Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Words and needs

This is a comment as much about reporting/editorial techniques as the actual content: Modified crops a must if India to feed itself: official

I don't know about you, but I first read that as meaning 'it' was 'official', which seemed quite significant. If it's some bod (no matter how senior) who said it, then that's a little less so.

That said, it raises an interesting set of dilemmas, and again pits two distinct groups more used to being the liberal darlings against each other. On the one hand there are the organic brigade, to whom any mention of GM is anathema, but then there is the 'simply feeding folk' brigade, who may not be quite so worried about the source of the mocha blend.

Whilst having empathy with the practical motivations of the latter, yet still acknowledging the 'mess with nature' cautions of the former, I simply note that no matter how much you tune a bean to squirt out its maximum nutritional resources, if there are more and more of 'us' still coming, a limit will surely get reached one day, whatever science can do.

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