September 17, 2002
Hungry? ... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes".
"If you're hungry enough, you'll eat anything." I can hear my parents saying that at the dinner table, they who had grown up in the Great Depression.
And today, real hunger is unfamiliar to most Americans. You could even say we've left "hungry" in the dust. As a population, we're fast moving to obesity.
And is it any wonder? Take a trip to any warehouse membership club. Huge mountains of food - both fresh and frozen. But it makes you wonder - where did all this food come from? How could there be so much of it?
Well, one reason is genetically-modified seeds.
The resulting food has made steady inroads into the American food supply, and health and environment journalist Kathleen Hart actually spells it out in her book, "Eating in the Dark ... America's Experiment with Genetically-Engineered Foods."
And I feel compelled to point out something else: you won't find it on any of the labeling. In the land of plenty, perhaps ignorance is bliss.
--
The rest of the world is not so uninformed. The Europeans have opposed genetically-modified foods for some time, and now we hear from the continent of Africa. Dependable agriculture has always been a challenge there, so you might think that embracing biotech would be a "no brainer." Clearly that was not so at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held recently in Johannesburg.
Some African countries, devastated by drought and war, continue to reject American corn, since the US will not guarantee the corn to be modification-free. Others have taken a rather clever emergency approach, only accepting ground American corn, so that imported genetically-modified corn can't be used to grow other corn, and infiltrate their food crop or affect their environment.
Some countries have undertaken serious biotech research programs, while fastidiously containing their experiments. At the same time, South African farmers have begun to use the genetically-modified seeds and bring these foods to market.
This is beyond politics, when - in the face of mass starvations - there is an outright distrust of this technology.
--
Growing up, I was taught to trust certain people, and distrust others. Walter Cronkite was to be trusted. Men driving cars and wanting to give me a ride were not. It was a one or zero deal. You either gave people your entire trust, or none at all. If Walter showed up in a car and offered to give me a lift, I'm pretty sure I'd be totally paralyzed.
Over time, I learned that people earned your trust. And I also learned that only you get to decide who and what to trust, and in what circumstances. Walter could be trusted with the news, but not to get dinner on the table.
So, let's talk corn. Obviously, the US government thinks genetically-modified corn is just peachy. On the other hand, it's only been in the American food supply for less than decade, so who could argue that we know all that much about it?
It doesn't mean it's unsafe. It just means that it's pretty early in the game.
I for one am very impressed with Africa's measured response to the seductive promise of biotechnology.
In fact, it reminds me a bit of the Garden of Eden. The snake enjoined Eve to eat the delicious and mysterious apple. It was a choice then. It remains a choice today.
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
