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Wednesday, March 25th, 2015

GMO Science Deniers: Monsanto and the USDA

Author:     Andrew Kimbrell
Source:     The Huffington Post
Publication Date:     03/20/2015 9:59 am EDT
 Link: GMO Science Deniers: Monsanto and the USDA
Stephan:   It has always struck me as an example of greed-insanity that the fundamental reality of evolution — organisms evolve to accommodate to the influences of their environment, somehow just didn't get factored in by either Monsanto or the USDA. Why are hospitals having a superbug crisis? Why, of course, because the "bugs" evolved to survive the overuse of antibiotics, principally in industrial animal/fowl/fish husbandry. Ditto the "bugs" that attack crops. Evolution 101. From my perspective GMOS have two problems: first, the "bugs" evolve. Second, the effects of GMOs on humans and animals are not well understood and when one doesn't know what might happen if one does something but it could be very bad, caution is usually the prudent option. What's the hurry? Greed. This report makes this case.
Credit: Highland osu.edu

Credit: Highland osu.edu

Perhaps no group of science deniers has been more ridiculed than those who deny the science of evolution. What you may not know is that Monsanto and our United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are among them. That’s right: for decades, Monsanto and its enablers inside the USDA have denied the central tenets of evolutionary biology, namely natural selection and adaptation. And this denial of basic science by the company and our government threatens the future viability of American agriculture.

Third Grade Science

Let’s start with interrelated concepts of natural selection and adaptation. This is elementary school science. In fact, in Washington D.C. it is part of the basic third grade science curriculum.

As we all remember from biology class, when an environment changes, trait variation in a species could allow some in that species to adapt to that new environment and survive. Others will die out. The survivors are then able to reproduce and even thrive under the new environmental conditions. For example, if a drought were to occur, some plants might have traits that allow them to survive […]

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