Re: BGH and other genetically engineered stuff
Rachel R. Freifelder (frei@banneker.Stanford.EDU)
Tue, 3 May 94 08:53:21 -0700
Not to prolong this discussion, but I feel that the fear of genetically engineered varieties is a red herring. I am much more distressed that commercial
varieties are designed (whether by selective breeding or DNA splicing) for
appearance, size and ease of harvest, rather than flavor, nutritional value, and
(usually) disease and stress resistance. This latter is changing; but how
necessary would disease resistant varieties be if we didn't plant 5000 acre
monocultures of a single variety of corn? As far as I can tell, the structure
of what we now call a farm and our reliance on true-breeding hybrids have much
more actual negative effect than what methods are used to control the genotype
of those hybrids.
Rachel Freifelder