Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Among the reasons I think a lot of enviroweenies should be horsewhipped

is idiocy like this.
Monsanto Company, the Missouri-based biotechnology firm, has donated seeds to Haiti to help kickstart food production in the earthquake-ravaged country. In so doing, they’ve stirred up the kind of controversy that seems to follow the company. The 475-ton donation has sparked a storm of protest not only in Haiti but also in the United States. A coalition of Haitian peasant groups organized a protest march in June and have vowed to burn the donated seed.
But wait! It gets even better!!
This is not Monsanto's first rodeo, as we Missourians would say, so the company has made it clear that no genetically modified seeds were included in the donation. This delicacy did not impress the marchers, who protested under banners of "Down with GMO and hybrid seeds." Genetically modified seeds have long been controversial, but it's a surprise to find that hybridization, around since Gregor Mendel's time in the 1800s, can also inspire protest marches. Somehow, it doesn't seem obvious that hybrid broccoli seeds are the 82nd Airborne of cultural imperialism.
The modification of plants brought us God-knows how many varieties of crops long before people in labs started working on it; it used to be called 'selective breeding': save the seeds from the plants that produced more/had bigger seeds or fruits/handled the weather better and plant those next time(check out how many varieties of corn the mesoamericans bred, including landraces suited to new areas). But that's somehow become Eville Frankenfoods to these idiots.
Doudou Pierre, whose title is the "national coordinating committee member for the National Haitian Network for Food Sovereignty and Food Security," explains the protests this way: "We're for seeds that have never been touched by multinationals." The idea of local seed is driving the protests, as writer Beverly Bell explains: “Haitian social movements’ concern is not just about the dangers of the chemicals and the possibility of future GMOs imports. They claim that the future of Haiti depends on local production with local food for local consumption, in what is called food sovereignty."
Hey, Doudou(and isn't that just SUCH an appropriate name for this shithead?),
A: The first thing is to feed the hungry people, and
B: THEY'VE GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING TO PLANT BEFORE THEY CAN EVEN ATTEMPT YOUR IDIOT FOOD SOVEREIGNTY!
Ahem.

One in four Haitians is hungry and, even before the earthquake, the average caloric intake in the country was far below United Nations-recommended levels. But that, of course, is of no consequence when compared to the importance of planting seeds untouched by multinational hands. Better starvation than accepting gifts from a company as evil as Monsanto.
At least according to the enviroweenies, who aren't starving in Haiti but are quite willing to use starving people to push their idiot ideas.
Not to worry, as a coalition of church groups in the United States is providing 13,300 machetes and 9,200 hoes for the Haitian peasants. The groups are also supplying local and organic seeds, as many Haitian farmers are too poor to purchase seeds of any kind, even local and organic seeds. By all means, protect the “sovereignty” and integrity of the Haitian food system: hoes, machetes, and local and organic seeds have done such a good job of feeding Haitians in the past.
And lets not look at the fact that those seeds are- even if never touched by a minion of the Eville Corporations- the products of hybridization(but it didn't involve a lab in the recent past, so that doesn't count anyway, right?)
The groups organizing against the gift are quite certain that Haitian farmers can't possibly be trained to handle the seeds safely. That's the worst sort of condescension; the seed treatments are the same as those used widely and safely for decades in the United States. There’s no reason Haitian farmers couldn’t use them as well.
Yeah, those third-world peasants just aren't smart enough to learn things like that. Ignore that those who get a chance tend to do very well in places like the US; we're a horrible country so that doesn't count, either. "Just shut up and let us give direction to the lesser beings!" seems to be the attitude.
Critics also worry that the hybrid seeds won't grow without fertilizer and chemicals, which the peasant farmers can't afford. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hybrid seeds will increase yields over open-pollinated seeds, whether purchased fertilizer is applied or not. This is why U.S. farmers adopted hybrids a generation before the widespread availability of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Having said that, an increase in the use of purchased fertilizers by Haitian agriculture would increase output. When people are starving, that is a worthwhile goal.
Now, there he goes confusing the Progressive Ideal by throwing in inconvenient facts!

The whole piece is pretty damned depressing. And makes you want to plant people like Ed Begley as fertilizer for helping keep this garbage going. If these bastards really cared about Haiti, they'd help them get a crop in with the donated seed, and- since it's so damned important to them- get the heirloom seeds all together for the next growing season. But no, that's not good enough, is it? Better people go hungry than use that nasty hybrid seed.


Yes, there are problems with some companies and some patented varieties; that can be dealt with. So can hunger when greenie idiots and progressives(bit of redundancy there) don't prevent it.

1 comment:

Titan Mk6B said...

Yeah, send some libs over there. They are so full of crap they could fertilize a quarter section each.