Libertarians have an abiding belief in the importance of the individual. Free minds lead to a better life for everyone. Yet we all know that statists have a contrary world view; to them the state is all that matters and the individual exists only insofar as it (dehumanized to neither “he” nor “she”) helps the state.
An example of this dichotomy is the battle waged by eco-Luddites over Genetically Modified (GM) food crops. Governments in Europe, Africa, and elsewhere have responded to pressure from outside pseudo-science organizations and imposed draconian regulations designed to keep GM food off the market. Usually these groups invoke the “precautionary principle,” which requires GM farmers and manufacturers (but no one else) to prove a negative — that nothing bad ever will happen because of GM cultivation and consumption. It is an artificial standard because logically it is not possible to prove a negative; there is nothing from drinking water to baseball bats that can meet that standard. The fact that only GM agriculture is asked to meet it tells the story. The insulting nickname “Frankenfood” summarizes the underlying prejudice.
The reason this matters is that millions of people in the world die of starvation every year. GM crops can lessen that suffering. The action of the purveyors of the GM prejudice demonstrate they see people in the third world not as individuals living with famine, but as dehumanized pawns for their eco-Luddite ideology.
A real-world example came to light earlier this year with a ground-breaking development in rice agriculture. A group of scientists at the University of California-Davis announced a breakthrough that will do more toward ending world hunger than a boatload of UN resolutions and socialist mandates.
Group leader Dr. Pamela Ronald is a knowledgeable supporter of both organic farming and GM crops. She blogs regularly on the topic athttp://pamelaronald.blogspot.com/, and makes no effort to mask her opinions. Yet her understanding of “Frankenfood” politics led her to use a cutting edge technique known as “precision breeding” instead of the relatively easier and faster method of genetic modification. Her group used “precision breeding” to introduce the Sub1a gene into rice DNA, thereby creating a new strain of rice that is at least five times more hardy than varieties commonly in use in Asia.
The traditional method of growing rice requires flooding the fields for two days in order to kill weeds. There is a problem, though; if the land is flooded for more than three days the crop will die. Dr. Ronald’s new variety of rice can withstand 17 days of flooding with no harm. This increases the safety margin in the traditional farming methods of Asia and Indonesia, and will reduce the threat of famine in the area.
While Americans like rice, our basic staple is wheat. But in half the world it is rice that is the foundation of people’s diet. In India and Bangladesh in particular, two-thirds of the daily caloric intake comes from rice. In recent decades scientists estimate that uncontrolled flooding destroys four million tons of rice each year. The result is famine and starvation across Asia.
Dr. Ronald’s Sub1a rice has been field-tested in India and Bangladesh for three years. The results have been astounding: yields are up 300% to 500% while still using traditional growing methods!
The benefit of the new variety is twofold. First, it will prevent deaths from widespread and frequent famine all over the world; second, it gives farmers more rice to sell, leading to economic improvement.
Yet Dr. Ronald delayed her group’s success because of her understanding of “Frankenfood” opposition. Genetic modification in the lab would have progressed much faster than the “precision breeding” method, but she elected to avoid the GM controversy by using the slower technique. One must respect her professional decision to do this.
But we can’t help but wonder how much sooner the Sub1a variety of rice would have been available if political concerns hadn’t dissuaded Dr. Ronald from using genetic modification techniques. However many years were added to the development time, those many deaths by starvation in Asia and Indonesia are on the heads of the eco-Luddites who have created the groundless “Frankenfood” animus against GM.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia acknowledges Dr. Pamela Ronald for her scientific innovation that will spread prosperity and diminish human suffering. It is an example of free minds pursuing private goals that nonetheless confer great benefits on mankind.
We also call out the eco-Luddites. By invoking the statist strategy of using government to impose their nearsighted view on the poor unfortunates who live under their control, they have increased the human death toll, limited prosperity, and blunted human potential. They are enemies of mankind.
You can read more about Dr. Ronald’s breakthrough and her political dilemma at Reason Magazine, at http://www.reason.com/blog/show/131369.html.
