probable success for the same reason.

At least in the US, there are multiple govt agencies out there keeping farmers updated on potential problems, how to spot them, where and how to get them diagnosed and what are the proper management techniques. Possibly Last One Speaks was unable at the time to read or hear?

Also, much land formerly cropped is now being returned to a more fallow state, which is good for wildlife. "There are none so blind as they who will not see, nor none so deaf as they who will not hear."

Under the USDA regime of pesticide usage, crop averages in the US moved from 25 Bu/Acre wheat, 40Bu/A corn (my grandpa's day) and 20 Bu/A soybean (when introduced) to the current 60+ Bu/A wheat, 150 Bu/A corn and 60+Bu/A soybeans. We're helping feed the world cheaply as a result. Check out the averages on organic farms, which, by the way, don't ordinarily use the seed available at the turn of the century. Just about everything they use has been hybridized, which is the early form of genetic engineering, just really, really slow and expensive.

Jorg, speaking of hearing and seeing, if you must insult my intelligence, I wish that you at least read my post and respond to what I said, not what I didn't say.

I agree there is a need in agriculture for responsibly applied chemical agents and have used them myself. And it's true the practice and procedures are well regulated in the US.

My concern is for the indiscriminate application of these agents in underdeveloped countries where these safeguards don't exist or when they are employed as weapons of eradication as is currently being done in Colombia in the war on the coca plant.

Thousands of gallons of Roundup, a version illegal in the US, using an unindentified and presumably untested surfactant, are being dumped on the Amazon and further being applied in ways that would be criminally actionable in the US.

Time will tell which us is right because nothing but GM seeds will be able to grow in that poisoned soil and as the Amazon goes, so goes the rest of the planet eventually.

Frankly, I hope my fears are unfounded, but I don't think they are.

Well, I think they are. Where are your links to reputable reports on the Evil Scheme to Poison Third World Soil So It Can Only Grow Evil Mutant GM Crops and Keep Them Darkies Down?

Thousands of gallons of Roundup, a version illegal in the US, using an unindentified and presumably untested surfactant, are being dumped on the Amazon and further being applied in ways that would be criminally actionable in the US.

Any proof sir?

(Proof? I don't need no stinkin' proof)

nothing but GM seeds will be able to grow in that poisoned soil and as the Amazon goes, so goes the rest of the planet eventually.

That's good then. GM Crops are better than normal crops.

I wonder if any of the 'rip-em-out' protestors have thought about the potential response of pro-progress camp. I figure a pro-GE group could spread midified seeds around the country far easier than the moonbats could locate and remove them! What a bunch of clowns...

Creem magazine always referred to the Thompson Twins as "Shave Me Now!"

'"There wasn't a name for it back then, but I'm a conceptual artist," she says.' I needed a Pulp Fiction-style adrenalin shot to the heart after reading that one. Way to sap my will to live Tim.

But... but... why didn't her eyes sting???