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GMOs, the Argument and the Environment on Wednesday's Access Utah

The Washington Post

Tamar Haspel, writing for the Washington Post, vividly describes the debate over Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs,) “It’s not just genetic modification. We’re arguing about organics, honeybees, factory livestock, fishery depletion, aquaculture, yields, antibiotics, monocrops and chemicals. Some of these can be as polarizing as the most difficult social issues; there’s as deep a schism in the food community as there is in Congress. 

    

On the right, there’s the insistence that biotech is the only way to feed a growing population, and the reluctance to admit the shortcomings of industrial agriculture. On the left, it’s just the opposite. Monsanto, the avatar for Big Ag, is evil incarnate.” On Wednesday’s AU we’ll look for some GMO answers with Rancher, Sue Lind; and Louisa A. Stark, Director of the University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center. They will participate in a League of Women Voters panel discussion February 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Girl Scout Office Building  445 East 4500 South, Salt Lake City. 

Listener Response:

"The marketing hype that the world will starve without GMO food is bogus! The world is starving now and it is not because there is not enough food.

With greater reliance on industrialized monoculture, we are setting ourselves up for real disaster. Global warming is just one indicator. The decline in biodiversity on the planet is alarming. The proliferation of industrialized agriculture that relies on the manipulation on monoculture crops puts us at grave danger.

Simply, we need to give consumers choice and not impose GMO products on them because we have allowed industrialized agriculture and industrialized food production to eliminate all other choice in the marketplace.
This is the industry that can best afford to label their products properly. Instead we have to rely on certified organic products to carry the burden, once again. I say once again because in the case of Roundup Ready Corn and other Monsanto products, the organic farmer is supposed to protect his crops from drift for Roundup Ready farms. If his organic crop is contaminated he not only loses his premium customers but has to pay Monsanto for having it in his field. If anything Monsanto should pay the organic farmer for the contamination.

Now we have a movement to label products GMO Free and it is taking hold. Again, the alternatives to GMO products are having to have independent inspections and oversight along with labeling when the cheapest alternative for the consumer would be to have producers of GMO products label it as such," Randy Wirth

Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.