Say No To GMOs: Folly Or Fact?

Kaua’i is going bonkers over that proposed genetically modified organism-pesticide county ordinance. Citizen against citizen. And it’s all unnecessary, because there is existing state and federal regulation.

The noisy “argle-bargle” (as the Brits call it) is mostly because of those who disdain the predominant science and insist that GMO foodstuff and pesticide use are making us sick or killing us.

Here’s a snippet of testimony from the Organic Consumers Association:

“The likes of Monsanto have had their white-smocked engineers tinkering merrily and dangerously with the DNA of food, genetically modifying the composition of things like potatoes so they contain a pesticide in every one of their cells, or altering rice so it contains a diarrhea drug in every bite.”

The latter folks believe the Food and Drug Administration is in cahoots with industry to sell deadly seeds and poison us with pesticides. Why the FDA does this is left unclear. True believers aren’t much for clarification.

In their words: “Animal experiments show that genetically modified foods lead to pre-cancerous cell growth, infertility, and severe damage to the kidneys, liver and large intestines. Additionally, chemical herbicides sprayed onto GMO crops cause hormone disruption, cancer, neurological disorders and birth defects.”

An amazing letter to the editor from recent Hawaii resident Roseanne Barr (the actress) claimed we had no papaya ring-spot virus here until we started experimenting with anti-virus trees on the Big Island.

That’s like saying we had no polio until we experimented with the polio vaccine.

Nobody’s arguing against a constant monitoring to gather new facts. Is the windblown dust from Kaua’i fields, for instance, any harm to nearby homes or schools?

So far the answer is no, but long-term observation will give us better data.

The idea spread by true believers that inserting certain genes in corn delivers a toxin to the food is counter-scientific, but we have moms telling other moms how the unlabeled GMO foodstuff in the supermarket is poisoning the kids!

I saw a point-of-view article suggesting that a chemical being used by Dow on West Kaua’i “is known to cause impaired brain and nervous system functions in children and fetuses, even in minute amounts. Other pesticides being used affect (sic) brain cancer, autism and heart and liver problems.”

Well, we also have people who steadfastly believe that Earth was created 4,000 years ago and that dinosaurs and humans were created on the same day and lived together until the dinosaurs died out.

I’ve come across a good example of why we all must have medical insurance and why we should have a single-payer national health care system.

I recently needed some emergency room care for a rapid heart beat. No big thing. Normalcy resumed and they bid me goodbye.

The bill just came – for $3,262. Luckily, my Medicare A & B paid all but $65 of that. But what a bill!

I’d sure love to be the Single Payer CEO telling hospitals what they can and cannot charge!