I really don’t get the lurch towards organic foods. I love buying food from a farmer’s market as much as anyone else, but I think it’s foolish to imagine that organic farming is anything but boutique food unsustainable for humanity as a whole. It isn’t surprising to me that it doesn’t differ nutritionally, it’s not like conventionally grown food is composed of anything other than any other living matter.
The fear of bioengineering specifically has always baffled me. It’s not as if we haven’t already engaged in it for milennia, only now we can do it with purpose, conscious of benefits and consequences, rather than haphazardly crossbreeding hybrids and wrestling with wayward descendants. Heck, we probably wouldn’t be where we are today if it weren’t for some clever ancestor noodling with his crops and getting lucky.
I agree with the article: the best thing you can do for human nutrition and the Earth is to buy locally and seasonally and fund bioengineering.
P.S.
SEED is one of my favorite magazines ever, an amazing nexus of science and graphic design. Always interesting articles, always beautiful diagrams, photography, and art.
