Posts Tagged ‘Genetically Modified Food’
The Evils of Coffee
The United Nations Human Development Report 2001 included a section on the controversy over transonic crops, including efforts in some countries to ban all genetically modified foods. In an interesting sidebar, the report noted that many products which are now taken for granted were once also the subjects of much controversy and bans, including, of all things, coffee.
Many of the crops that dominate today’s global market went through long periods of rejection because of perceived risks. For example, coffee, now the world’s second largest traded commodity by value, has a history marked by episodes of vilification and outright bans. In London in 1674 the WOmen’s Petition Against Coffee protested “the grand inconveniences accruing to their sex from the excessive use of the drying and enfeebling liquor”. Opposition to coffee-houses often had a political foundation — King Charles II of England tried to ban them in 1675 because they were hotbeds of revolution.
In 1679, when coffee was perceived to be competing with wine in France, physicians attacked the drink. One physician suggested that coffee dried up brain fluids, leading to exhaustion, impotence and paralysis. In Germany, where coffee was equally controversial, physicians claimed that it caused female sterility and stillbirths. In 1732 Johann Sebastian Bach composed his Kaffee-Kantate partly as an ode to coffee and partly as a protest against the movement to stop women from drinking it. Concerned about the raining effect of green coffee imports on Prussia’s wealth, in 1775 Frederick the Great condemned the increase in coffee consumption as “disgusting” and urged his people to drink beer, like their ancestors.
Source:
Human Development Report 2001. United Nations, 2002.
Tags: Genetically Modified Food
BBC to Broadcast Anti-GM Drama
The BBC generated a bit of controversy in the UK recently with its planned broadcast of a two-part drama called “Fields of Gold” which is offers up a nightmare scenario where genetically modified foods end up threatening the very survival of humanity.
The drama was attacked by Mark Tester, an expert on genetically modified crops who was hired as a scientific advisor for “Fields of Gold.” Tester told The Daily Telegraph that the show contains “ridiculous errors of fact to inflame uninformed anti-GM hysteria.”
The BBC responded to the criticism by noting that this was, after all, a fictional drama. Apparently the BBC forgot about the pre-publicity for the drama which featured the show’s producer saying the goal of the film was “to tap into a very real fear, to make people think about what they eat.”
The co-writers of the drama, Alan Rusbridger and Ronan Bennett, responded to Tester’s criticism by accusing him of being part of an international conspiracy designed to “undermine the truth” about genetically modified crops. Rusbridger is the editor of The Guardian, which has been vehemently anti-GM and was instrumental in publicizing unfounded fears over a genetically modified potato.
The plot of the movie sounds hilarious (I hope it’s eventually possible to see this in the United States). Here’s The Daily Telegraph’s short summary,
It depicts a scientist creating GM wheat with a food blender in his bedroom, to which he adds a gene resistant to the antibiotic Vancomycin, which just happens to turn up in hospital waste. During trials, this gene somehow infects bacteria, creating an antibiotic resistant superbug that kills foxes, birds and old people. Spread by harvest dust, it threatens all humanity.
. . . Judging by what has emerged so far [about the drama], Fields of Gold is Guardian-modified obscurantism masquerading as science fiction.
If that plot summary is accurate, this drama is inept on many levels and worthy of the scorn heaped upon it.
Sources:
BBC refuses to drop ‘alarmist’ GM drama despite protests. Tom Leonard, Daily Telegraph (UK), June 1, 2002.
Dramatically modified truth. Daily Telegraph (UK), June 1, 2002.
Is It King Kong? Is it Godzilla? No, it’s a genetically modified editor. Mick Hume, The Times (London), June 3, 2002.
Critic of GM drama denies conspiracy. Tom Leonard, Daily Telegraph (UK), June 3, 2002.
Scientists rebut writer’s claim of GM conspiracy. Mark Henderson, The Times (London), June 3, 2002.