….”in some countries farmers have bypassed existing bans on these crops and even made harvests from them”.

October 29, 2022

Why Are Farmers Defying Bans to Cultivate GM Crops?

By Vijay Jayaraj at American Thinker:

Farmers across the world are desperate to grow genetically modified crops (GM) in their fields. So much so that in some countries farmers have bypassed existing bans on these crops and even made harvests from them.

Why do these farmers risk being prosecuted, and what compels them to grow GM food crops? The answer is straightforward: GM crops give higher yields, are resilient to deadly plant diseases, and can withstand tough environmental conditions.

Optimum Environmental Conditions Meet Advancement in Science

Conditions for food crops around the world are the best in all of human history. Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and warmer temperatures have greened the earth since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 17^th century.

GM crop varieties are proven to be disease resistant, drought tolerant, and high yielding. This means more efficient farming and more food, at lower prices, for the world. GM crops also protect poor farmers against crop loss or excessive financial expenditure in purchasing pesticides and insecticides.

However, accessing these crop varieties is very difficult for farmers, as countries are still very slow in allowing their commercial cultivation.

Today the world produces more food crops than ever before. But we must not get complacent. Utilizing scientifically advanced GM food crop varieties will ensure global food security in the coming decades, helping us maximize the advantage of existing global climatic conditions — but only if governments permit them.

Propaganda Against Science

Many middle- and low-income countries have yet to approve GM crops despite them being declared safe by the world’s leading food regulatory bodies. Additionally, a wave of anti-GMO activism disrupts their adoption.

Sad to say, some citizens who mistakenly think GM crops are dangerous — including some Christians who think genetically modifying plants means “playing God with nature” — pressure governments to outlaw their use. Yet mankind has been modifying crops genetically for thousands of years, first through low-tech hybridization (cross-breeding), now through high-tech hybridization (physically moving some genetic material from one string of DNA and placing it in another). The result is the same in principle, but more predictable because we know which genes will be transferred. There is no basis in Christian ethics to oppose this. Rather, it is a valid enactment of mankind’s mandate in Genesis 1:28 to “subdue and rule” the earth and everything in it. And over 100 Nobel laureates have signed a statement vouching for GM crops’ safety.

“Then there is propaganda,” says a representative of Uganda Biosciences Information Centre. “Too many people, some of whom don’t even understand science, speaking against the technology. All these are blocking transition.”

One reason why GM food crops is banned in some countries is ill-informed activism that wrongly claims GM crops cause cancer. They do not. Some of the top food safety and regulatory bodies across the world have approved various GM crops for commercial cultivation. This includes the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S., Health Canada, and Australia’s Department of Health and Aged care. The claim that these are carcinogenic contradicts available scientific conclusions by experts. Indeed, more than a hundred Nobel prize-winning scientists and economists have signed a declaration calling for enhanced use of GM crops.

In the book Starved for Science — with a foreword by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Peace Prize-winning agriculturalist Norman Borlaug — author Robert Paarlberg notes that “poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought.” He traces this obstacle to the current opposition to farm science in prosperous countries. “Having embraced agricultural science to become well-fed themselves, those in wealthy countries are now instructing Africans — on the most dubious grounds — not to do the same.”

But there is a growing rebellion among farmers.

The GM Rebellion by Farmers

In 2017, a small farmer in a remote part of India was caught by surprise when government officials visited his farm and took samples of his eggplant crops for lab testing. Later, the farmer was told that his crop — a disease-tolerant variant of eggplant — was illegal. The farmer’s crops were destroyed, causing immediate loss.

The farmer’s intention was to save his crops from diseases, reduce the cost of using pesticides, and make sure he had reasonable profit to make a living. An average eggplant crop requires spraying pesticide more than 30 times.

This farmer is not alone. In 2019, 1500 farmers in India orchestrated a “civil-disobedience movement.” They planted herbicide-tolerant cotton variety (HTBt Cotton) and disease-tolerant Brinjal (eggplant) varieties in open defiance of the ban by the government. Planting illegal GM crops can result in a five-year jail term and a fine of $1200. But it is estimated that “HTBt cotton has already been going on illegally in the country in about 30 per cent of the area.”

“Increasingly, it is the farmers, who bear the daily risks of agriculture, who are now speaking up in support of technologies that could reduce their risks and improve their wellbeing… These brave farmers are demonstrating their capacity to take on the risk society is imposing on them by denying them access to new technologies, including GM crops,” writes Barun Mitra, Director of the Liberty Institute.  

Farmers in India lose billions of dollars in crops each year due to diseases and drought. This includes millions of farmers who live below poverty line. They deserve access to disease-resistant, and drought-tolerant GM crop varieties that reduce their risk of lost livelihood.

Besides, adopting GM crops will also improve the food security of a country whose population will be the highest in the world by 2030. India’s staple lentil variety, pigeon pea, can now be grown more easily and made more affordable if the country approves the disease-resistant and higher-yielding GM variant. Millions of children’s vitamin A deficiency can be avoided if the country approves vitamin-A fortified golden rice varieties already used in many countries.

Across the Indian Ocean, farmers in Africa have expressed similar intentions to use GM crops. African people are keen on utilizing some of the most amazing advancements in crop technology.

Currently in development are drought-tolerant maize (WE2115), banana that is resistant to bacterial wilt, a salt-tolerant rice that can survive low nitrogen and low water levels, blight-resistant potatoes, and a cassava variety (NASE 14) resistant to brown streak and mosaic diseases.

All are staple food crops in Africa and would bring immense benefit to the continent. They can be life-altering for millions of small-scale farmers in Africa who depend on their backyard crops to have food on their plates.

Any meaningful progress in strengthening global food security cannot be made without the use of scientifically advanced and efficient GM crop varieties. They will provide immediate relief to families who are below the poverty line, meet specific nutritional needs, and are a solution to long-lasting food security. Public policymakers need to know this — and they need to know voters know it.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, VA. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, UK and resides in India.

Knowing America’s Most Noted Fascist Loon Better

OCTOBER 29, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER at Power Line:

HILLARY’S PARANOID DELUSION

I was on Sky News television in Australia a few minutes ago, and one of the things we talked about was Hillary Clinton’s latest outburst:

“Right-wing extremists” have a plan already in place to “literally steal the next presidential election, and they’re not making a secret of it,” Hillary Clinton says in a video recently posted to Twitter.

In the video, posted by the progressive group Indivisible, the former first lady, senator from New York, secretary of state, and Democrat presidential nominee looks straight into the camera and says, “The right-wing-controlled Supreme Court may be poised to rule on giving state legislatures the power to overturn presidential elections.”

So is Hillary once again an election denier, this time preemptively? What on God’s green Earth is she talking about? She refers to a case that comes before the Supreme Court this term, Moore v. Harper, which is actually intensely interesting. Moore will interpret this language in the Constitution:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The Moore case arises out of a series of events in North Carolina, where the Republican legislature came up with a map of Congressional districts following a census, and the North Carolina Supreme Court held it invalid under state law as an “extreme gerrymander.” But does a state’s judicial branch have the power to overrule the legislature, on any grounds? The Constitution doesn’t say “prescribed by…the government thereof,” it says “prescribed by the legislature.” So there is a tension between what most people think is a good idea, and what the Constitution actually says.

What does this have to do with the presidential election of 2024, which Hillary invoked? I assume her point is that the Constitution has a similar provision governing election of the president:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress….

Again, it isn’t the state government that appoints electors, it is the legislature. Hillary apparently imagines a world in which Republican-controlled legislatures do…what, exactly? The Moore case involves drawing of Congressional districts. Does she think Republican legislatures will vote to give their state’s electoral votes to the Republican candidate, regardless of how the state’s citizens voted? That is far-fetched at best, and, of course, Democrat-controlled legislatures would be vastly more likely to do such a thing, if it were seen as an option.

But in either case it would be a one-time gesture, assuming it passed constitutional muster. Since the legislators who voted to take a presidential election out of the hands of the voters would promptly be voted out of office.

So Hillary’s outburst is a paranoid fantasy, prompted by a lawsuit that poses an interesting, and potentially important, question of constitutional interpretation.

“THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN MINNESOTA POLITICS IS THE TEACHERS’ UNION”

OCTOBER 29, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER at Power Line:

WE ARE PROUD OF THE ENEMIES WE MAKE

By universal consent, the most powerful force in Minnesota politics is the teachers’ union, Education Minnesota. In my opinion, Education Minnesota is the state’s number one source of evil. My organization, Center of the American Experiment, has been fighting for years to counter the teachers’ union’s malign influence.

We are the only effective challenge to their power. Among other things, we have exposed the fact that the union spends much more money on left-wing politics than on representing its members. We have also exposed the fact that, contrary to myth, Minnesota’s public schools can fairly be described as failing their students.

So Education Minnesota hates us. Yesterday, it sent out this missive to its members and, I suppose, friends and supporters. First the image, then excerpts:

Education Minnesota is alarmed about the fact that this year, for almost the first time, there are meaningful school board races across the state. Until now, the union has basically appointed the school boards that it has controlled and with which it has “negotiated.” But now, a revolution is under way, led by the Minnesota Parents Alliance.

Origins of conservative, anti-union forces in school board races

Investigative reporting by the St. Paul Pioneer Press…

The Pioneer Press article was a good one. I wrote about it here.

…has revealed the origins of the Minnesota Parents Alliance, which is even more closely related to the Center of the American Experiment than many thought.

After two tours of Minnesota presenting its incorrect and inflammatory view of critical race theory in 2021…

Education Minnesota is the local chapter of the National Education Association, which has enthusiastically endorsed the teaching of critical race theory in the public schools. Needless to say, the union offers no instance of anything in our many programs being incorrect. And what was inflammatory was not our programs, but the union’s introduction of racism and anti-Americanism into the schools.

…the CAE decided in early 2022 to create a 501(c)(4) social issues group…

Is the quality of public education now a “social issue”? The Left consistently describes it that way.

…to recruit and train candidates for school boards.

CAE President John Hinderaker recently wrote on his blog that the intent was to pull together Minnesota parents to “wrest control of the public schools away from teachers’ unions, in order to improve the quality of education and to stop left-wing indoctrination.”

That sums it up well. Education Minnesota refers to this Power Line post, and I thank them for quoting me correctly.

That group became the Minnesota Parents Alliance, which has recruited and trained school board candidates throughout the state. The group has endorsed about 120 candidates in the November election.

Correct again! On one side, the most powerful and well-funded special interest group in the state. On the other, concerned parents with almost zero resources. I am betting on the parents.

The [Center of the American Experiment] is the most potent advocate in Minnesota for school vouchers…

Thank you! I think there is a good chance that Minnesota’s new legislature, when it convenes in January, will enact real, meaningful school choice, due in large part to our efforts. For many years Education Minnesota, like George Wallace in the 1950s, has stood in the schoolhouse door, blocking a brighter future for minority kids. That is about to end.

…whitewhashing history lessons…

That is code for occasionally talking about something other than slavery.

…loosening environmental protections…

I don’t know what they are thinking of here. To be fair, we have come out against blocking dairy farm expansion based on cow flatulence supposedly affecting global temperatures. Maybe that is what they have in mind.

…breaking unions…

We are fine with private sector unions, but do indeed want to destroy the corrupt power of public sector unions, chiefly Education Minnesota, which has done more to harm Minnesota’s children than any other institution.

…and lowering taxes on millionaires and corporations.

Typical left-wing dishonesty. Actually, we want to lower taxes for all taxpaying Minnesotans, but the far left can’t admit that without shattering its fantasy world-view.

It runs an annual campaign, Educated Teachers, to encourage Education Minnesota members to leave their union.

Indeed we do! And I am happy to say that our efforts meet with growing success. For the first time ever, as far as I know, Education Minnesota has reported declining revenue and declining membership. Why would a normal teacher want to spend his or her hard-earned money to funnel political contributions to candidates with whom he or she may or may not agree? The deep corruption of Education Minnesota has been exposed, and its power is waning.

If you want to help our fight against entrenched power, you can go here to support American Experiment and here to support Minnesota Parents Alliance.

The Disappearance Of Beauty And Decency IN TODAY’S DYING AMERICA!