The continuing circus over GM corn in Europe

It was not merely the fact that an Italian bureaucrat decided to import an otherwise banned GM crop from America that was so ironic. In addition to the special exemptions granted on a case-by-case basis to Czech, Spanish, Portuguese and Slovakian farmers, countries throughout Europe, including Italy, have imported GM corn from America in the past under a whole different array of special, case-by-case exemptions granted on a strictly controlled basis by bureaucrats in Brussels. What made Rabboni’s final decision so hypocritical, and frankly absurd, were the sheer quantities involved and the astronomical expense for an already overextended Italian treasury.

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|2013-10-17T11:58:30-04:00September 26th, 2013|1 Comment

Genetic modification: an ancient practice moves into the 21st Century

It’s important to remember that virtually all of the domestic plant foods the world depends upon for survival are products of deliberate genetic alteration. Included are hardier grains, larger fruits, and pest-resistant vegetables enjoyed everywhere. For example, about 90% of wheat now grown in the world called “hexaploid” is not a naturally occurring variety. Rather, it is the result of selective cross-breeding of many varieties developed over the millennia. In early times wheat cultivated in the Levant around 10000 B.C. was merged with a grass (“Aegilops tauschii,” or “goatgrass”) developed near the Caspian Sea around 2000 B.C., ultimately leading what we now refer to as “bread wheat.”

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|2013-08-19T11:12:22-04:00August 19th, 2013|4 Comments
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