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| Luddites Threaten California Agriculture |
| 2004-08-07 |
| via Mercury News (h/t Lucianne) Reg Req Login: birdgibson@hotmail.com / tarzan Opposition to agriculture biotech is biggest pest of all BILLIONS WORTH OF GRAPES COULD BE LOST, BUT HARDIER GENE-SPLICED VARIETIES ARE BLOCKED By Henry I. Miller - Fri, Aug. 06, 2004 California is under attack by terrorists. Not political, but biological ones: glassy-winged sharpshooters, leaf-hopping insects that are among the state's most insidious agricultural pests. They carry Pierce's disease, a lethal bacterial infection of grape vines and other major crops, for which there is no cure. Although there are technological fixes that could protect California's agriculture, local anti-biotechnology referendum measures and federal regulations are making them unavailable. The infestation, which has been creeping northward inexorably from Mexico, threatens the San Joaquin Valley's 800,000-acres of table, raisin and wine grapes and has been found in Santa Clara, Monterey and Solano counties. Inevitably, the premier winemaking regions of Napa and Sonoma will be next. A January 2004 report from the California Department of Food and Agriculture offered this dire assessment: ``Counting only grapes, the disease now threatens a crop production value of $3.2 billion and associated economic activity in excess of $33 billion. Other crop and ornamental plant resources such as almonds ($897 million) and susceptible species of citrus ($1.07 billion), stone fruits ($905 million), and shade trees are also at risk.'' Ironically, this peril to California agriculture has been aggravated by federal and local regulatory policies that have been condemned repeatedly as unscientific, anti-farmer and anti-consumer. These policies prevent the newest and best techniques of biotechnology from being applied to the genetic improvement of grapes. The meager weapons currently available to attack the sharpshooter include the inspection of plants shipped from areas known to be infested by glassy-winged sharpshooters and the testing of potential chemical and organic control agents. In the long run, however, these will fail. As acknowledged by Dale Brown, president of the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, ``Genetic resistance is where we want to go.'' There are several ways to introduce or enhance the resistance to Pierce's disease in new variants, or varieties, of grape vines. Conventional methods of genetic improvement are notoriously slow and uncertain, and attempts to use the more sophisticated and efficient gene-splicing techniques have run afoul of the Environmental Protection Agency and local regulatory policies. The EPA discriminates against gene-spliced varieties. Any plant that has been modified with gene-splicing techniques to enhance pest- or disease-resistance is regulated even more stringently than chemical pesticides. This policy, which has been attacked repeatedly by the scientific community as unscientific and irrational, has badly damaged agricultural research and development. It flouts the widespread scientific consensus that gene-splicing is more precise, circumscribed and predictable than other techniques. New gene-spliced varieties can not only increase yields, make better use of existing farmland and conserve water, but -- especially for grains and nuts -- are a potential boon to public health, because the harvest will have lower levels of contamination with toxic fungi and insect parts than conventional varieties. Yet the EPA holds genetically modified plants to an inappropriate, extraordinary standard, requiring hugely expensive testing as though these plants were highly toxic chemicals. In effect, these policies impose a hugely punitive tax on a superior, and badly needed, technology. There is an even worse threat to the use of new, environmentally friendly, disease- and drought-resistant plant varieties: local referendum issues that ban any cultivation of gene-spliced plants, the prototype of which was the misguided Measure H passed in Mendocino County in March. These ballot measures, which are introduced and promoted by misinformed, misanthropic activists, are logically inconsistent, in that their strictures are inversely related to risk: They permit the use of microorganisms and plants that are crafted with less precise, less predictable techniques, but ban those made with highly precise and predictable ones. They turn science-based regulation on its head. Most important of all, they block sophisticated genetic approaches to the eradication of blights such as sudden oak death, phyloxera and powdery mildew, as well as Pierce's disease. Agbiotech's potential is not just theoretical. A decade ago, an epidemic of papaya ringspot virus had virtually destroyed Hawaii's $64 million-a-year papaya crop, but by 1998 biotech researchers provided virus-resistant varieties that have preserved the industry. California is just beginning to reap the bitter harvest that activists and regulators have sown. Their anti-social agenda should be exposed, and they should be held accountable. HENRY I. MILLER, a physician, is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and the author of ``The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution.'' He headed the FDA's Office of Biotechnology from 1989-1993. Just as with other state industries, the Loonies have set the state up for failures, shortages, and huge potential losses. I hope it felt good. Was it good for you? |
| Posted by:.com |
| #1 Ya'll I guess we should do what the judges say.... They know what is best of course, rockin the boat only causes problems and makes them hate me more. But I guess if it were up to me, I would let John sKerry deal with it, he is our savior and has 4 months of Vietnam disturbance to back it up. I rely on him and his word in any battle we fight. He has medals and everything....He impresses me so much when he wears his flip flops on the campaign trail. What a man. I know he will round up the top US killers to take care of this problem. |
| Posted by: Long Hair Republican 2004-08-07 1:56:01 AM |