AgVisionTV Online: Kevin Stewart Talks to Dr Patrick Moore, Founder of GreenPeace about Farming and Activism.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Lundy on February 19, 2010 at 2:03pm

I made reference to this video with respect to another discussion on farms.com. - the one referring to the Greenpeace guide booklet on what to shop for if you want to avoid GMOs. I think you find it on this link: http://ontag.farms.com/forum/topics/greenpeace-promoting-organic?xg.... A few things I would like to add now though: While the Green Revolution made big gains in Asia, it plateaued 20 years ago. Gains now not in GE, which indentures farmers and provides spurious benefits, but are in improved diversified ecological/organic farming (not for price premiums but for farmers' health and ecological sustainability and farm output). Farms in Africa are unproductive in part because of the dumping of cheap surplus corn harvests from North America. This reduces the incentive for farmers to farm in Africa, so farms are left uncared for or abandoned. In other words, there is arable land that is underused because of oversupply elsewhere. Furthermore, we don't have a production output problem, we have a distribution problem. My wife and I recently talked about how much food is wasted in Las Vegas casinos which offer all you can eat 24 hour buffets to entice gamblers to stick around. Can you imagine how much is wasted annually, probably enough to reduce malnutrition for 2 million people elsewhere. Finally, I recently learned that the farmers of India have successfully pressured their government to prevent Monsanto from introducing Bt Eggplant - congratulations. Nice to see that democracy works somewhere.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Cox on February 19, 2010 at 4:38pm

Kevin,

I had the opportunity several years ago to speak at a FCC sponsored event that you hosted and featured Dr Moore. I found his presentation to be one of the most thoughtful and well done of any I have ever heard. I at times get discouraged at the level of misinformation about conventional agriculture that gets accepted as established fact however to hear some one like Patrick Moore presenting a reasoned cogent science based argument was very encouraging.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Lundy on February 23, 2010 at 1:36pm

Dr Moore is able to temper misinformed opinionators, but science is also an opinion. It is often politically motivated, despite the assertion of "objectivity". Scientific fact does not necessarily mean it is good. There is bad science in that it is incorrect, and there is also bad science in that it is promoting something that is not actually beneficial.

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