I get rather irritated when I listen to Vandana Shiva, mostly because her ideas are rooted in a place of environmentalism, something we both agree upon. The problem is that she is touted as an expert in science and transgenic (GMO) organisms, and she is absolutely clueless. Couple this to an anti-corporate agenda, and this seemingly kind person with concerns for the planet and people is a fountain of bad information.
She puts her anti-corporate agenda ahead of the needs of those that desperately need technology, and Florida farms are a great example.
She comes to a state in an agricultural crisis, and then trashes the leading solution.
She spoke the other night at Eckerd College, a liberal arts school down in St. Petersburg, Florida. She’s on a many-college tour, spreading her message that modern biotech science does not work, causes human disease, keeps people hungry and is only for the profits of “five chemical companies”.
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Just a half-hour drive east of her podium there are fields of dying trees. The citrus greening disease, or Huanglongbing, is devastating Florida farms. The disease is a bacterial infection of the vascular tissues, spread by a small, uncontrollable flying insect. After a decade of intense study, there are no cures. A $10 billion dollar industry supporting tens of thousands of jobs fights back on the edge of collapse.
Currently our best scientists are attempting dozens of approaches to save the trees and the industry. One especially promising approach is the use of transgenic, or GMO, trees.
Read full, original article: Shiva: “Screw All Ya’ll Florida Farmers!”
