…. For several years now, GMOs and organic have consumed America’s attention. It isn’t our interest in these topics that is the problem. After all, we do put these foods into our bodies! The problem is that our collective attention is spent so obsessively on these issues that it comes at the expense of everything else. It’s the everything else that has me concerned. We’re fretting over papercuts while we’re hemorrhaging out of our leg.
In our food and agricultural dialogues, too often someone waves around a hot button issue with little impact on the long-run, while issues that really matter lay neglected on the roadside. This happens to sell products, get your ‘click,’ gain political clout or procure your signature or donation. Sometimes it happens because of ignorance.
It isn’t that peripheral issues don’t matter. It’s that other issues matter so much more. If weather changes wrought by climate change destroy crops or we run out of water, we will literally die …. Combined with threats from contamination and climate change, the continued use of large-scale groundwater pumping is unsustainable in many locations and a threat to the long-term viability of regional economies. If we continue unchecked, water shortages will not only raise the prices in our grocery stores significantly, but we may face major food shortages.
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Read full, original article: Food Security’s Red Herrings: GMOs and Organic
