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Anyone catch the recent report about the negative effects of genetically-altered corn on the monarch butterfly? The government scientists involved have claimed these consequences to be "unintended." There is an article in today's SF Chronicle, by James Terrell, which explains this horrific intrusion into the natural world by agricultural biotechnology. Companies like Monsanto evidently see financial gain as being more important than these "unintended consequences." There has been a growing belief among Americans that pesticides are, in fact, dangerous, so the industry has responded with designer crops. My contention is that scientific research and application, no matter how well-intended, has not only become the most dominant perspective today, but has caused untold death, destruction, and misery for generations to come. Here is an excerpt from the article: "If one can look dispassionately at the ever broadening application of scientfic discovery to technology, one sees two things: First, that there will inevitably come a time when technology will intrude into the natural world in a way that violates are basic shared values. Secondly, practicioners of that technology are too mesmerized by their wizardry and financial gain to recognize when that time has come. The limit has been reached. As scientific research reveals the phenomenal complexity of living things, the most important lesson we can learn is that we cannot improve upon the wisdom behind creation, and that attempting to do so is profoundly foolish. |