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What's arbitrary about me wanting choice? | 215 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
What's arbitrary about me wanting choice?
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 30 2013 @ 09:47 AM EDT

And not being able to get it?

Once upon a time I didn't have a choice about smoking. Both my parents smoked. Most of my friends smoked. I was constantly inhaling second hand smoke.

Then I graduated high school, moved out on my own. Placed a rule on my home that if people wanted to smoke, they could do so outside. I didn't place the rule for health reasons, I placed it for cleanliness reasons because I didn't want to clean off that yellow coating that gets on the walls with people smoking.

10 years after living in a smoke free environment, change occurred. A change I had not expected because I didn't know there was anything wrong:

    My lungs cleared.
I had a nephew staying with me. He broke the rule of smoking inside. He did this while I wasn't home and did so in his bedroom. After I got home and breathed in the air for a while I could feel a slight burn in my lungs.

The residue in the home-cycled air of a single smoke burned my lungs. Not a big burn. Not particularly painful. But it was consciously noticeable.

Now the rule is in place for both cleanliness and health.

I want choice. I want the choice to be able to choose non-gm affected foods - and that includes my meats from animals that did not consume gm plants.

And to be clear: when I say "gm" I'm talking about human interference with regards splicing genes, not splicing plants. You splice plants and nature decides what to keep and discard.

You splice genes, and there's no telling what to expect because according to current human knowledge "most of the human genome does nothing". Let's reword that to: current human knowledge doesn't know what most of the human genome is used for. The point being:

    Human knowledge on genetics is in its infancy!
If you didn't have the knowledge of the danger around an atomic bomb - would it be any more acceptable to allow a child to play with the bomb?

I want the choice to decide what's safe for my health - because I certainly can't trust a company who has a vested interest in ignoring my health when I can't even trust my own parents with my health.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

About choice
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 30 2013 @ 09:53 AM EDT

Let me be clear:

    If you want to choose to be a test subject with GMO plants - to potentially make that choice for your offspring - that's your right to choose!
And feel free to make that choice. I wish you all the luck nothing particularly bad happens.

All I ask is the choice to avoid GMO products for a few generations. Just like I wouldn't choose to be a test subject for skin creams - but many people are willing to choose to do so.

Perhaps my children will make a different choice. But mine is to avoid being a test subject for such science research.

Now - you create a spaceship for a flight to Saturn - I'll jump on board being a test subject for that flight. The risks associated with that I'm willing to take.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Monsanto Sees ‘Elitism’ in Social Media-Fanned Opposition
Authored by: PJ on Thursday, May 30 2013 @ 11:22 AM EDT
Your definition of "fine" is that the animals don't drop dead on the spot. That's not my definition. If your animals are eating this stuff, so are you, unless you are vegetarian, so the health impact should matter to you.

The burden should be on Monsanto to prove safety, not on me to prove otherwise. What they are doing is not at all the same as crop modifications of the past, which involved putting natural elements together. Monsanto is altering plants to let them be resistant to poisons, so farmers can spray and spray and spray and the plant doesn't drop dead on the spot.

I don't want to eat a plant like that. I don't want to eat sprayed food at all, actually, let alone man's chemistry and biology experiments.

As for experts, I've seen enough of them in courtrooms to know that they are often bought and paid to say what they say. Relying on them is foolish. As for controls, Congress makes sure there isn't any, because with Congress, money talks.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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