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RE: BBC NEWS | Africa | Famine-hit Zambia rejects GM food aid
In numerous interviews in countries w/ high levels of AIDS, the interviewees
overwhelmingly understand that they could contract AIDS and what it is.
Unfortunately, many also believe that they can be healed from it if they
have sex with a virgin, so babies as young as six months old have been
raped. Some of the rapists say that they doubt the reality of the myth, but
that didn't stop them. But we don't have to go to foreign countries--San
Francisco is having a resurgence of cases because people (primarily gay men)
are having unprotected sex even though they have or recognize that they
probably will contract AIDS in the process. So the "logic" of rejecting GM
food just doesn't register--but then, SF may also have a high incidence of
health food devotees among gay men having unprotected sex. Although if
Stewart is right, that the government is just hedging future food sales, or
that it's because of the overpopulationists, then life in some cultures is
even less valuable than I had imagined. And that would make the LNT folks
look even more like people analyzing lint in their navels (IMO, of course).
Jack Earley
Radiological Engineer
-----Original Message-----
From: John Jacobus [mailto:jenday1@msn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 6:50 PM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: RE: BBC NEWS | Africa | Famine-hit Zambia rejects GM food aid
Jack and Stewart,
This is a new twist. I believe that the original problem was not that the
grain GM. The concern was that the farmers would keep some the grain and
grow it in future years. Zambia used to be a exporter of grain to other
countries, including those in Europe that refuse to accept GM grain from the
US. The grain would have been accepted if it was ground into flour for
baking.
This question of it being "poison" may be a bid for sympathy and dodge the
question of why the government is not allowing the grain to be distributed.
I think the analogy to exposure to AIDS as being an acceptable risk is a bit
crude. Particularly in a part of the world that has been overwhelmed by a
social and medical problem. I doubt if any one of the victims was aware of
what AIDS was or what the results would be.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024
jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
On Tue, 29 Oct 2002 13:02:56 -0800
Jack_Earley wrote:
Let's see. As I recall, there are about 1.2M orphans in Zambia due to AIDS.
So risky activities are okay if they're known to result in injury, but GM
food is not okay, because they think it might somehow result in injury.
Somethin' wrong with this picture.
Jack Earley
Radiological Engineer
- -----Original Message-----
From: Stewart Farber [mailto:farbersa@optonline.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 1:35 PM
To: Radsafe
Subject: BBC NEWS | Africa | Famine-hit Zambia rejects GM food aid
Radsafe:
For those interested in foolish applications of risk aversion and a
perverted sense of applying the
"precautionary principle" to a fear of genetically modified foods [similar
to radiophobia among many],
see the link below to Zambia refusing food aid to help millions of its
citizens facing starvation. As Alf
once quipped:
"Dogma, dogma, dog manure"
Once again, politics and fear trumps science and common sense.
Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2371675.stm
>From the BBC Story:
Tuesday, 29 October, 2002, 12:36 GMT
Famine-hit Zambia rejects GM food aid
Some 14 million are at risk of famine across the region
The Zambian Government has finally decided not to accept a donation of
genetically- modified food for
nearly three million of its people facing famine.
The decision was taken after the Zambian Government despatched a team of
scientists around the world to
study the potential effects of importing GM crops.
The food aid was initially offered by the international community to Zambia
and five other Southern
African countries, but President Levy Mwanawasa referred to the food as
"poison".
"In view of the current scientific uncertainty surrounding the issue...
government has decided to base
its decision not to accept GM foods in Zambia on the precautionary
principle," Agriculture Minister
Mundia Sikatana said.
. . .
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